Unicode and Character Sets

This article gives a very good overview on the topic of character encoding. Recommended reading for any and every programmer. Even if you only work in COBOL and IMS, there is a very good chance that your data will end up on a webpage.

A Pair of Interesting Articles

This first articles talks about a new IBM server platform, the x455 which will let customers configure a server with between 4 and 16 processors in a manner which reminds me of lego. Need more processing power? Slide in another group of processors.


CRN : Daily Archives : IBM Pushes Scalable Itanium Server : 4:36 PM EST Mon., Nov. 10, 2003

But this second article could add a really interesting twist to the above capability. VMware's new capability provides a huge degree of abstraction from the underlying hardware. Workload can be moved around using a drop-and-drop interface.

InformationWeek > Virtual Servers > Multiplying Virtual Servers With New VMware Tools > November 10, 2003

So if you need more horespower on a server, you could add more x455 units, or move a virtual server image to another physical server.

Sweet.

IBM's case for VoIP

Although a 240,000 user conversion to VoIP is a significant investment. IBM's existing Rolm based phone system is quite antique. It was pretty state-of-the-art at the time it was installed, but that is no longer true. By 2008 that will be overdue.

When examining the case for VoIP, it dosen't usually make sense to upgrade for the purpose of using the technology - there has to be some direct benefit to make it worthwhile. Otherwise you wait for your old equipment to age into obsolescence, or you acquire new premises.

SearchNetworking.com | Networking Decisions notebook: IBM's case for VoIP: "Johnny Barnes, IBM's vice president of global IT solutions and standards, told attendees that his company plans to migrate at least 80% of its more than 300,000 employees to voice over IP by 2008."