The Apple iPad: Seriously?

It really looks like a grossly overweight iPod touch? And it's really called the iPad? Seriously? (We're going to take the high road here for once -- unlike a lot of other commenters whose thoughts we've read over the last couple of days -- and hold off on jokes about the iPad name. Let's just say that it's...awkward.) And there's really a slew of stuff that this thing doesn't come with and doesn't do, and it looks like a major pain to use and carry around? Really, Apple? Really?

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Posted by Lee Pender on January 28, 20107 comments


Oracle To Take Top 4,000 Sun Customers Away from Partners

RCPmag.com's Jeff Schwartz was all over yesterday's big Oracle-Sun acquisition announcement like your editor on a free buffet. (Seriously, people stare. But it's free!) Let's rummage through a bit of what Jeff gleaned from Larry Ellison's day-long tour de ego.

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Posted by Lee Pender on January 28, 20103 comments


Redmond Rolls Out Windows 7 Updates

You are up and running on Windows 7, right? Well, if you aren't, you probably should be. And if you are, you're going to want to know about this raft of updates Microsoft just released.

Posted by Lee Pender on January 28, 20100 comments


Is the End Near for the Company Laptop?

Today is the computer apocalypse, apparently, the day when the Apple tablet will destroy all other known devices in the universe and Steve Jobs and his band of hipster techno-warriors will begin their Cabernet-soaked 1,000-year rule of the planet. Resistance, as you might imagine, is futile.

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Posted by Lee Pender on January 27, 20101 comments


HP Expands Security Services

The company launched 90 new managed security services this week, and if you want to read about them...well, you'll just have to click on Jeff Schwartz's story here. It's worth it. Seriously.

Posted by Lee Pender on January 27, 20100 comments


Gates: Chinese Censorship Not Too Pervasive

Ol' Bill doesn't seem to think that China's Internet snooping is that big of a deal. But one of the commenters on RCPmag.com, who lives in China, begs to differ. Go weigh in here.      

Posted by Lee Pender on January 27, 20100 comments


Rebel New Zealand School Boots Microsoft, Goes Open Source

The world's greatest rugby nation (South Africans, we just wanted to see if you were paying attention) has a guaranteed contract with Microsoft for school technology, which actually sounds like a pretty good deal for whichever partner or partners secured it. But one rebellious alternative-learning Kiwi school has shed Microsoft completely and gone open source...with great results, a school official says. The start of a revolution? Nah. A mildly interesting story for a Monday? Sure.

Posted by Lee Pender on January 25, 20101 comments


Symantec Brings Deduplication to Midsize Compnanies

The folks at Symantec are all about deduplication these days; they even have a sort of manifesto-type thing about it.

This week, Symantec revealed that it will release in February NetBackup 7, which will bring all sorts of capabilities to big companies, including deduplication. It'll also roll out Backup Exec 2010, which will bring deduplication down to midsize businesses. Partners, take note.

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Posted by Lee Pender on January 25, 20100 comments


Gates Warns on Economy; Gartner Positive on Spending

Tell us, Bill, is it all going to be OK? Bill Gates isn't so sure about this economic recovery we're supposed to be having. He says it'll take "years of digging out" before the economy really becomes stable again. And he says taxes will probably have to go up in order to balance the federal budget here in the U.S. Ouch. Bill, we're not saying you're wrong (RCPU, too, fears that a true recovery will take a very long time -- if it happens), but we liked you better when you were hocking new versions of Microsoft products at Comdex.

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Posted by Lee Pender on January 25, 20104 comments


Bill Gates Is on Twitter...When It's Working

The former Microsoft employee has given in to the wicked 140-word (or fewer) temptations of the vile social networking site (where, of course, you can follow RCPU at twitter.com/leepender). Apparently, he's got some odd following preferences and some annoying new online friends.

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Posted by Lee Pender on January 21, 20101 comments


Redmond Talks to Congress About Cloud Policy

This article is interesting enough, as Microsoft wants Congress to protect cloud data and is advocating policies in that direction. But what we really like is the photo on this page and the second comment underneath the article. Pretty good stuff.

Posted by Lee Pender on January 21, 20100 comments


Microsoft To Patch Internet Explorer Today

If you took France and Germany's extremely overbearing and inappropriate advice and switched from Internet Explorer to some other browser, you might have jumped the gun just a bit. Microsoft says that it's patching today the IE vulnerability that left the browser open to attacks.

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Posted by Lee Pender on January 21, 20100 comments