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The InformationWeek September 2007 Archive « August 2007 | Main | October 2007 » |
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The Search For Mobile Video
I am, simultaneously, both a consumer and creator of Web video, and as both, I'm wildly interested in the quest for good mobile video. I wish someone (including me) would rise to the challenge.
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Apple Users Talking Class-Action Lawsuit Over iPhone Locking
You bought the iPhone, you paid for it, but now Apple is telling you how you have to use it, and if you don't do things the way they say, they're going to lock it. Turn it into a useless "brick." Is this any way to treat a customer? Apparently, it's the Steve Jobs way. But some iPhone users are mad as heck, and they're not going to take it anymore.
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Google Is Really, Really Serious About The Mobile Ad Market
Google sees its future in mobile advertising. Period. You don't believe me? Have you been following the news?
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Timely, Slick Centro Gives Palm A Shot In The Arm
My colleague Eric Zeman already has written about the new Palm Centro, unveiled yesterday at the Digital Life show in NYC. I just want to add: this is a great idea on Palm's part, the smartest move the company has made since it finally bought a perpetual license to its own OS from its Japanese owner last year. Whether or not it's enough to save Palm I don't know but this $99 sorta-smartphone is a timely and slick piece of technology.
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Running A Business Is Essential Experience For A CIO
If you want to excel as a tech exec, go out and run a business -- or get your place of employment to put you in charge of one.
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A Truly Solid Innovation For The AirCard Crowd
Sprint and Verizon Wireless each announced versions of the Novatel USB727 wireless modem. Normally AirCards aren't all that exciting (they just ain't sexy), but this one has a built-in microSD slot. Bingo! Instant sex appeal.
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We Need OS Diplomacy, Not OS Wars
Some of the responses posted to my Linux blog entries have been filled with an amazing amount of venom -- directed not at me, but at other posters. The hate some people have for other people just because they elect to use another operating system on their computers never ceases to shock me.
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Would You Hire This Hacker?
Convicted hacker Robert Moore started serving his two-year prison sentence yesterday. He has high hopes that a security company will scoop him up when he gets out. The question is: Would you hire this man?
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Verizon Wireless Doesn't Want To Play By The Rules
Not only has Verizon Wireless been lobbying the FCC to change the open access rules agreed to for the upcoming 700 MHz auction, but it actually sued the FCC in the U.S. Court of Appeals and called the rules unconstitutional. This week, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin showed signs of folding. Is open access going out the window?
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Driver Problems Prove Windows Vista Still Isn't Fully Baked
I'm a music guy, and enjoy listening to tunes on my PC. So when the high-definition audio all of a sudden stopped working on my Vista machine, it was a big problem. Unfortunately, my investigation found that my issue was just one small drop in a sea of Windows Vista driver problems, which still haven't been corrected--a full nine months after the formal launch of the operating system.
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Vista Has Failed To Push Aside Its Older Brother
It looks like Microsoft may be backing down, ever so slightly, from its stance that Vista is the best thing to happen to consumers and businesses since the invention of the can opener. The company announced yesterday that it's extending availability of XP for another five months to June 30, 2008. In other words, if you want XP, you can still get it.
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Apple Corporate Customer: Aberration Or Leading Indicator?
Businesses aren't beating a path to Apple Computer's door for Mac systems. Just don't tell that to one IT training firm that reports a major corporate client is embracing the company's recently launched Mac certification class. You decide whether it's an isolated example of Mac support or an indicator of a broader trend.
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Text Messaging As A Political Tool: Who Has The Right To Decide What Gets Through?
Where do telecom carriers draw the line when it comes to blocking text messages that they deem controversial or inappropriate? Just take Verizon Wireless as an example of a carrier that's feeling a lot of heat after refusing to allow an abortion rights advocacy group to set up a text message alert system on its network.
Continue reading "Text Messaging As A Political Tool: Who Has The Right To Decide What Gets Through?..."
EU Dogs Microsoft, But To What End?
Europe's competition authorities have finally won their long-fought legal victory over Microsoft. Problem is, their constituents -- outside the continent's intellectual salons -- could hardly care less.
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Halo 3 Record Launch Seen Through Gamers' Eyes
Unless you're living under a virtual rock, you know that Microsoft's new Halo 3 game for Xbox 360 is smashing all previous sales records, pulling in $170 million on its first day. But if you're like me -- older than 14 -- you're curious as to what all the fuss is about, but have no interest in buying the thing. OK, then let's go to the videotape... .
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CIO Wake-Up Call: Consumers Are Turning To Online Apps
And if consumers use them, workers will want to use them, too. CIOs better prepare now for the coming wave of online-oriented employees.
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Another MVNO Bites The Dust
This time it's Disney's family-centric MVNO that's calling it quits. By the looks of things, it appears as if 2007 is the year of death for MVNOs. Is the MVNO a doomed business model?
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Software Brands Need To Stand For Something
When it comes to software industry innovation, what does the CIO of one of the world's best-known brands -- Disney -- look for? Well, a meaningful brand.
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Palm And Sprint Unveil The Centro For Consumers
The most striking aspect of Palm's new gadget is that it is absolutely tiny. Palm CEO Ed Colligan's hand dwarfed it at today's press conference at the Digital Life show in NYC. Not only is it tiny, it is positively a consumer-focused device.
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Using Google's Fix-It-As-We-Go Beta Approach—For ERP
Arizona State Unversity's technology officer, Adrian Sannier, is at it again. First, he embraced Google e-mail and applications for students and staff on a massive scale. Now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting he tried a variation of Google's fix-as-we-go public beta approach to software with the university's ERP system, with sometimes painful results.
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The ROI Of SOA: Get It Right!
In which this reporter is taken to task for exaggerating (negatively) the claims in a research report about the return on investment for service-oriented architecture. Thirty-seven percent is not nothing!
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In Debate Over Desktop Linux, It All Comes Down To Money
My article 7 Reasons Why Linux Won't Succeed On The Desktop jump-started anew the debate over why the open-source operating system hasn't made significant inroads on the client side into Windows' user base. The real reason, it seems, is something much more basic than confusion about Linux distros, annoying fanboys turning off potential adoptees, or resistance from average users.
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Hand-Me-Down Linux: The Notebook Edition
Not long ago I blogged about fitting Linux onto an older system and giving it to someone who doesn’t need the latest model of PC. This week, I tried it with a notebook that’s about seven or eight years old. Windows XP barely ran. Linux gave it a new lease on life.
