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Written by Thomas Stockwell
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 What is a White Paper?
Technical White Papers have evolved over the last ten years from tomes of analytical analysis towards easy-to-read marketing collateral. Wikipedia has a pretty good article about how these pieces of literature have evolved and you can read that article here .
According this article, a Technical White Paper is almost always considered to be marketing collateral, supporting the jargon that the salesperson is employing to position a product or a service. And indeed, most WP documents written today look increasingly like things churned out by people more versed in "lingo" than technology.
My own approach to writing WP documents is somewhat different, and the reasons reflect my own background as a technologist, System Engineer, and IT manager.
What is that approach?
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Written by Thomas Stockwell
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 Political historians will tell you that voting by machines has always been a problem. Even back in 1942, the debate about the worthiness of mechanical devices to register the will of the people was severely questioned:
... first tried out in 1915
& the experiment was such a failure that it looked as if the town
would never have anything to do with them. 10 years later, Mr. Eugene
Eisinger, Chief of the Bureau of Equipment and Repairs for the Board of
Elections got permission to buy 75 machines of an improved type. Harold Ross, The Talk of the Town, "Political Machine," The New Yorker, October 24, 1942
Of course, the 2000 Presidential Election brought the issue into high focus, and it's caused me to write a series of articles about the topic in my columns at MC Press Online. These included:
The problem of voting machines goes well beyond the ability of the equipment, but strikes at the heart of our democratic values. For instance, if the technology we use to measure our democracy stands between the will of the people, it is absolutely essential that this technology is transparent, accurate, and is not beholding to any particular individual, group, organization, or party.
Why?
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Written by Thomas Stockwell
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A loose organization of Chinese hackers called "The Revenge of the Flame" has been reported to be planning a DDoS attack against the US media conglomerate CNN.
In a statement reported by the Web site The Dark Visitor the group is planning the attack as a protest against CNN's coverage of the Tibetian protests associated with the Olympic Torch.
Statement from Revenge of the Flame:
In just three short days, our organization, the Revenge of the Flame, has grown large. First, I want to thank everyone for their strong sense of nationalistic responsibility. However, maybe we were too impetuous. We love our country! We will resist all anti-Chinese influences! However, we must choose the right way to come to the defense of our country, families and ourselves!!! After some core internal discussions, we have decided to temporarily cancel the 19th attack plan! The Revenge of the Flame organization still exists! Later we can be a computer discussion organization, we will study together for the day our country needs us! Our government and military will all mobilize! At that time, we will let those so-called foreign net-forces see! No matter where, China will never lose to them! We also have our net-forces! Perhaps at that time, our Revenge of the Flame will be the main strength! We all love our country! But, we must use sensible methods to defend our honor!
Discuss this article on the forums. (0 posts)
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Written by Thomas Stockwell
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Computerworld reported today that IBM has successfully figured out how to measure the amount of force needed to move an atom. (Read the story here! )
According to the report, this is one of the biggest IBM breakthroughs in nanotech since the company began working in atomic manipulation more than 20 years ago.
System i Business Partners Wait While Researchers Sort Atoms
During that time, unfortunately, billions and billions of atoms have been waiting -- along with thousands of IBM business partners -- on IBM marketing to move on a credible marketing scheme for the IBM System i platform.
Upon hearing this news, one IBM business partner, who did not want his name revealed, remarked "We're been dying out here waiting for some real marketing support on the best computing platform in the industry, and now we discover that IBM's spent the last 20 years counting the number of angels that can fit on the head of a pin!"
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Written by Editor
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 A new important white paper on IT compliance issues has been released by Business Continuity Today.
Entitled "Compliance and the New Reality of IT Resiliency", the white paper -- presented as a chapter to BCT's continuing series on the topic of business continuity -- discusses the requirements for developing a organization-wide strategy for dealing with issues of compliance.
A preview of the table of contents is available here .
Says author Thomas M. Stockwell "Satisfying the requirements of so many compliance regulations and standards isn't a single problem. You can't buy a piece of software or hardware to satisfy Sarbanes-Oxley or any other regulation. And IT can't wrestle this problem to the ground alone. It takes awareness by management officials, study and recommendations by disinterested and knowledgable parties, and coordination with auditors and managers to bring the organization into compliance."
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