Howard Anderson

In these tough economic times, CIOs get to wear the hats of the Tech Visionary, the mean-spirited Cost Accountant, the Czar of Platforms, the Purchasing Agent and the Applications Guru of their company

Network Equipment Technologies, 3Com, Novell, Palm, Ciena, Cascade, Ascend, Newbridge ... the list goes on.

Want one of the worst jobs in the information age? Try chief information officer. It's a job with a lofty title and plenty of land mines, and almost all of them more related to Machiavelli than technology. "So what is my job? Compromising. Compromising all day long. And trying to find a reason to rationalize this complete mess we call information systems."

What

Think of the great rivalries that you know: good vs. evil; Red Sox vs. Yankees; Microsoft vs. (in order) IBM, Novell, Netscape, AOL, Linux, Google, the Department of Justice, Sun, Sony, the European Commission and now, Cisco.

My last column discussed the need for a line of technology products for those older than 50 (

I have just about had it. Every technical product I own has conspired to make me feel stupid and old.

A friend of mine, Ted Leonsis, invented instant messaging