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Lessons From Demo
This show was largely about applying Web 2.0 technology to solve interesting problems. In many cases, the interesting problems have been solved in other ways, though.
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Video Alerts Give Google The Upper Hand -- Again
The latest enhancement to the Google Alerts product -- to include news-oriented videos on topics that readers select -- is a compelling upgrade for information junkies, online videophiles, or those researching information on the Internet. It raises many questions on the future of information access, the future role of online video as an information source, and Google's strategic directions.
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Simplifying The Leap To SaaS For Small Biz
Small businesses of 10 to 100 employees have a new option for CRM and sales force applications. LongJump offers a suite of software applications delivered via the Web.
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Demo Day 2, Part 3: Personalized Media Delivery
This is an interesting group. Half are finding ways to overload you with information; the other half are providing ways to manage that overload.
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George Glass: Customer-Centric Services Lead To SOA Success
I had the chance recently to talk with George Glass, chief architect of the British telecommunications company BT, about its massive SOA conversion. I asked him how he kept the services being created aligned with a rapidly changing business. The question was simple ... but the answer wasn't.
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Demo Day 2, Part 2: Software For Small Businesses
Interesting stuff here -- some of these small business tools are recreating existing tools.
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Demo Day 2, Part 1: Collaboration Tools
Web meetings, document sharing, project management, you name it. But will you use it?
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Reach Out And Touch Something
If you're not already using a phone that has a touch screen, the chances are higher that you will be next year, when ABI predicts over 100 million touch screen-based phones will ship. That's about 1 of every 10 mobile phones.
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Larry Ellison's Future View: Oracle's Strategy Versus SAP's
Attention all enterprise apps buyers!! Oracle execs last week discussed their 1Q results, and Larry Ellison took the opportunity to contrast his company's approach to enterprise apps versus SAP's approach. Ellison said the strategies are profoundly different -- and buyers should certainly take note.
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Palm, Sprint To Announce New Smartphone Together
The two companies have invited journalists and analysts to a special press conference tomorrow a la Apple style to announce Palm's latest smartphone. Is Palm shooting itself in the foot or finally on a roll?
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Demo Day 1: Highlights
Wow, I'm not sure it was the brightest idea to try to blog on each demo here. There's a lot of them, and six minutes isn't enough time, at least for me, to form a meaningful opinion about most of these companies. Here's a little recap after some further investigation.
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Demo Day 1, Part 5: Collaboration And Tools
The end of the day seems to be a little bit of a catchall, but there's some cool stuff in here. Most of the ideas seem solid enough; execution is another matter.
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Too Much Of A Good Thing? Relief From RSS Overload
RSS readers can reduce information overload, but they also can become part of the problem as feeds add up. Startup mSpoke has an answer to RSS clutter with FeedHub, a new personalization tool that puts a content relevance knob at your finger tips.
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Forget The Table, How About A Seat On The Board?
With their insights into process, innovation, and technology, CIOs should be better represented on companies' boards. So why aren't they?
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Demo Day 1, Part 4: Infrastructure / Enabling Technology
OK, it's easy to start falling asleep in the session that follows lunch. If the list is getting boring for you, skip to the end. Very impressive stuff.
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My Linux Broke -- Is It My Fault?
One of the adages about Linux that gets passed around a lot goes something like, "It's a great system, but you really have to know what you're doing.” The other day, I got a firsthand example of that -- I got bitten by a bug in a package that's readily available in Ubuntu's software repository.
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Amazon Kills DRM And Puts iTunes On Notice
Digital rights management, otherwise known as DRM, died today, at least as far as music is concerned. Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who deserves credit for calling for the elimination of DRM earlier this year, may come to regret that the competition has taken his advice to heart.
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What Microsoft Could Do With Facebook
Microsoft's reportedly in talks to invest somewhere between $300 and $500 million for a stake in Facebook. Here's what Microsoft could do with it.
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Demo Day 1, Part 3: Games
On to the games. It's hard to imagine they pay me for this.
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Demo Day 1, Part 2: Social Networking
No time for coffee, we're jumping straight into social networking.
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Google's Virtual World Could Be Business Answer To Second Life
As if Google isn't pervasive enough, it looks like the search-engine company is planning to launch its own virtual world, which will compete with Second Life, but could be much more valuable to business users in real-world applications.
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Motorola Bows WiMax Chipset For Mobile Devices At WiMax World
The new wireless modem will help bridge 3G and 4G technologies and eventually find its way into electronics, including mobile phones.
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Demo Day 1
Blogging from a live event is a new thing for me. What can I tell you during the event that couldn't possibly wait until the end of the day? Probably not much, but I've got a couple cups of coffee in me and I'm surrounded by people doing the same thing, so here goes...
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Why Tech Jobs May Fare Better In A Recession This Time
Why sweat a recession? Because three-fourths of economists say there's a 30% chance or higher chance the U.S. economy will slip into recession, the Wall Street Journal reports , citing its poll of 52 economists. The economists overall peg the recession risk at 36%, up from 28% a month ago.
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Is Anyone Really Surprised That Apple Won't Support Hacked iPhones?
I'm not. And I don't blame them, either. When you buy an iPhone, you implicitly agree to a legal contract in order to use it. Why should they support you if you decide to break the contract?
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Google: A Virtual Video Headquarters Tour
Segways, exercise rooms, video arcade games, a gourmet cafeteria. Did you die, or perhaps move to some Western European welfare state? No, you're just an average "Googly" person, who's got the smarts -- and, apparently, the youth -- to work for the search-engine giant. See all this stuff and more on the quick video tour I've put together.
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Contractors Are A Security Threat -- Both Active And Passive
CIOs have to rely on outside contractors for some IT jobs -- I don't know any who don't use at least a few. And the security problems third parties represent are well documented. But whatever happened to plain, old competence?
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Greetings From Demo 2007 Fall
I'm in San Diego where the fall Demo conference kicks off tonight. Demo is a unique event in the industry. Over the course of the next two days, 69 startup exhibitors will demonstrate their cool new software, service, or hardware -- or all three, in some cases. They'll all do it on one stage in front of a crowd of a few hundred journalists, VCs, and other industry movers and shakers. So how do they manage to run 69 demonstrations in two days on one stage? It's all about the elevator pitch.
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Selling Technology: What Appeals To Customers?
Software vendor Tibco has commissioned a video series (sans Tibco branding) called Greg The Architect, a hilarious spoof of business technology organizations that’s aimed at the software architect.
