They call us IT Geeks. We call ourselves Geeks. Well, it sort of fits.

Webopedia even has a definition of Geek.
"Short for computer geek, an individual with a passion for computers, to the exclusion of other normal human interests. Depending on the context, it can be used in either a derogatory or affectionate manner. Basically, geek and nerd are synonymous."

Of course I take exception to that "nerd" being synonymous with geek sentence. In today's world who is not facinated and fixated by information technology to the extent that it makes up part of their human interests? Then again --- we in IT take this a bit further than your normal human.

If you think about this one, it's almost a forgone conclusion: Bill Gates, quite possibly the most recognizable face in the IT industry, is also the most SPAMMED person in the entire world.

Bill's buddy, Steve Ballmer, told folks at their company's Government Leader's forum that on an average day, Mr. Gates gets a whopping 4 Million emails -- the bulk of them being SPAM.

Fortunately for Bill, he has his very own crackerjack team whose sole purpose is to cut the email wheat from the chaff, preventing all but the very important emails from reaching that all-important inbox.

One cannot help but wonder what actually makes it into Bill's inbox. Of course, one can't help but wonder if the occasional SPAM does make it through. Do you think Bill would help out the Nigerian Minister who needs help hiding his millions here in America?

Less than a month ago Actional and Westbridge Technologies merged into a single entity doing business as Actional. Less than 6 months ago Digital Evolution acquired Flamenco networks. Yesterday the converging technologies of Web Services management and security showed itself with the announcement of Actional's SOA Command and Control Platform and Digital Evolution's XML VPN.

In May BEA donated its application framework to the Apache Software Foundation where it became known as Beehive. Yesterday, BEA announced milestone 1 release of Beehive as well as additional platform support - Beehive now runs on JOnAS and Apache Geronimo in addition to Apache Tomcat.

Beehive offers the ease of development offered by BEA's WebLogic Workshop 8.1 and provides a complete framework for developing an SOA without requiring developers to master the complexity of the J2EE architecture.

Apache Beehive can be obtained from the Apache Software Foundation at http://incubator.apache.org/beehive/

So Sun announced they will give away Solaris 10 for x86 for free.

Forbes.com story

USA Today story

Amazing -- I had recently begun to push our network team that we might want to consider replacing an Open Source operating system we run for various border systems with Solaris x86.

Adobe announced version 7.0 of its Acrobat family of products, which includes Acrobat 7.0 Standard, Acrobat 7.0 Professional and the free Adobe Reader 7.0. As Adobe continues to beef up and expand its enterprise offerings, the ability of users to interact with those systems via the free Adobe Reader continue to grow as well.

In 7.0, for example, users of the free Reader 7.0 can participate in the document review process - adding comments, notes and highlights to Adobe PDF files using Acrobat review and commenting tools. Adobe's model of giving away its reader for the nearly ubiquitous PDF and unlocking its capabilities via its enterprise class suite of publishing and document management tools continues to be a smart strategy to get its enterprise products to the forefront of business process optimization strategies.

Here are the folks we have introduced you to in the Reality IT column, names changed to protect the innocent (or guilty in some cases). The names and titles are so you can follow along at home with the postings. These are just some of the folks at ACME, more names will be explained as they are used.

How would you like to get this note in your inbox?

This is not a hoax. If you do not wire $20,000 to us via Western Union, we will crash your site. It's your choice. Pay a little now, or pay a whole lot later.

Scary huh? Even scarier is that some e-businesses are actually getting emails threatening Denial of Service attacks unless they pony up with the cash.

And the occurences are becoming more frequent.

I have no idea which events or tradeshows these are from, but I just keep watching both clips and giggling my head off.

Watching the first one, I'm fairly certain Steve must have watched some old Howard Dean footage. Either that or WWE Wrestling Matches.

After watching the second one, all I can say is Steve -- three words. Arrid. Extra. Dry.

Okay, a slightly misleading title to the blog. What I meant to convey was to see if you think IT departments are properly consulted on system purchases? The IT shop is the place to go for assistance when looking into new systems, we offer free advice (so we don't get left holding the bag later). Do you often feel left out of decisions made by other departments? Like when they start research into alternatives for some new system to meet their needs and don’t even consult IT? Then when we are involved it is often a frustrating situation trying to convince your peer departments within the firm that you are really looking out for their best interests.

The Eastwood 1982 vehicle about stealing a top-secret aircraft is easily forgettable, but the Mozilla folks are hoping their new browser, also named Firefox, leaves a lasting impression -- especially on Microsoft and their IE users.

Yesterday the company released the final version of their new browser, with the hopes that scores of tired and frustrated Internet Explorer users will give it a spin, and perhaps even make it their browers of choice.

The idea doesn't seem so far fetched. Last month, a preview edition of the software was downloaded by more than 8 million people.

Besides being open-source, one of Firefox's strongest selling points -- a built in pop-up blocker.

I've got a copy and I'll be taking Firefox for a spin. I'll keep you posted in the coming days/weeks on my experiences with it.

When you work up a project plan that requires some network staff effort, do you take into consideration that they are not really available a full 8 hours a day? I have only worked at some places that did proper resourcing in their project management system, whatever application they used. Some project management apps will allow you to take actual calendars into account. I have provided calculations we have used at ACME to determine how much time our network staff really have available for projects and support.

Hello from the pages of Network Computing Magazine and the Reality IT column. Or rather hello from the IT department of ACME located in Metropolis. This is Hunter Metatek, the author of the Reality IT articles in Network Computing. I am an enterprise IT director with over 15 years' experience in network engineering and management. The events chronicled in the print column are based in fact--only the names are fiction. The same will be true of this blog.

You can see some of my past columns online:
- Holey Server, Networkman
- Lessons in Vendor Hype
- IT Never Sleeps
- The Harsh Reality of Disaster Recovery
There are more, just search on Reality IT online at www.nwc.com. You will see a column every few weeks.

Let me know if you have any pain points at work where you want to discuss the issues in this blog through my own experiences, how I can chime in with my anonymous real world examples, and maybe say some things you might not want to be quoted on in a public forum yourself.

HUNTER

Pass2Go is a software application designed to run directly on a USB Key, with no installation to the "host PC" required. Pass2Go tracks passwords, login information and is easily accessible from a "task bar" that appears on the bottom of your browser.

Well, it does if that browser is Internet Explorer. After a quick perusal of the software, which is pretty darn cool since it runs off the USB key, it failed to recognize Netscape 7 as a browser. Functionality with IE, however, appears to work as advertised.

Pass2Go is definitely an excellent alternative to software solutions that require backup or moving if you change machines.

You can check out Pass2Go at this website. Enjoy!

Sometimes spam is good: If you've been taking Vioxx, you want to get that spam which asks, "Have you have a number of strokes recently?"

Scott Bradner

• Is it possible for an enterprise VoIP system to be as secure as a traditional PBX system?
• What's the best way to balance the need of VoIP services with the needs of law enforcement (wiretapping)?
• Is it feasible to apply existing telephone industry best practices to VoIP service?
• What regulatory and standards efforts are under way to support E911?

"Metcalfe's Law doesn't work. You see, as you keep adding hosts to the network the amount of information overwhelms and becomes useless to those on the network."