First and foremost, the build process must produce consistent results, but efficient use of developers' and builders' time is important too.

By Joe Cropper

Go into this directory. Select these source files. Right-click here. Export this. Rename that. Copy the renamed file there. Does this sound familiar? Yes! It is your build process! Wouldn't it be nice if you could (conveniently) build your Java project with a single mouse-click or a single command? The good news is that you can--with the Apache Software Foundation's Ant tool (named "Ant" by its creator, James Duncan Davidson, because it's a little thing that can build big things).

The fifth annual global software piracy study finds signs that enforcement is working, but emerging markets are getting their start on PCs with unlicensed software.

By Chris Smith

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) released its fifth annual global PC software piracy study this week, and the numbers are mind-boggling.

According to the study, which was conducted by IDC, one of the industry's leading global market research and forecasting firms, losses from piracy reached nearly $48 billion in 2007, some $8 billion more than the prior year. There was an optimistic note in the report, however, since piracy was found to be declining in 67 of the 108 countries included in the report. Even though only eight countries had piracy rates that were increasing, they also happened to be countries where PC use is growing rapidly.

Attend the Help/Systems User Conference for Computer Operations.

By Tom Huntington

Do you find it difficult to obtain good computer operations education? When was the last time you had the opportunity to network with other computer operations analysts? Do you feel your team has kept up with the latest in computer operations software and hardware?

As computer systems evolve, it becomes harder and harder to keep up with the ever-changing world of managing them. The technology has changed dramatically, and the strategies that worked 10 years ago no longer apply. Ask yourself if you're operating in a similar mode year after year. Or is your team executing more and more procedures manually since regulations like SOX and PCI have cropped up?