April 2005 - RedTitan Linux friendly - Datastream transforms - EscapeE for PDF - Document management patent woes

A winning formula? $(xp)>=$(i386+10G). EscapeE on UNIX. The cost to install Windows XP software with a few supporting office products now exceeds the price of the PC computer hardware. The costs to a business of owning Windows XP will peak as the Microsoft Genuine Advantage program continues to surprise SME who thought they had fully legal installs. Did you know that RedTitan products and the majority of Windows utility software will run without modification on many Linux distributions costing a mere $50? The office products come for free! Read how Linux comes of age for the business community.

The data stream from hell! We get asked to add barcodes, split, format or transform data. Our software is used to email, archive or print by thousands of customers. Sometimes, we are asked to completely re-form a data stream from scratch and the sensible response is "I wouldn't start from here!". But, if that is not possible because you don't own the originating software or a supplier will not cooperate, do not despair. RedTitan Enterprise Data Processing (nDP) software can perform miracles, and with its unique self-documenting architecture, create a solution that can be properly maintained. See the worst case and the practical solutions offered by RedTitan.

When is a PDF not a PDF? We all know that Adobe owns the electronic paper business - right? How do you know ADOBE READER will still work on your document in a few years time? RedTitan technology provides a lot of the "glue" that holds the electronic printing and imaging world together. Now celebrating our 20th anniversary, we have seen many a de facto standard come and go. Obviously standards must evolve to deal with emerging technologies but the burden for the information manager is not only selecting the winning vendor but also proving that he will survive long enough to celebrate.

If you are going to use a proprietary format like PDF for customer communications, get a second opinion on how well yours are put together! Check out RedTitan EscapeE PDF reading capabilities.

Patent blight. In the USA, the patenting of computer programs and internet business methods are permitted. Last week , European Union ministers voted to take "software patents" another step closer to the statute books on the other side of the Atlantic. Although this move is likely to be opposed by EU member governments we have already seen the negative impacts of software patents in our industry sector. Software authors are usually not too mean to pay small licence fees to patent owners but if there is a choice, the industry drifts away from techniques that might be patented. For example, UNISYS claimed a patent in the LZW compression technology used in the GIF format. Even though the patent is now expired, the threat by UNISYS to defend their "patent hedge" is sufficient to deter most developers. The industry reaction was to develop the PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format. Even the ubiquitous JPEG format contains patents owned by Forgent and this will inevitably lead to the early adoption of JPEG 2000 which has been placed carefully into "licence and royalty free" use (for now). Plans by Microsoft to patent xml document technology will really make life difficult for the electronic document specialist.