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IBM Eases The Way To Lotus Symphony
I'm always pleased when companies respond to the complaints of its user base -- especially when the user base isn't paying anything for the privilege. So while it is gratifying that Apple is offering irate early iPhone adopters $100 coupons, I feel even more appreciative that IBM quickly tweaked its originally irritating registration process for Lotus Symphony.
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No Bundled Windows PCs? No Way
The Globalisation Institute, a European think tank, wants all computers to be sold without operating systems. Here's why that's a bad idea.
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Customer Contact Reduction: What's Wrong With This Picture?
Questionable Move Of The Week: Wal-Mart has a program called "Customer Contact Reduction," according to The New York Times. If ever there was a self-fulfilling prophecy, that sounds like it.
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Google Poses Biggest Threat To MS Office, Readers Say
Readers have a lot to say about free/alternative office suites (as in, alternatives to Microsoft's dominant Office product). Presented with a growing list of alternatives, they conclude that Google Docs is a viable threat to Microsoft.
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Employers Foiled, News Corp. To Offer Free Mobile MySpace
Whether you think MySpace is a time waster or a truly innovative social networking platform, it is now going to be available from mobile devices for free.
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Halo 3 Reviews Are In: Master Chief Rules!
Ever since Halo 2 ended with Master Chief promising to "finish the fight" on earth, gamers have been waiting for a sequel to the epic sci fi shooter. The time has come, but has it been the worth the three year wait?
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Blyk Mobile Finally Gets Off The Ground
The ad-supported "free" mobile service in the U.K. is officially launching today after a long ramp-up period. Blyk is taking the MVNO in a new direction with its free services, but is this business model feasible?
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5 Cool Google Tools You Should Know About
Google is so vast that it's hard to keep up. But it's not just search, or even the new Web-based apps, which is extending the tentacles of the search-engine giant into territory beyond the reach of Microsoft. Here are 5 lesser-known but nevertheless interesting Google tools, code snippets, and professional tech training materials.
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The Future Of Virtual Worlds
Are virtual worlds like Second Life here to stay? My answer is "yes, but." Yes, but virtual worlds are part of a long-term transition which also includes the mobile Internet. Yes, but the result will be a complete transformation in how we think about being "on the Internet" vs. being "away from the computer." Yes, but Second Life might not be the virtual worlds platform of the future.
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In The Outsourcing Shuffle, Offshoring's Still Winning
Some of the more intriguing data points about the InformationWeek 500 concern how many companies are doing offshore outsourcing and using H-1B visas. It suggests the outsourcing shuffle—companies sending work out, others hauling it back in—continues. But while one in five companies have pulled outsourced work back in-house the past year, that hasn't dimmed interest in global IT.
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Will Brits Buy Sprint?
Sprint Nextel shares closed up almost 4% today, fueled by rumors that the No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier could be acquired by U.K. fixed-line operator BT Group. Normally, such Internet rumors are worth the paper they're printed on – and Sprint has been the subject of takeover rumors for months. This scenario, however, actually could make sense.
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Who's The Top Technology Dog: CIO Or CTO?
It was one of those heated hallway discussions: What's the role of the CTO, and how is it different from that of the CIO? And who's at the top of the technology pecking order?
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Getting Advice From The Brazen Careerist
Journalists come from motley backgrounds. But I don't think we've ever had anyone writing for us before who played professional beach volleyball. Penelope Trunk has. She's also been a software executive, founded two companies, has been through an IPO, an acquisition, and bankruptcy, wrote a book, and been a professional columnist. Having had so many careers on her own, it makes sense that she specializes in giving career advice.
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Larry Ellison Says No To SaaS
Larry Ellison told financial analysts in a quarterly earnings call yesterday that Oracle hasn't participated in the software-as-a-service trend because there's no money to be made there. If Ellison's observation isn't a red flag to CIOs, than I don't know what is.
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Leaping Linux’s Patent Hurdle
In the wake of my last column, Why Linux Is Already A Success, I got a great many comments and letters from people who agreed completely with my point of view -- that Linux was already a success on its own terms. I did, however, receive a reader comment that added some sobering real-world perspectives.
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Living Life, Facing Death, And Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
Randy Pausch is a world-renowned computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon and cofounder of the school's Entertainment Technology Center, and in a matter of months he will be dead from the ravages of pancreatic cancer. In his last lecture to the CMU community, the charismatic 46-year-old shared his thoughts on the unshakeable power of imagination, will, and childhood dreams.
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Threaded SMS Comes To Symbian S60
If you've ever used a Palm Treo or iPhone, you might agree that one of the best features is threaded SMS. Long missing from Nokia devices, S60 developers have finally kicked out a threaded SMS program called Conversations. The beta is free to download starting today.
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Sparks Fly As Linux Kernel Guy Quits In A Huff
There's another item to add to my list of 7 Reasons Why Linux Won't Succeed On The Desktop. An Australian doctor who spent his spare time working on the kernel says desktop performance is suffering because Linus Torvalds and company are only concerned about enterprise users. He got so ticked off he quit Linux in a huff, and made some pointed comments about Linus.
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NYC Subway System To Get Wireless Coverage...
...If any carriers agree to provide it. It looks as though the MTA is going to allow a company called Transit Wireless to put up a network in the city's subway stations, but none of the major carriers has ponied up any cash for their service to be available underground.
Continue reading "NYC Subway System To Get Wireless Coverage......"
The ROI of Acronyms
One of business's favorite acronyms is ROI; one of the technology industry's is SOA. Put them together and what do you get?
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Sounding Board: What Readers Are Talking About
In the past week, readers have been in some heated discussions on the following topics:
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Verizon Wireless To Ditch CDMA?
Whoa! Hold the horses, Batman! Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin and Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg were discussing future plans and Sarin spilled the beans that the two companies will use LTE as their 4th generation wireless networks.
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Are You Aggressive In Skills Assessment?
CIOs need to work on their softer sides -- identifying and nurturing IT skills and talent.
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Abraham Lincoln Speaks Out About The BlackBerry And iPhone
A little while back, I wrote a blog about people who sign their e-mail messages "Sent from my BlackBerry" or "Sent from my iPhone." I questioned whether they're bragging about using the latest technology. Many of you wrote in to set me straight -- but the response I liked best described how Abraham Lincoln addressed this issue 140-plus years ago.
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Poll: Can Google, Others Supplant Microsoft Office?
