Redmond magazine Editor Doug Barney mentioned this in his newsletter, and it caught our eye. Apparently, Microsoft has patented a technology that will let manufacturers control operating system upgrades and which software applications can be installed on an OS.
No, seriously! Check it out. Here's our favorite paragraph from the story:
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Posted by Lee Pender on May 28, 20091 comments
Actually, we're just including this story because we love the phrase "boatloads of money," and apparently the Yahoo CEO does, too.
Posted by Lee Pender on May 28, 20090 comments
Since Ford (admirably) declined federal bailout money, and since your editor's parents have a Ford wagon they love, we're going to skip the "Fix or Repair Daily" joke that would have gone so well with this entry.
Posted by Lee Pender on May 28, 20090 comments
Apparently Microsoft is considering naming its new search engine Bing. No, seriously. Of course, the first thing that came to mind when we read this was the Bada Bing club on "The Sopranos," but since there aren't many images related to the Bada Bing that are appropriate for a family newsletter (and, in case our HR folks were wondering, yes, that was research for work), we'll just give you a picture of Tony.
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Posted by Lee Pender on May 27, 20091 comments
Yes, Vista SP2 is out, and in the interest of not kicking an OS when it's down, we're not going to make any snide remarks, such as, "As if anybody cares about this" or "If you're actually using Vista..." Nope, nothing like that. Not at all.
Posted by Lee Pender on May 27, 20090 comments
For today, we are -- actually, I am -- dropping the RCPU tradition of using the first-person plural and switching to good ol' first-person singular because I'm going to share a few personal experiences with you. And, yes, we're going to talk about netbooks. Again. But hang on -- there's a reason why.
It's true that I'm somewhat enamored with my netbook (which, for the record, runs XP). It's great for everyday use -- my old laptop serves mostly as a storage device now -- and was fantastic on a recent trip home to Dallas. Instead of lugging a laptop bag with a seven-pound monster inside it, I zipped my three-pound machine (a touch on the heavy side for a netbook, actually) in the neoprene case that came with it and tossed it in my carry-on, a trusty LL Bean backpack that has seen action from Rotterdam to Rhode Island.
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Posted by Lee Pender on May 27, 20094 comments
The long-time partners will spend $180 million on marketing, services and development for the category formerly known as Unified Communications, which apparently has picked up another "C" and is now being tabbed Unified Communications and Collaboration. We're still not sure exactly how to define UC, or UCC, but we're more comfortable with it knowing that the abbreviation for it has picked up that critical third letter.
Posted by Lee Pender on May 20, 20090 comments
If you could go behind the scenes at RCPU, you would find that we're big fans of Google News (sorry, Microsoft), particularly the "Sci/Tech" news feed. It's easy to tell how much news is flowing around the technology industry by looking at Google's Sci/Tech aggregation. It's the newsletter writer's not-so-secret weapon.
Some days, there are headlines bursting in Sci/Tech about Microsoft and other big vendors. Other days -- like this week thus far -- the headlines run more Sci than Tech, with offerings along the lines of "Don't Mess with Mockingbirds" and "Komodo Dragons Have Venomous Bite." Those were two actual headlines that popped up as we prepared today's newsletter, and while we did open the "venomous bite" story just to make sure it wasn't about European Union regulators, we figured that stories about birds and lizards in Google News's Sci/Tech section signaled a slow news week for the industry. (Oh, and by the way, mockingbirds really are mean. Seriously, don't mess with them.)
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Posted by Lee Pender on May 20, 20090 comments
There's an old expression about the cobbler's children never having shoes, and it seems relevant to technology newsletter editors -- or, at least, to this one. Given that RCPU doesn't really do reviews, we don't get a lot of new technology thrown our way for free (which is OK; we're not asking for any). But that means that any new software we get is stuff we buy ourselves, so we tend to hang onto the old stuff for as long as possible.
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Posted by Lee Pender on May 19, 20092 comments
The Avis of the security market has teamed with the storage titan to take on Symantec's lucrative online backup business.
Posted by Lee Pender on May 19, 20090 comments