OK, so we wanted to link to the Beastie Boys doing their old hit on YouTube, but it turns out that there is a word or two in "Sabotage" that isn't entirely family-friendly. So, just sing it in your head if you want to, or look up the link for yourself.
Anyway, rumor has it this week that Microsoft's now-infamous Sidekick data-loss disaster could have been the result of sloppiness, some Microsoft head-in-the-sand syndrome, or maybe...sabotage! Apparently, there is considerable animosity between the former Danger folks and the Microsoft people who are putting together the fabled project "Pink." Some of that could have spilled over into malfeasance.
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Posted by Lee Pender on October 15, 20092 comments
OK, so "Family Guy" can be a little controversial and a little edgy. It can also be ridiculously funny. And, despite Peter Griffin's appearance on a Subway commercial, FG is still pretty cool.
That's why we were so disappointed this week to read that Microsoft has bought a whole 30-minute episode of the show -- not commercials during the episode, but the episode itself -- to promote Windows 7.
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Posted by Lee Pender on October 15, 20092 comments
It's entirely possible that swine flu, H1N1, or whatever you want to call the next wave of sure death to hit the planet, is way overhyped. After all, this isn't the first time something called swine flu has hit the U.S.
As some dork on the Internet observed back in June, there was an outbreak of swine flu in the '70s, and quite an attention-grabbing one at that. And yet, those of us who were around back then and are still around now, which includes most of us, managed to survive. (And, yes, your editor just linked to his own personal blog. So, sue us. No, wait -- don't. That was just a joke. Seriously, please don't sue us.)
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Posted by Lee Pender on October 15, 20090 comments
Well, well, well. So it's not just Microsoft, or cloud computing, or mobile technology that's having problems with data loss.
Now, Apple is battling a bugaboo of its own, this one in its highly acclaimed Snow Leopard operating system. OK, so it's not striking that many users, and it's certainly not on the scale of the Sidekick fiasco -- but it's data loss nonetheless.
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Posted by Lee Pender on October 14, 20094 comments
OK, so that's kind of a "gotcha" headline, but now that we've (hopefully) got you, The Washington Post really did publish an item this week saying that small-business owners should switch from Windows to Linux if they want to bank securely online. The author of the Post's blog entry, Brian Krebs, even gives a whole, long tutorial on how to use Linux on a Windows machine.
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Posted by Lee Pender on October 14, 20091 comments
So, Armani has designed a $1,000 phone that runs on Windows Mobile 6.5. No, seriously, this is real. A $1,000 phone. Microsoft. Armani. How on earth did those three elements ever come together in a single newsletter entry? How much Armani does Steve Ballmer actually wear? Oh, he can afford it, but does Armani make those electric-blue, standard-issue, button-down Microsoft shirts that are the scourge of Microsoft conferences year after year? We're guessing that the answer is no.
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Posted by Lee Pender on October 14, 20090 comments
By now, you've probably heard the news, but if you haven't, here it is: The Sidekick device, probably not named after Dallas' professional indoor soccer team from the 1980s, had a little hiccup recently. Sidekick users apparently lost all their personal data and aren't likely to get much of it back.
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Posted by Lee Pender on October 13, 20095 comments
There's a scary batch of patches coming out on Oct. 13. If only today were Friday...but it's not. It's Patch Tuesday, and it's a heavy one this month.
Posted by Lee Pender on October 13, 20090 comments
Cisco's splashing the cash again, this time on a company that somehow aids in routing information to mobile devices (hopefully not the Sidekick, which will just lose it, anyway). Cisco's price tag for this venture? Nearly $3 billion.
Posted by Lee Pender on October 13, 20090 comments
Microsoft and SAP have long had a funny little history of coopetition in the ERP market, the Duet combo of Microsoft Office and a SAP back end being one example. Well, now Microsoft is sneaking up on its bigger rival (in the ERP market, anyway) by doing a little end-around with Capgemini, which will help Microsoft software integrate with SAP's ERP stuf.
Posted by Lee Pender on October 13, 20090 comments
We generally try to stay away from rumors here, but we just love this one. Apparently there's a fair amount of buzz that a hardware company -- which one, we don't know, just a hardware company of some sort -- might be looking to buy Tech Data in order to be a bit less reliant on the shrinking hardware market.
OK, here's the real reason why we love the rumor. It comes from Robert Trigaux of Tampabay.com, who is to be lauded for his excellent use of links in his blog entry on the topic. Yes, that's right! The venerable Mr. Trigaux linked to...RCPU! We're "industry observers" who recently noticed Tech Data's financial rebound! Yes!
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Posted by Lee Pender on October 08, 20094 comments