Microsoft's Office Suite has a slew of new and powerful competition from Google, IBM and OpenOffice.org. That's all good for consumers, but will it ever have any impact in the corporate space?
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Power Management Flaw For Intel Processors? Or Just A Fluke
National Semiconductor is struggling with a problem with its Intel-based laptops. Processors in the laptops slow down into power-saving mode when the computers are disconnected from external power. That's how they're supposed to behave -- but they don't return to full power even when reconnected to external power. That means NSC is getting much less performance than it paid for.
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Download Duel: IBM Lotus Symphony V. OpenOffice
When I read about Lotus Symphony, IBM's spanking new free office suite, I was intrigued, and decided to try it out during my lunch hour. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Why? Because it took most of that hour just to get through the registration process.
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Sprint Promises '30ish' WiMAX Markets During 2008, But What About 2007?
Sprint and its WiMAX partners recently spoke to analysts and were bullish on the pace of their WiMAX network roll-outs for 2008. They failed to mention, however, if their test markets will be up and running on schedule later this year.
Continue reading "Sprint Promises '30ish' WiMAX Markets During 2008, But What About 2007?..."
Why Linux Is Already A Success
Anyone who reads InformationWeek regularly probably knows by now that my colleague Alexander Wolfe has more than a few pithy things to say about Linux with his piece 7 Reasons Why Linux Won’t Succeed on the Desktop. After reading it, I thought: Does Linux really need to succeed on the desktop?
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Intel, AMD Telegraph Increased Importance Of Graphics Processing Engines
Intel CEO Paul Otellini touched all the obvious buttons in his keynote at the chipmaker's Developer Forum in San Francisco, emphasizing the rush toward more cores and smaller (read: 45-nm and 32-nm) process technology. However, a deeper analysis of the news out of IDF indicates that there's one trend no one is talking about.
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Is Disney About To Kill Its MVNO?
Is The Walt Disney Co. about to kill its MVNO play? Surely Mickey and the crew will not meet the same fate as the ESPN MVNO and Amp'd Mobile, right?
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IBM Sees Enterprise 2.0 As The Perfect Chance For Revenge Against Microsoft
They say revenge is a dish best served cold. And in the case of Enteprise 2.0, it looks like IBM hopes to serve Microsoft a chilled plate of ice.
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Does Vista Really Support 2.2 Million Device Types?
Is it possible that there are 2.2 million different types of computer components out there? Microsoft says so. Here's how.
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The Finders
Presumably your employees know useful things, things that other employees might benefit from knowing about.
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Google Is Still More Of A Threat To Madison Avenue Than To Microsoft
Despite all the techie hoopla surrounding Google's launch of a PowerPoint-like application this week, Google is still a much bigger threat to those who make their money in advertising than it is to Microsoft.
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Apple And HP Support: Head To Head
Readers of our blog are mostly getting high-quality service from Apple's Genius Bar. That's more than I can say after three trips to my local Apple store, but our contrasting views raise an important question for computer and consumer products: Is support from the likes of HP -- the world's top PC vendor -- superior to Apple's? Or is the opposite true?
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Verizon Wireless: You Want Security? We Got Security!
A new service being bowed by Verizon Wireless today offers VPN-esque security. It is called the Verizon Wireless Private Network. So, is that VWPN?
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GPhone 'Definitely' In The Works, Google Possibly Waffling On 3G
According to shadowy "Taiwanese handset makers", Google is definitely building a mobile phone. The details, little things such as the hardware specs and operating system, are still reportedly being worked out. Furthermore, Google can't decide if it is going with an EDGE device or wait for 3G.
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Wall Street Tech Elite Are Gonna Take Supercomputing To IT Main Street
What's in a supercomputer? Twenty years ago, the fastest machines in the world were specialty architectures designed by quirky geniuses like Seymour Cray. Today, the field's name has changed -- it's called HPC, for high-performance computing -- but it's still where the action is. That was definitely the deal Monday at the High Performance on Wall Street conference in New York City.
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IW 500: Virtualizing Servers Is A High Wire Balancing Act
Virtualization is well under way at some shops, just getting started at others. The goal is primarily server consolidation, but many fringe benefits follow.
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Where The CIO Of The Year Spends His Time
Dan Drawbaugh's focus on growth, new opportunities, and strategic vision exemplifies the new role of the CIO.
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Workday Lands 26,000-Employee Deal For On-Demand ERP
Think ERP-by-subscription's only for little companies? Workday has signed the 26,000-employee Chiquita Brands to use its on-demand human resources apps, Workday president and co-founder Aneel Bhusri said at the InformationWeek 500 conference this week.
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Avoiding Risk, Startups Think Small
When I was an editor at The Industry Standard from 1999-2001 I sat through dozens of pitches from startup companies with business models that sounded overly vague, at least for me to understand, and overly ambitious. Now, the startup pitches I hear are more modest. Maybe too modest.
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Will The Lack Of EDGE In The U.K. Kill The iPhone?
Today during his mini-Jobsnote at the iPhone press conference in London, Apple CEO Steve Jobs promised a 3G iPhone next year. But what about the lack of EDGE in the U.K. for the iPhone that was announced today?
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IT Still Grappling With Mobile Device Management
Welcome back to Take 5, our regular feature where we ask an industry insider five questions about their company and the mobile business market as a whole. This week we turn the spotlight back on mobile device management, a topic we've blogged about before on Over The Air. Our guests are Matt Bancroft, CMO, and Rob Dalgety, Marketing Director, both with Mformation.
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Should The Security Chief Report To Someone Outside IT?
McAfee CEO David DeWalt sees more companies are having the chief information security officer report to someone other than the CIO. The reasoning is security involves much more than data security—and that IT needs a watchdog over its attempts to secure information.
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Apple's Genius Bar Is Cool, But Not Consumer Friendly
Proponents say the "Genius Bar" is just another example of Apple's superiority -- you go to a hip store to get hands-on support from smart, cool people who fix your problems on the spot. I say the Genius Bar is inefficient and unfriendly to the customer. Read about my travails in obtaining iPod support and see if you don't agree.
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SpiralFrog Offers Free Music -- For A Price
The iTunes model of moving individual music and video files to users in return for small fees has become hard to beat. There's a new contender, however: SpiralFrog, which offers media downloads free of charge -- but with several strings attached.
