This is our last edition of the year, and with it I'd like  to thank the people who make RCPU possible. That's right -- I'm dropping the royal  "we" for today because this is personal. (That sounds sort of  menacing, but it's about to get very sappy.)
First, to the readers, the e-mailers and the contributors to  entries on the blog site, thank you for your attention and participation. I  hope that at least you're entertained here and occasionally even informed. I  love reading your comments and enjoy having e-mail discussions with  you -- something I'm going to try to do more often in 2009. You are the lifeblood  of RCPU, and I wouldn't have a newsletter (or possibly even a job) without you.  So thanks for being part of our little community, and I hope to hear more from  you in 2009.  
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	Posted by Lee Pender on December 18, 20081 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    The CTP of the new SQL implementation is 
due in January
 from  PASS.  (Seriously, we can't get enough of acronyms.) 
 
	
Posted by Lee Pender on December 17, 20080 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    A recent survey from Intel suggests that Americans are  
hopelessly addicted to the Internet
.  OK, maybe it doesn't suggest that, but that's sort of how we feel ourselves  sometimes. The proliferation of wireless routers into every home that allowed  for the deadly TV-Internet combo, combined with the spread of high-definition  TVs, might have been the most important development in the last half of the 20th  century. Well, maybe not 
 
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	Posted by Lee Pender on December 17, 20080 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    We're huge fans of acronyms here at RCPU -- we even refer to  ourselves as an acronym -- so we were very impressed to get the following e-mail  from frequent contributor Jon in response to a 
brief but acronym-laden post
: 
  "You  seem to be enjoying acronyms in today's RCP Update. Here we have many acronyms  that start with the same letter as the name of the company, which has resulted  in a few that sound very similar. So we invented another acronym:  TAS -- Tangled Acronym Syndrome."
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	Posted by Lee Pender on December 17, 20080 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    Sometimes we really do wonder why people pay so much for  Office when there are free or cheaper alternatives out there. But then we  remember that everybody has Office, and it can be something of a pain to exchange  non-Office documents. Is that changing? With Microsoft seemingly willing to  
open Office to other file formats
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	Posted by Lee Pender on December 17, 20080 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    It's that time of year when news slows to about the pace of  current returns on an investment with 
Bernard Madoff
,  and everybody in the press fills Web site space with top-10 lists. 
There are top-10 lists of every conceivable nature, from  the top 10 Microsoft stories,  to the top 10 Linux stories (or at least the top Linux stories -- we didn't count  them...or read them),  to the top 10 Internet stories,  to, as far as we can tell, the top 10 stories, period, at least from a  technology-industry perspective.  There's even a list of the 10 most influential "biztech" leaders of  2008. 
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	Posted by Lee Pender on December 16, 20080 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    Whether anybody cares about 
this
 or not, we have no  idea. But, hey, it's a slow news...month. 
 
	
Posted by Lee Pender on December 16, 20082 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    One of the Compaq PC lines will have Novell's SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
(SLED, in case you needed another acronym) 
pre-installed
.
 
	
Posted by Lee Pender on December 11, 20080 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    We were wondering when this would happen. We've asked here many times over
the last couple of years whether we'd ever see a true hosted version of Office
from Microsoft -- and unless Stephen Elop somehow falls from power and
Microsoft changes direction dramatically in the months to come, the answer
appears to be yes.
Yes, we will see a hosted version of Office, that is. Elop said as much this week, and he didn't stop
there. Apparently, Redmond is looking at offering multiple pricing models for
hosted Office, including the one that attracts us the most at first glance:
free.
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	Posted by Lee Pender on December 11, 20080 comments