John Olson

A goal of major software tool companies (Microsoft, Oracle, Sybase, Sun, etc.) is to provide every design and development tool, connectivity product and server necessary for customers to design, develop, implement and maintain their enterprise systems. That's a tall order but within reach of each of those four companies. The EAStudio product set, which includes PowerBuilder, now contains a wide variety of tools in all those areas. However, until PowerDesigner 7 (PD7) was released, that set didn't contain an object designer. Last month I highlighted the new features in PowerDesigner 7 and indicated that it has the potential to become the tool of choice in relational and object design, displacing Computer Associates' ERWin and Rational Software's Rose. As the object design features of PD7 gain acceptance, Rational Software will be pushed out of the PowerBuilder market... (more)

A Heads-Up on TechWave

Once again Sybase's annual conference is quickly approaching. TechWave 2000 will be held at the location most popular among past attendees, Disney World's Swan and Dolphin hotels, from July 30 through August 3. Following the precedent set last year, this year's TechWave will cover all of Sybase's products rather than just the development tools, which was the standard until last year. The theme of this year's conference, "e-nabling your future," is reflected in a heavy Web development/e-commerce emphasis in the sessions being offered. Certainly that's where the excitement is in t... (more)

A Time to Give

Wow, another year has passed. Time flies when you're having fun or you're busy. I'm both. Having fun is always good but being busy is both a blessing and a curse. As a consultant, I have very little employment security. Even those employed by consulting companies are only as secure as their current project. Being out of work occasionally is to be expected and, sometimes, the unemployment period can be long. When consultants have work they tend not to take vacations, but instead make hay while the sun shines. The problem is that when the sun shines for a long time, especially if i... (more)

Cause and Effect

Do you remember where you were on March 30, 1981, when John Hinckley attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan? What about on January 28, 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff? When I was younger the question was, "Where were you when Kennedy was shot?" Unfortunately, our generation has many more recent events we can ask that question about: the Beirut barracks bombing, the World Trade Center, and now the space shuttle Columbia. I had the great fortune of working on space shuttle parts and repair systems back in 1995 at NASA's Shuttle Logistics D... (more)

Avoid Being Outsourced

Products and markets have well-defined life cycles that vary in amplitude and length, but follow historical patterns. As Bob Hendry described in his editorial in last month's issue ("Is IT Outsourcing Worth It?" [Vol. 10, issue 10]), the IT outsourcing craze is in full swing. Certainly the heads-down programmer jobs are rapidly flowing out of this country, but for two centuries the backbone of American success and industrial might has not been labor but rather innovation. During the industrial revolution we made great innovations in industrial technology and went from a small col... (more)