VMworld Wrap
VMworld Europe offered a bunch o' news. VMware and others come out strong on systems management and security tools. I guess they have been listening to their customers.
Data Warehouse Appliances? Me too!
Just as every presidential candidate this cycle is the candidate of Change, it seems that all the DBMS vendors offer the preferred data-warehouse appliance solution. That's the message I heard from appliance panelists at today's TDWI Washington DC chapter meeting. For a couple of them it was a real stretch, which in one case wasn't a bad thing. The net take-away is that we are seeing Change in the DBMS world, even if for the politicians that word is still only a promise.
WikiLeaks Wins Back Its Domain
A federal judge dissolves an injunction but a Swiss bank's litigation against the community-driven document sharing site will proceed.
World Of Warcraft, The Virtual Playmaker
Forget the old business models of enterprise software and services, Vivendi's video games branch just posted one of its best margins ever, all thanks to a bunch of druids, goblins, orcs, elves, and fairies.
Accenture CIO: No Cuts In IT
Economic uncertainty is something of a mixed blessing when it comes to IT, says Frank Modruson, the CIO of consulting firm Accenture. It can be a challenge, and it can be an opportunity.
Solar-Powered Gadgets Gone Goofy
I'm as eager as anyone to see more products that can be fired up with solar power. But some gadgets should never have made it off the drawing board -- they're just too goofy. Like these.
XM, Sirius Extend Their Merger Plans
Other huge media mergers, including News Corp.'s $5.6 billion buyout of Dow Jones, may quell FCC fears that a combination will constitute a monopoly in satellite radio.
Mozilla Making Strides With Mobile Browser
Late last year, Mozilla promised to "rock" the mobile Web with a new mobile browser of its own. Mozilla admits that success won't happen overnight, but a spokesperson did say, "Mozilla's mission is to break open a closed market." Can Mozilla be a player in an already crowded field of alternatives?
Laying Waste To Your Enemies With Google Bombs
Wired has a How-To Wiki on its site that often has great little blurbs on how to get things done. Today's How-To idea? How to embarrass, frustrate, or annoy your enemies by sending them Google bombs. Is this valuable knowledge to share? Is bombing people on the Internet something mature professionals do? Or is it
How eBay Manages Its Data Centers
The company is a third of the way through a major three-year grid computing initiative and is hoping to move toward automatic service level management.
Aquantia Seeks To Make 10GBase-T Scale
Darwin would have liked our industry. Evolution is constant and predictable, and it's particularly so for Ethernet, from its original 10 Mbps incarnation to the current 10 Gbps version -- pricing, power consumption, and port density follow a similar trend line. But just because the evolution happens, doesn't mean that it's easy.
Hacking My PowerShot
Hardware hacking: it isn't just for those of us with soldering-iron skills anymore, as the hacks for the iPhone clearly show. I don't have an iPhone, but I do have a Canon PowerShot A560, and as it turns out, that's another device that can be hacked thanks to some firmware wizardry.
Microsoft Combined With Intel For A Vista Logo Disaster
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer got its hands on the Microsoft e-mails that are part of the lawsuit regarding Microsoft's ill-fated Vista Capable logo program. Earlier, I said Microsoft, OEMs, and retailers all deserved blame in the logo disaster, but these insider e-mails have changed my opinion on apportioning blame.
Report: 3G iPhone Coming By Midyear
Those disappointed by the lack of a 3G announcement at Macworld can take heart. According to UBS analysts, iPhone chip supplier Infineon Technologies is ramping up production for the next generation iPhone. This time around, it will include a high-speed 3G data radio.
Vaporware Vendor Targets New Markets
You have to admire a technology company that can build a business around airborne water particles. FogScreen has done that, with an impressive customer list that includes Disney, Nokia, 20th Century Fox, Sony, and Microsoft. Now it's taking its act to Vegas.
BI Goes Mainstream at Procter &Gamble
Philip Bierhoff, Systems Manager at Procter & Gamble, spoke at last week's FASTforward conference about strategies to increase user adoption as business intelligence goes mainstream. P&G's Symphony project creates "decision cockpits": dashboards based on specific roles and corporate divisions, and including information ranging from traditional BI reports to documents to news...
Fight The Power: Greening Your Linux Systems
Linux has a lot of advantages as a desktop operating system. Power management, unfortunately, still is not one of them. But there are plenty of ways to make a Linux system less power-hungry -- and some of the most effective fixes are also some of the easiest.
SaaS vendor NetSuite Opens Platform To ISVs, VARs
In launching the NetSuite Business Operating System, the vendor is offering to host third-party software on its multi-tenant, on-demand architecture. As a result, ISVs and VARs can extend NetSuite's underlying capabilities to specific verticals.
Apples Achilles heel: Business-grade tech support
My business is a real mixed shop, split nearly evenly between Windows users and Mac users. A real challenge for us, and probably for you too, is finding quality contractors and support organizations that have deep Mac knowledge (or, frankly, any Mac knowledge).
Macintosh bargains are everywhere, just not on Apple.com
Wheres the obvious place to research and buy a new Macintosh computer? You can find everything you need on Apple.com. But where are the best bargains? Despite Apples tight controls on retail pricing, the company store rarely has the best deals.
Researchers Forecast Terrorist Behavior
The tool uses decades of data on the behavior of 30 major terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah and Hamas, to predict future behavior from past actions and events.
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