IBM in Trouble Over Mainframes?

The European Union is on the hunt for another American company to pester, and this time the EU has gone old school. Way old school. The EU is investigating IBM over claims of possible antitrust practices in the (we couldn't make this up) mainframe market.

Posted by Lee Pender on July 28, 20105 comments

Avaya Battles Giants

It's a pretty slow news week, so we're offering an interesting piece on how Avaya is taking on Microsoft and Cisco in the (still) nascent field of unified communications. Enjoy.

Posted by Lee Pender on July 28, 20100 comments

Tablets Will Eclipse Netbooks, Study Says

Well, your editor sure bet on the wrong horse in this race. He's typing RCPU on a netbook right now, but Forrester says that it's the tablet, not the netbook, that will be the device of the future. Frankly, we don't understand the tablet fascination, and we're going to hang on to our netbooks until Apple pries them out of our cold, carpal-tunnel-wrecked hands...

Posted by Lee Pender on July 28, 20102 comments

HP, Microsoft Planning Tablet

Don Quixote lives! And he and Sancho Panza are, no doubt, on the development team for the supposedly forthcoming HP Widows tablet. Yeah, this'll knock the iPad off its perch...

Posted by Lee Pender on July 26, 20100 comments

Microsoft Earnings Impress, Shares Fall

Quelling rumors of its impending death, Microsoft reported impressive earnings last week, which naturally led to an immediate drop in its share price (although the company's stock did bounce back a bit today).

Posted by Lee Pender on July 26, 20100 comments

Microsoft in ARM Power Play

Microsoft's deal with ARM for smartphone chips has sent buzz around about the possible end of the Wintel partnership. We're not holding our breath on that, but it is interesting why Microsoft is tightening its relationship with the British chip maker. Apparently, it's all about power...consumption. Intel's chips drink the juice, and ARM's, while less powerful, are also much less thirsty.

Posted by Lee Pender on July 26, 20100 comments

Google Struggling with Los Angeles E-Mail Deal

Sometimes, revolutionaries don't make the best rulers. Such is the case with Google right now in the company's deal to provide cloud-based e-mail for the city of Los Angeles.

Last year, Google won a landmark contract for cloud computing and against Microsoft by sealing a deal to replace LA's old Groupwise e-mail system with a cloud-based system. It did so, in part, by looking young, hip and inexpensive in front of the LA city council, while Microsoft sent suits and old-school messages into the City of Angels.

Posted by Lee Pender on July 26, 20108 comments

Active Directory Not as Active as It Could Be

Apparently Active Directory isn't automating everything it should be automating, at least according to one survey. Maybe it's just taking the summer off...

Posted by Lee Pender on July 22, 20100 comments

Microsoft Security Essentials Beta Out

Redmond is hoping that this version will be a little more complete than the last and that folks will take it a little more seriously than they've taken security offerings from Microsoft in the past.

Posted by Lee Pender on July 22, 20100 comments

The Industrial Worm Turns

That USB vulnerability that Microsoft hasn't yet patched is actually turning out to be a pretty big deal.

That's because malware isn't just for PCs and servers anymore. This worm is hitting big control systems that are critical parts of companies' infrastructures, and this week it nailed German electronics giant Siemens and caused all kinds of trouble. (In an interesting little side note, apparently the password for the Siemens system the malware struck has been available on the Internet for years. Wow, who knew that would ever lead to a problem?)

Posted by Lee Pender on July 22, 20100 comments

Mea Culpa: The Healing Power of Spam

Dear Readers, 

As most (maybe all) of you probably know by now, I am a complete buffoon when it comes to using Microsoft Outlook. I recently sent many of you an e-mail about a story I'm working on. Unfortunately, this was my first attempt (ever!) at a mass e-mail, and I thoroughly botched it. When I sent the mail, I put your addresses in the "To" line. That, I have learned, was a huge mistake. I now understand the importance of the "Bcc" line in Outlook. I don't plan on sending any more mass e-mails, but I will keep this in mind for the future.

Posted by Lee Pender on July 22, 20102 comments

Microsoft Responds to Zero-Day Threat

And by responds, we mean that Microsoft put out a security advisory on a vulnerability involving shortcuts from USB devices. A patch? Well, that's in the works, but there isn't one yet. Oh, and if you're on Windows XP SP2 and you're having problems with this, you're going to have to pay for "custom support." Your patching days ended last week...

Posted by Lee Pender on July 21, 20100 comments