Computing standards have always perplexed us a little bit. What we at RCPU have never been able to fully figure out is why standards are so important? Oh, we understand the importance of them in theory, but in practice? Well, it seems to us that the biggest dog in the pack pretty much sets a de facto standard.
Such was the case with Microsoft for a long time until Redmond got all worked up about industry standards a few years ago and rammed its Office Open XML (OOXML) document format through as an international standard. Dominant regimes have, generally throughout history, wanted to give the impression of credibility -- it's one of the reasons why the Soviets had "elections," even though only one party was eligible to appear on the ballot. So, maybe Microsoft was going for the credibility angle.
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Posted by Lee Pender on April 08, 20106 comments
The economic recovery -- if it really exists --
hasn't made it to CA yet
. The company said this week that it's cutting 8 percent of its workforce and that profits will be toward the low end of what officials had forecasted.
Posted by Lee Pender on April 07, 20100 comments
Welcome to a non-iPad edition of RCPU. Seriously, we're so tired of reading about that bloated iPhone (which isn't even really a phone) that we're determined not to talk about it this week -- although that's going to be hard to do given that it's dominating tech news the way a young Mike Tyson dominated opponents.
Anyway, it's Microsoft that will most likely be trying to make mobile-device news next week. We told you earlier this week that Redmond sent cryptic invitations for a mysterious event to be held on April 12. Well, as usual, the secret wasn't a secret for long. It looks as though (although Microsoft hasn't confirmed this) Microsoft really will be unveiling its “Pink” line of phones next week.
This whole Pink thing is aimed at young folks who just can't get themselves off of the Twitter and the Facebook, so it won't likely have an enterprise impact. Pink's platform will look a bit like Windows Phone 7, but the devices won't run the same applications -- or so reports The Wall Street Journal in the link above. That leads us to wonder: Why is Microsoft doing this? Why does Microsoft always have to come up with multiple names and platforms for the same category of device?
Why couldn't Windows Phone 7 just do what Pink phones will do and vice versa? Maybe Microsoft will answer all of these questions on Monday, but for now we just don't see the point of Pink. An iPhone is, after all, an iPhone, right? Aside from maybe different levels of storage, we're not aware of multiple models of iPhones with some that do some things and others that don't. Microsoft, we hope you know what you're doing here with Pink. We hope we'll get an explanation on Monday.
Do you understand Microsoft's mobile strategy? Do you care about it? Sound off at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on April 07, 20101 comments
Yes, we know what you're thinking: Vista has market share? Oddly enough, it does. But its number is shrinking all the time with a new competitor on its heels -- Windows 7.
Net Applications says that Windows 7 now has 10 percent market share, just a few months after the October launch of the popular new operating system. Vista, by comparison, didn't pass 10 percent share until May 2008 -- well more than a year after its launch.
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Posted by Lee Pender on April 05, 20102 comments
April 12 now has an air of intrigue surrounding it, as Microsoft has set a secret event for that date. It probably has something to do with phones, most pundits seem to think, and might even be the unveiling of Microsoft's "Pink" mobile project. It'll have to be a pretty cool event to surpass iPad mania. For reasons we still don't entirely understand, folks lined up all over the U.S. and bought 300,000 iPads on the first day of availability for a device that looks like an iPhone with elephantitis.
Posted by Lee Pender on April 05, 20101 comments
When is a launch event not really a launch event? When it's more of a launch pre-party. Microsoft is holding a SQL Server 2008 R2 "launch event" in Germany this month, but don't let the nomenclature fool you; the next version of SQL Server is still due to actually launch in May. The April event is just some sort of pre-celebration of the May unveiling. With that in mind, we're going to celebrate Wednesday's RCPU tonight with a couple of cocktails and some foul-smelling cheese. Cheers!
Posted by Lee Pender on April 05, 20100 comments
An old commercial for canned chili used to feature a cowboy-type guy looking at the camera and saying, "Neighbor, how long has it been since you had a big, thick, steamin' bowl of Wolf Brand Chili? Well, that's too long."
And so we ask: Reader, how long has it been since RCPU last ran reader feedback? Actually, we have no idea. But it has been way too long -- and, yes, your editor is going to buy some canned chili on the way home tonight. This week, we dive first into the eternal struggle for the desktop between Windows 7 and Windows XP. OK, so maybe it's not eternal, but it could go on for a while if these e-mails are any indication.
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Posted by Lee Pender on April 01, 20106 comments
After 15 years of bickering between literal non-entity SCO (the company went bankrupt two years ago) and Novell, a jury in Salt Lake City has ruled that Novell owns the rights to UNIX after all. What's really rich here is that SCO is going to try to persuade a judge to give the copyrights to SCO despite the jury's ruling. So, never mind that whole jury trial that, by the way, was years in the making. SCO will just get a judge to overturn the whole thing (or try to, anyway -- we're guessing that the "company" won't be too successful). Gotta love our justice system…
Posted by Lee Pender on April 01, 20101 comments
Microsoft this week shed some light on its cloud strategy by stating that Azure will have virtual-machine support, but there are still plenty of questions about Microsoft and the cloud floating around. Well, we're here to help. The answers to a lot of those questions are here. You're welcome.
Posted by Lee Pender on April 01, 20100 comments
IE8 and Windows 7 users, don't worry about this. The rest of you...
read up
.
Posted by Lee Pender on March 31, 20100 comments