I found this interesting article on Bob Sullivan's blog . It talks about the vulnerabilities of the ATM and it's corresponding network. After working on a few of these projects I can say that these are very real threats. Visa seems to agree but they feel...

As a part of Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s expanding integration story, the MS Dynamics folks have announced the release of the Microsoft CRM Solution Accelerator for Siebel. Targeted towards current customers of Siebel systems, this accelerator is a...

Wow podcasting has really taken off. Not that I am surprised with the emergence of Zune and iPod. It was cool to see the Queen of England has started Podcasting. The latest 'episode' of the Royal Podcast will be the Christmas Broacast (The Queen's...

When I first heard this I was very concerned. However with the latest investigation and with the small install base this is not a big issue. First point here is that there is a small percentage of businesses that have adopted Vista. With this limited...

Austrian watchmaker LAKS, which has often caused a sensation in the past with its innovative products, has introduced a breakthrough product for cashless transactions. Its latest development, the LAKS SmartTransaction Watch™, is the world´s...

While riding around the roads, paying for tolls have always either been cash or a windshield mounted transponder like EZ-Pass or FasTrak. Well, for some motorists in Ohio, there's now a third option. For the next three months, select exit tolls along...

The Netherlands Government Reference Architecture (NORA) version 1.0 is Now available for download. This document of 238 pages is in the Dutch language, however most of the pictures are self explaining. NORA 1.0 Website Download PDF

It has been a great holiday break here back home in Cincinnati. I hope all of you readers have a safe and happy holiday and new year!

Recently I have attended many conferences (TechEd, Gartner and SAF) and a common thread keeps emerging. Enterprise Architecture (EA). There is quite a bit of interest in EA. Given my previous experience as an Enterprise Architect I am well versed in the...

The 2007 National Association of Personal Advisors (NAPFA) & Virtual Office News Technology Tools for Today Conference is the place to find out what you need to know about MS VISTA and MS Office 2007 to keep your office running smoothly. I will be...

Photo by Thomas Hawk UseIt.com has a great post on quantifying Usability. Every enterprise architect should take a look at this post. It shows the value of this aspect of software architecture and design from an ROI perspective. Usability is not just...

Since I'm on holiday you may notice that I have been blogging more about fun or off beat topics. Well I'm in full relaxation mode. So sit back and enjoy :). I was sitting here talking with a good friend of mine about technology and the subject of "do...

Interesting use of social networking is the website called Fygo. The Phoenix, Arizona-based company is focused on peer-to-peer money lending - a model pioneered by UK startup Zopa and US rival Prosper. A similar site, Kiva, has received praise for its...

Another quick funding story: the business social network LinkedIn is reportedly set to close a $13 million funding round at a $250 million valuation - the investors aren’t yet known. LinkedIn expects to generate $45 million to $60 million in sales...

The updated HTML version has been posted to the Financial Services Architecture Site: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb220799.aspx Figure 9. Underwriting process message-exchange pattern

Thomas Hawk is giving away free Pro accounts for a year if you are a blogger. Check it out: http://blog.zooomr.com/2006/07/20/more-love-for-bloggers-25gb-free-pro-accounts/

This will apply to any Weblog Writer like the new Windows Writer, Word 2007 or MarsEdit. The hardest part of this is knowing the MetaLog API URL. Here is the one for CS. http://community.yourdomain.com/blogs/metablog.ashx Here's how I got...

This was a tough one on Seattle. Worst one in a decade. It's a good thing I went back home when I did. I do wish all my friends back in Seattle the best of luck if they had any trouble. Back here in Cincinnati we have had much warmer weather than prevous...

Paul Thurrott has put together an excellent comparison of the different versions. http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_02.asp

Visa U.S.A. Inc. is adopting a carrot-and-stick approach to help drive merchant compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standard that it -- along with other credit card companies such as MasterCard International Inc. and American...

Download Here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3e9af02d-174c-44b5-93fa-2b6db14efe6e&displaylang=en

This year’s Integration and Enterprise Architecture Summit was overall pretty good. You can see a fundamental shift from the “Ivory Tower” EA that was discussed a few years to more of an iterative or pragmatic EA program. Taxonomies and methodologies...

Building Interoperable Insurance Systems with .NET 3.0 Technologies (pdf) Through maturity of many enterprises, we live in a world where there is more than one stack of technology. As a result, there has been more than a few Band Aids applied to the various...