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Linux And Hand-Me-Down Computing
My father recently retired a 1-Ghz AMD computer with 1 Gbyte of RAM that he'd built from mail-ordered parts. He'd dropped the cash for a new Dell with Vista, which he likes quite a lot (no grousing, please, it happens), and let me have the old machine. My first move: Wipe it clean, install Linux, and prepare it for an exercise in "hand-me-down computing."
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Sprint Ups The Mobile Search Ante
Sprint and Microsoft put their strategic partnership to use and developed a new search platform for Sprint subscribers. It ties together Live Search, LBS services and voice-based search to provide better local search results.
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The U.K. Gets An iPhone
At today's "Mum is no longer the word" press conference held in London, Steve Jobs announced that O2 will be carrying the iPhone in the United Kingdom. Too bad there's no 3G on board, or anything else new.
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What's The Definition Of Innovation?
CIOs don't have to be idea people. They have to make ideas work.
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Is Your Corporate Blog Flame-Resistant?
I got a surprising answer when I asked a question during today's "Web 2.0 Gets Business Chops" panel discussion at the InformationWeek 500 conference in Tucson, Ariz. My question was, "How do you handle off-topic discussions or inappropriate postings on corporate blogs and wikis?"
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Are CIOs Ready For 'Active Data Warehousing'?
Speaking to a packed room of CIOs at the InformationWeek 500 conference in Tucson, Ariz., this morning, Stephen Brobst, the CTO for Teradata, made a compelling case that the future of data warehousing lies in "activating" the data in storage to enable automated, near-real-time decision-making to increase business' revenue.
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Health Care CIOs Warn Of Hurdles To Electronic Records
Electronic patient records promise big savings in health care, but two CIOs at the InformationWeek 500 Conference warned today that "IT is not the answer to every business problem" in health care.
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Three To-Do Lists For Building An Innovative IT Department
Big-business IT departments have their eyes on the ground, focused on day-to-day issues of keeping the business running. That leaves CIOs locked out of the room when CEOs are deciding the direction of the company. To get a seat at the table, CIOs and IT managers need to transform their organizations to focus on innovation. Management consultant Ram Charan described what IT managers need to do to make the change.
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Why Business Won't Buy Apple
Its users are zealots. Its technical sophistication, ease of use, and level of innovation have long put it ahead of other computer makers and, now, it's arguably out-innovating the smartphone market. Yet more than half of businesses have no plans to buy Apple's computers and more than 70% have no plans to buy iPhones.
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Sprint Launches Femtocell Trial In Denver And Indianapolis
Called Airave, the femtocell hardware and associated service will give Sprint subscribers enhanced cellular coverage in their homes or home offices.
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Redmond Is Blog City
Are CIOs on top of all the blogs and wikis in their organizations? Microsoft's CIO says he is.
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Buying Some Love From Your Mobile Phone
According to some recent snooping around by Juniper Research, mobile dating services will bring in a hefty $1 billion from the lovelorn by 2010.
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European Court Upholds $1 Billion Penalty Against Microsoft
Europe's Court of First Instance on Monday said the European Commission's antitrust claims against Microsoft are valid and that the software maker "abused its dominant position" while marketing Windows products.
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Will A Hundred Users Share One PC?
A new desktop PC today is 10 times more powerful than one from about three years ago, but most of us don't use our PCs any differently. According to startup NComputing, that means we should only need to buy a tenth as many.
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Who's That Girl In The iPod Commercial?
The new iPods may look kind of squat and funny -- a site that's sprung up to cover them is called FattyNano -- but the music emanating from Apple's latest commercial was so captivating, I had to find out who the singer was.
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My Big Fat Quad-Core Video And Podcast Show
Interested in the latest quad-core processor news from Intel and AMD, but too tired to read about it? Then kick back and listen to two podcasts with heavy hitters from the respective semiconductor powerhouses, and watch a short (non-blurry) video where I opine on whether you really need four cores on your desktop.
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SCO Bankrupt? End Of Saga Can't Be Far Off
SCO's move to file for bankruptcy protection may be the last chapter in this ill-starred case. SCO's ongoing legal expenses and rapidly declining shareholder value bode ill for a once-proud company.
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SCO’s New Theme Song: “Running On Empty”
I've been humming that classic Jackson Browne tune every time I read more news about SCO and its protracted death spiral, which has been drawn out far beyond belief. The song's playing all the more loudly today: SCO just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
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Apple Issues $100 iPhone Credit With Restricting Conditions
iPhone customers like myself have been waiting for details on how to receive the $100 credit we're entitled to. Apple finally released those details today and while I can't complain (since nobody forced me to buy the iPhone back in June), Apple's tactics are disappointing.
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Just How Fair Is The Fair Use Campaign?
In a classic case of "my industry is bigger and more important than yours," the Computer and Communications Industry Association is campaigning to prop up the "fair use" exceptions to U.S. copyright laws, calling them "the cornerstones for creativity, innovation, and… an engine for growth for our country."
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Cell Phones Are Ticket To Business Success In India
The next time someone asks you about the potential ROI on a cell phone, remember this post. According to a report in BusinessWeek, cell phones are becoming the ticket to success (and out of poverty) in developing markets like India.
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Indiana Wants Me, Part 2
CIOs are definitely interested in the potential for Web 2.0 technology. SRO tells me so.
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Verizon Wireless Strikes Back At Google Over Open Access
Just when it looked like the FCC's upcoming auction of 700 MHz spectrum might inject some degree of openness into the U.S. wireless industry, Verizon Wireless struck back with this lawsuit. Will the auction still take place?
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Walgreens Ex-CEO: Most Future Changes "Will Be Driven By Technology"
Recently retired CEO David Bernauer -- who spent four years as CIO -- supplies a great answer to his own question: "Why is it so important to understand that technology will drive the biggest changes in our profession?"
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Ameritrade Notifies Customers Of Data Breach -- Proactively
Online brokerage TD Ameritrade is warning customers today that some of their personal information, including e-mail addresses, was accessed by an external source. Its handling of the situation shows there's some progress being made toward more proactive disclosure of security breaches, since the disclosure comes before any known loss of personal identity data such as Social Security numbers.
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Career Moves: Will The Non-Profit Route Pay Off?
And should CIOs help out non-profit organizations by contributing time or talent? Because non-profits desperately need the efficiencies IT can bring.
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Happy Birthday Winamp... Long Live Mike The Llama
The Winamp player is celebrating 10 years of existence next month with an Anniversary Edition player so it can build on its 60 million monthly active unique user empire. Take that, iTunes!
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Is "Sent From My iPhone" The Sign Of The Doofus?
