Lawson Unveils "Landmark" Project to Bring Apps to J2EE
by Alex Woodie

Lawson Software's iSeries customers had reason to be happy and, perhaps, not so happy at the company's annual CUE user conference in San Diego last week. First, the company revealed that, after years of lagging the Unix and Windows releases, the OS/400 version of the company's ERP software is finally at parity with its brethren. But the joy for some may have been short-lived, as Lawson unveiled its ambitious "Landmark" project to standardize development on J2EE, which means no more RPG. READ MORE >

RFID: Coming Soon to an Application Near You
by Mary Lou Roberts

Unless they hold places as direct links in the Wal-Mart or Department of Defense (DOD) supply chains, most iSeries shops have been sitting back and observing emerging RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Systems) technology with little more than passing curiosity. After all, if there's no behemoth retailer mandating that you put RFID tags on your products by some fast-approaching date, what's the worry? READ MORE >

The X Factor: Appliances Versus General Purpose Computers
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Three weeks ago, I spent a weekend at a frat house at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the birthplaces of computing. Because MIT alums are serious nerds--perhaps the deadliest in the world, considering how much of the U.S. Department of Defense budget ends up in MIT labs--the frat house (pika, no initial capital letter please) held a reunion party at the Museum of Science, which is located on a bridge spanning the Charles River and separating Cambridge from Boston. READ MORE >

Mad Dog 21/21: Colophon While It Lasted
by Hesh Wiener

In forty-something BC, when Julius Caesar was Rome's capo di tutti capi, Cicero was the empire's best wordsmith. Much of Cicero's work has survived intact for more than 2,000 years, and 500 years ago some fractured text drawn from Cicero's writing emerged as the classic block of Greeked type called lorem ipsum or lipsum. The words of today's orators may not enjoy the same longevity, because while we can preserve the material, a war is about to break out over just how to do it. READ MORE >

   But Wait, There's More

PowerTech Acquires Single Sign-On Expert TriAWorks . . . IBM Buys Open Source Middleware Supplier Gluecode Software . . . OLAP Report Says OLAP Market Grew 15.7 Percent in 2004 . . . Agilysys Acquires Storage Specialist CTS for $28 Million . . . Lakeview to Distribute Evaluation Versions of MIMIX dr1 with i5/OS V5R3 . . . Midrange Modernization Tour Kicks Off in NYC . . . iSeries Technical Conference Coming in June . . . READ MORE >

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