Grading the Grader

DeMaria replies: There are any number of reasons why a reader might disagree with us on a product review. Sometimes, it's just one of those things--I've had products flake out during tests that work normally for most people. Other times, a particular product may suit one environment better than another.

But I don't think I gave SMS a bad rap. On the contrary, I noted that the Microsoft suite offers excellent reporting, access-control and tech-support features, and that its role-based administration is first-rate.

Personally, I have nothing against Microsoft. Indeed, it has sold me more software than any other vendor, with the exception of Nintendo--and that's only because I don't own an Xbox.

Unsexy But Loved In "Mozilla Puts an End to Mozilla" (April 1, 2005), Lori MacVittie suggested that the Firefox browser loads and displays Web pages more quickly than Mozilla. However, my benchmarks show Mozilla to be slightly faster at downloading pages from five newspaper Web sites.

In addition to its speedier performance, I like Mozilla for its integration and feature set. Firefox has a sexier name, but I'm staying with Mozilla.

Charley Musselman
President
Metanoia
[email protected]

MacVittie replies: Your efforts are admirable, Charley, but benchmarking is a tricky task, particularly in the wild. It would be interesting to use a tool such as RadView Software's WebLoad or Segue Software's suite in a more controlled environment to determine which browser is truly faster in terms of load time. The differences are likely negligible.

Meantime, don't get too upset about Mozilla.org's decision to stop developing its eponymous browser and application suite. Considering that the software is open source, anyone is free to pick up where Mozilla.org left off.

IT on Tap

Kudos to David Willis for his excellent farewell column ("Words to (Net)work By," April 28, 2005).

As a part-time college IT instructor, one of the things I try to stress to my students is that no matter how savvy you are technically, you must understand the language of business. People expect IT to deliver information to desktop users and decision-makers much the same way they expect their utility company to deliver water to the bathroom and kitchen. Everything is lovely until the water is off.

Eric K. Addo
Documentum/Sharepoint Administrator
Robert Half Technology
[email protected]

Correction

In "Securely Stowed" (April 14, 2005), we should have noted that Protegrity Secure.Data not only lets you securely store keys in a hardware security module or in the database, it also lets you store them using smart cards. The smart cards are probably your best option.

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