Are you impressed when you receive an e-mail with the tagline "Sent from my BlackBerry"? A writer on Slate says it "sends a subtle signal to my correspondents that I'm getting a lot done." I found the statement startling, because that interpretation never even occurred to me; I think those taglines are just a waste of time.
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Backward Into The Future
At a trade show last year, a PR rep steered me happily toward an IP phone that came equipped with a camera and a display so you could easily have face-to-face conversations over the Internet. I don't remember exactly what the rep said after that -- I was too busy flashing back to the 1964 World's Fair, where AT&T touted its futuristic, just-around-the-corner Picturephone.
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New Shopping Service From Sprint To Help Bankrupt Us Sooner
Now that we can use our Sprint phones to make online retail purchases, I can imagine Americans' credit card debt racking up faster than ever. Do we need to be able to buy things from our phones?
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Indiana Wants Me: A Day At A CIO Symposium
Are CIO special interest groups worth the time? They are if they deliver the goods.
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Data Leak Prevention vs. Enterprise 2.0
Can IT secure information and make it easier to share?
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Qualcomm's Partners Get Reprieve From ITC
Qualcomm itself still may not import its own chips into the U.S., but its partners can. This is good news for several handset manufacturers and network operators.
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Language Translation Tries To Keep Up With Global Business
I had two separate conversations this week that hint at how companies will more and more use computerized translation as a tool for global business.
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The Newb's Guide To Apple
As I wrote our Apple buyers' guide, I was directed by a single question: What do I wish I'd known when I bought my first Mac, back in February? Since then, I've had an intense self-guided study in Apple products and services. Alas, I can't put all that knowledge in a time machine and send it back to myself. But I can pass it on to you.
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The State Of The Linux Help File Nation
A few years ago, my biggest complaint about Linux applied to many things in the computer world: The documentation was uniformly lousy and scattershot. Since then, at least one distribution -- Ubuntu -- has set a fairly high standard of documentation. There’s still a few things I’d like to see done better, though.
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World-Class IT Org, Or Outsourcing Fodder?
How does the world -- your internal customers, your company's paying customers, your various supplier customers -- view your IT organization? As a can-do partner and service provider? Or as a chronic naysayer and excuse maker? The answer to this simple question will tell you whether you have the stuff of a world-class organization or are outsourcing fodder.
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AT&T Mobile Phone Service In New York City Appears To Be Down
It looks like AT&T is experiencing a network outage in the New York City area.
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Palm Intros New Treo Hardware
At long last. It may not look all that svelte, but the Treo 500v, announced today for Vodafone in Europe, is a small first step for Palm in resurrecting itself.
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Will NTP Sue Every Wireless Company?
It seems holding company NTP just loves to sue wireless companies. After winning $612.5 million from BlackBerry maker RIM with its controversial patents on wireless e-mail technology, NTP went after smartphone maker Palm at the end of last year using the same contested patents. Not finished, NTP is now suing U.S. wireless carriers that offer mobile e-mail. Will NTP ever stop?
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A Focused Way To Search Discussions
Israel-based startup Omgili has developed a specialized search engine that strives to helps users research topics based on Web discussions and other forms of user-generated content.
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'Microtrends' Book Says Techies No Longer The Geeks
If small is still the new big, then the biggest book of the moment is "Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes" by Mark Penn, CEO of public-relations powerhouse Burson-Marsteller. Penn divines the future from the niche-ification of the present. For us tech types, one observation rises to the top: As the Internet becomes ever more dominant, geeks are now welcome at the lunch table with the cool kids.
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Mobile Security 101
Want to secure your mobile employees and protect against breaches? Here are a few quick tips.
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An Invitation To Technology Startups
Business-technology startups have a new channel for getting the word out about their products and services. InformationWeek will begin highlighting startups each week in a new section of the magazine called Startup City. Emerging tech companies: Tell us about your bright ideas!
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Are CIOs Disappearing (Part II)? If They Don't Master Business Value, The Answer Is 'Yes'
Readers offer various explanations to the question we first posed last week, but the central theme is that too many CIOs remain overly focused on IT arcana rather than revenue growth, customer loyalty, and competitive advantage. Join the discussion.
Continue reading "Are CIOs Disappearing (Part II)? If They Don't Master Business Value, The Answer Is 'Yes'..."
Should CIOs Take Google Seriously: Part 2
Capgemini takes Google seriously as a business software provider; maybe more CIOs should, too
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Use Your Illusion: Living And Working In A Virtual World
Most CIOs feel that the workplace can sometimes get a bit, well, unreal. According to The Conference Board, they ain't seen nothing yet.
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Do Online Social Networks Lead To More Real Friendships?
Not so, a recent study claims. According to Dr. Will Reader and a team of researchers at Sheffield Hallam University, most people who use social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace only have, on average, five really close friends. Ironically enough, that's the same number most people have offline too.
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On The Eve Of Second Life's First Corporate Strike
Beginning Wednesday Sept. 12, a union representing IBM's employees in Italy will start training interested avatars for the first virtual strike against a company doing business in Second Life.
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Slashing iPhone Price By 33% Equals 300% Jump In Daily Sales
According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, sales of the iPhone have climbed from 9,000 per day at the $600 price point to 27,000 per day at $400 a pop. But can the iPhone keep it up?
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AMD Cuts Quad-Core Barcelona Prices To The Bone
The hidden story surrounding AMD's launch of Barcelona are the chips' incredibly low prices. I can't believe you can get a 1.7-GHz, quad-core server processor for $209! I'm already seeing downward pricing pressure on Intel's competing quad Xeons, and it's looking like we're going to have a major price war on our hands.
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RIM Launches 'Built For BlackBerry' Web Site
RIM has aggregated a host of BlackBerry software on a new Web site. Everything from news to navigation is available for download in what looks like an attempt to remind people that they can do more with their BlackBerries than just check e-mail.
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CIOs Better Check With Legal Before Touting This Tool
LexisNexis has a powerful new tool that IT execs can give their companies' researchers, letting them search some 65 million patent records from countries around the world. But in today's patent litigation minefield, some companies consider the best strategy is to keep researchers ignorant of what's been patented.
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Why Apple Won't Bite on Spectrum Auction
According to BusinessWeek, sources say that "Steve Jobs & Co. have studied the implications of joining" the bidding in the upcoming FCC auction of valuable 700MHz spectrum. Well, I have "studied the implications" of becoming the head of the World Bank. Doesn't mean it's going to happen.
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CIOs Are Worried About Mobile Security
That's according to a survey commissioned by a mobile security vendor. But that doesn't mean it's not true.
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Steve Jobs' Other Mistake
Apple CEO Steve Jobs' decision to offer a $100 refund to early iPhone adopters following last week's $200 iPhone price reduction is a good start. But it's not enough.
Jobs also needs to re-think whether his company wants to serve consumers or shackle them.
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AMD Throws Down Its Open-Source Gauntlet
This past week yielded up one of the best pieces of news in a long time for Linux users: AMD has pledged to offer open-source video drivers for some of its ATI graphics chips. It gets better: The company's not just writing the code for the drivers and offering it openly, but releasing full documentation for its video systems so that anyone can do the same thing.
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Record Industry Tries To Save Itself By Distributing Online Content On A CD
Welcome to another edition of the unintentional irony files. Today's target, the record industry. Their special new idea? The ringle.
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iPhoneSIMfree Is Now Available For Purchase
Looks like you can now begin unlocking iPhones at your earliest convenience. Engadget claims that iPhoneSIMfree's software is now available for purchase online from four online retailers.
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OQO Boosts Model 02 Specs
For lovers of the UMPC, good news. OQO revised some of the specs of its model 02 handtop computer, and they include faster processors and EV-DO Rev. A wireless data. Oh yeah, they also dropped the price to a totally low $1,299.
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Apple May Join Google And Bid On Wireless Spectrum
I have to admit that 2007 is rapidly shaping up to be one of the most interesting years in the history of the wireless industry. Already we've seen the iPhone, rumors of the Google Phone, carriers (sort of) warming to the concept of open networks, rumors that Yahoo is working on a cell phone, and the possibility that Google may even buy wireless spectrum. Now it looks like Apple also may bid on wireless spectrum.
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Apple Licenses 3G Technology
Apple recently agreed to license InterDigital's wireless technology. The deal is worth $56 million and under the initial terms set by the two companies will last for seven years. Is a 3G version of the iPhone in the works?
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Microsoft Patents Uncrackable DRM
Microsoft may have just succeeded in giving the lie to claims by anti-DRM advocates that tech and record companies should forget about digital-rights management because they can never come up with something that's totally immune to cracking.
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AMD Launches Long-Awaited Quad-Core Barcelona
The long wait for AMD's first quad-core processor is over, with the introduction today of Barcelona. Amid the over-the-top press coverage, the important question to ask is: How does this chip perform in comparison to Intel's quad Xeons?
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Facebook Could Kill Twitter
A couple of months ago, I spent some time playing with Twitter. After experimenting with Twitter, I finally saw the application as a potential business tool and the future of applications like presence and collaboration. However, now that I've transitioned into a regular user of Facebook and its mobile applications, I think there is a good chance Facebook could kill Twitter.
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Podcast: AMD Talks All About Its Barcelona Quad-Core Processor
Unless you're living under a quad-core rock, you know that Monday, Sept. 10, marks the big day when AMD will formally announce Barcelona. Don't want to wait? Then listen to my 15-minute discussion with Randy Allen, VP of AMD's server and workstation division, who'll give you the scoop on the processor.
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Palm Foleo, We Hardly Knew Ye!
When Palm canceled the Foleo this week, I got a condolence note from a reader of an article I'd written the week before that had said nice things about the Foleo. "Too bad . . . Guess you'll have to update your recent article," he wrote. Well, much as I might like a do-over, life doesn't always work that way. I am sorry to see Palm kill the Foleo, even though I think I know why.
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Wal-Mart And RFID: How High Should I Jump?
When the world's biggest buyers yell jump, you'd think their suppliers would be crouched and ready to elevate. But when Wal-Mart yells jump, some suppliers are more apt to roll over, or complain that it's breaking a noise ordinance.
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The CIO Version Of Product Placement
Is it worth it to be a reference account for a vendor? Jim Honerkamp thinks so.
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Linux Yesterday And Linux Tomorrow, But Never Linux Today
What would you say if I told you that plans to deploy Linux in corporations aren't accelerating, but are tapering off? That's what one study suggests. When asked if they were planning to deploy Linux in the current year, more than 90% of CIOs said no. That's up from 87% of the past year, and 60% of the year before that. So is Linux finally reaching its saturation point?
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Another BlackBerry Outage Being Reported
Various sites on the Internet are reporting that BlackBerry users are experiencing trouble for the second time in 5 months.
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Jobs To iPhone Customers: Drop Dead
So, you waited in line for 48 hours so you could spend 600 bucks to be the first on your block to buy an iPhone. Now your neighbor Jerry can buy one for $200 less, and you feel, well, jobbed. And you think people should feel sorry for you?
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Cell Phones = Bad News In Hospitals
A new study from Amsterdam contradicts earlier findings and details how newer cell phones negatively interfere with bedside medical equipment.
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Fantasy Football Flub Fair Flamer For Yahoo IT?
Another hard lesson from the Yahoo Fantasy Football Debacle: Customers Come First, Last, Always
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Is ARPU Really Good For Business Users Or The Wireless Industry?
According to the latest findings from Analysys, carriers in Western Europe have seen their overall ARPU (average revenue per user) drop because of decreasing revenue from voice. Is it time for the carriers and Wall Street to abandon this model?
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CEOs To CIOs: Get With The Program
Can't we all just get along?
Continue reading "CEOs To CIOs: Get With The Program ..."
Jobs Does About Face, Offers Early iPhone Adopters $100 Credit
Steve Jobs just posted an open letter to early iPhone adopters on the Apple Web site. In it, he offers everyone who paid the original $599 and $499 price tags of the iPhone a $100 credit at any Apple Store or the Apple Online Store.
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Paying The Early Adopter Tax
There are a lot of taxes that I'm (reluctantly) willing to pay. I've never been late on my income taxes. (Hear that, IRS? I'm a good citizen.) I accept that paying city and state taxes are the price of living in a large metropolitan area. But one tax I've always balked at is what is popularly known as the early adopter tax.
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Does Data Mining Work?
The reason I ask is because Homeland Security has closed down another data mining project. Is there anybody out there who can help these guys?
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Which OS You Use Can Depend On What Looks Good
You ever get behind the wheel of a car that you just didn’t want to drive? Maybe the seat couldn’t be moved to the right height, or wasn’t adjustable at all, or there was just some strange, petty little thing that made you nuts? There may be a parallel between that experience and the reasons why some people just don’t want to use Linux.
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AMD Already Shipping Barcelona, Ahead Of Sept. 10 Launch
The big press event touting the official release of its first quad-core processor won't take place until next Monday. But that doesn't mean AMD's long-waited Barcelona server chips are locked up in the company's Dresden fabs.
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HP Unveils Revamped Business Devices
At long last, HP redesigned its mobile product lineup and lifted the curtain on a batch of new business-class smartphones, PDAs and navigators.
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Jobs To Fuming iPhone Owners: Tough Luck
Are you steamed that you paid $599 for an iPhone? Steve Jobs has one thing to say to you: "That's technology."
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Spam Blacklists Still In Tunnel, But Is That Light Up Ahead?
A couple of recent court decisions are good news – no, great news – if you hate spam. Two compilers of anti-spam blacklists, Kaspersky Lab and Spamhaus, both had decisions go their way. But unfortunately, the Kaspersky decision, clearcut though it is, may not be enough to save Spamhaus.
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In Quad-Core PCs, Processor Isn't The Whole Story
I feel like a recovering Dr. Phil guest: My admission that my "build a quad-core PC project" didn't go off without a hitch has resonated with readers who've inundated me with stories about hard-to-fit motherboards, missing drivers, and other tales of woe.
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The Honeymoon Is Over For iPhone Early Adopters
Apple's new iPod Touch is the most interesting element of a meaty product and service announcement from Apple Wednesday. The Touch has got the advanced music and video-playing capabilities of the iPhone, without the phone and EDGE bits. It's for people who want an iPhone but are happy with their existing cell phone.
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The SCO Syndrome: To Litigate Without Annoying Would-Be Customers
Do CIOs worry when their key IT vendors are knee-deep in patent lawsuits? Dave Hitz doesn't think so, but the NetApp founder is concerned enough that he blogged about the topic when suing Sun this week. His pitch: Hey, c'mon, we're not being SCO here.
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Foleo Whiff Clouds Hawkins' Future
In the wake of the humiliating cancellation of the Foleo, which got an overwhelming razzberry after its debut onstage at Walt Mossberg's "D" Conference, most observers are asking "What does this mean for the future of Palm?" My question is, "What does this mean for the future of Jeff Hawkins?"
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Goodbye 4GB iPhone, Hello iPod Touch Also Known As The iPhone With Just Wi-Fi And More Storage
Steve Jobs graced us with his presence today and now we have more iPhone news to share. First up, Apple is killing the 4GB iPhone and dropping the price of the 8GB iPhone to $399. If you're still anxious to get an iPhone you can now buy one of the last 4GB iPhones for only $299.
Continue reading "Goodbye 4GB iPhone, Hello iPod Touch Also Known As The iPhone With Just Wi-Fi And More Storage..."
CIOs Losing Interest In Linux?
Say it ain't so! What did the open source operating system do to deserve such ignominy?
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High-Flying CIOs: It's Only Right
Nonbusiness use of the corporate jet is a perk for many CEOs, according to the new study. Shouldn't CIOs be afforded the same privilege?
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Next Up: Moblogging Air Traffic Reports
Mobile phones may be verboten once the cabin door shuts, but nothing will stop citizen journalist travelers from reporting the conditions at airports in the U.S. with new moblogging tools.
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Thank Goodness Palm Canned The Foleo
Seriously. It was a disaster waiting to happen. Now the question is, can Palm refocus its team on creating the next-generation of smartphones?
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When Privacy Is Paramount For A CIO
"We look forward to audits," says Gerhard Lindenmayer, CIO of DialAmerica Marketing. Say what?
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Are CIOs Disappearing? Employer Web Sites Aren't Telling
An informal and *very* unscientific search of the websites for a dozen global corporations -- household names all -- reveals that seven out of those 12 don't list their CIOs among their executive teams. Why is this so, and what does it mean?
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Google Moves To Mobilize More Payments
Can the almighty Google's second mobile payment plan challenge existing mobile payment programs? Probably.
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To Lock Or Unlock? That Is The Legal Limbo Question Of The Day
Rather than unlock iPhones for a fee, iPhoneSIMfree has decided to sell its services wholesale to so-called resellers for $1,800, who can then unlock up to 50 iPhones. But what legal pitfalls await both reseller and purchaser?
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Reports: Apple Unveiling Touch-Screen iPod, Digital Radio Tomorrow
The Apple blogs are buzzing with reports on what Apple will unveil in its announcement Wednesday, including a touch-screen iPod with a 3.5-inch display, beefed-up Nano and -- maybe -- an Internet-radio-enabled iPod.
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Should Linux Users Lead From The Heart?
After my last post about who uses Linux and really prefers to stick with it, I received a remarkable number of comments from people who'd not only tried it and stuck with it, but had taken as many other people as they could with them. That got me thinking: What's the best way to evangelize Linux?
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iPhone Led The Smartphone Market In July And Could Challenge BlackBerry For Prosumers
According to the latest findings from iSuppli, Apple's iPhone was the top selling smartphone in the U.S. in the month of July. iSuppli stands by its earlier estimate that the iPhone will sell 4.5 million units in 2007. Take that, iPhone skeptics.
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Baynote Leads Users To Web Content. Will They Drink?
What brought you to this blog? And what will you do after reading it? Startup Baynote tries to use what it knows about the first question to answer the second.
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Better Than iPhone: 8 Mobile Handsets That Outclass Apple
There are many phones far more functional, and -- hard to believe, I know -- cooler than Apple's iPhone. The biggest contenders come out of Windows Mobile partner HTC in Taiwan, though many of its offerings aren't available in the United States. There's also an uber-cool handset waiting in the wings. (Can you guess from whom?) Check out my list, and the pictures which prove my point, and see if you don't agree that these eight handsets are better than the iPhone.
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iPhoneSIMfree Releases FAQ, Says It May Offer iPhone Software Unlock In A Few Days
I guess it's now more than official: CNN has confirmed that the guys at iPhoneSIMfree have developed software that unlocks the iPhone. Not only that, but the developers at iPhoneSIMfree have released a FAQ for their highly anticipated unlock solution. How long until we can get our hands on it?
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Who Needs A Quad-Core PC?
It's always interesting how projects never turn out quite the way you expect them to. When I began putting together a PC with Intel's latest top-of-the-line quad-core processor, the Core 2 Extreme QX6850, I expected there'd be a simple story line: The machine would be fast, the system would be great, end of story.
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