Jun 29th, 2008 - My colleague Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols recently wrote a piece on his fine Practical Technology blog called Dear Microsoft, Thanks for the help, Linux in which he argues that Microsoft’s ill-timed decision to cut off easy access to XP tomorrow (June 30th) combined with its announcement it would be... (Read More)

Jun 15th, 2008 - When I opened my mail box today and picked up this month’s Streaming Media Magazine, David Caruso, aka Horatio Caine on CSI Miami, stared out at me from the cover in his trademark shades. Not exactly what you expect from a magazine aimed at video geeks, but apparently Caruso is more than an actor,... (Read More)

Jun 5th, 2008 - Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. ~Dylan Thomas. Every once in a while you come across a blog post from a writer that makes you sit up and say, “Damn, I wish I had written that.” That... (Read More)

May 29th, 2008 - When Bill Gates gave a speech last winter and hinted that the need for a keyboard was going to be diminishing, the writer in me scoffed, but I should learn to take Bill’s little hints a bit more seriously because the next version of Windows (aka Windows 7) is going to feature the same touch-screen... (Read More)

Apr 18th, 2008 - I'm no Microsoft basher, but I've never hidden my personal loathing for Vista. Yet even I was surprised to learn this week just how cynical Microsoft appears to be regarding Vista. It started the other day when a Steve Ballmer speech to the Microsoft MVPs leaked out. According to several news... (Read More)

Jun 25th, 2008 - Yesterday a (slightly) risqué ad for JC Penney made the rounds on the internet. It depicted two teens getting ready for a date by timing how fast they could get dressed. At the end of the ad, the boy comes over to the girl’s house and they let the stern looking Mom know they are going to “hang out”... (Read More)

Jun 3rd, 2008 - Google released a shiny new version of its hosted enterprise search product today that includes new custom indexing and a synonym dictionary. While they were at it, Google changed the name of the product to Google Site Search, which replaces the old (rather awkward) moniker Custom Search Business... (Read More)

May 21st, 2008 - Is the press release dead? Earlier this month, Esther Schindler wrote in her You’re the Boss blog that “PR is broken. Social media might, might glue some of the parts back on.” To test this supposition, I spoke to David Meerman Scott, who is the author of the bestselling book The New Rules of... (Read More)

Apr 28th, 2008 - When I researched an article on multimedia search last year for EContent Magazine, (The resulting article was republished on Streamingmedia.com last December.) I learned in the course of my research that it's hard to search for non-text elements because they lack the contextual language of text.... (Read More)

Jun 24th, 2008 - Last week Adobe surprised a few people—well, at least it surprised me--with the announcement that it was including Alfresco content management services as part of its LiveCycle Enterprise Suite Update 1 package. The surprise was two-fold, that Adobe felt it was necessary to add content management... (Read More)

Jun 20th, 2008 - Cloud computing or software as a service (SaaS) has a lot of advantages, especially for small and medium sized companies with fewer resources to devote to an IT infrastructure. The cloud vendors, whether Google, Amazon, Salesforce.com (or whatever company) provide all the software and back-end... (Read More)

Jun 17th, 2008 - Not everything Apple touches turns to gold, a case in point is the .mac service which has recently been rebranded with not terribly clever moniker: MobileMe. What Apple fails to understand from the get-go is that people expect their cloud services to be free or at least extremely cheap and $99 per... (Read More)

Jun 8th, 2008 - Tomorrow marks the start of the much-anticipated Apple World Wide Developers Conference. Rumors of all sorts are flying ahead of the conference, but in the midst of all the hype and hoopla is actually some real news as Zoho and Transmedia Glide have announced brand spankin’ new versions of their... (Read More)

May 23rd, 2008 - I can’t stand this indecision married with a lack of vision Everybody wants to rule the world ~Tears for Fears, Everybody Wants to Rule the World. There has certainly been a lot of gamesmanship going on in the computer industry these past few weeks as the industry’s biggest players try to... (Read More)

May 14th, 2008 - Google might have failed in its attempts to build its own social network, but the Google Friend Connect system preview, announced on Monday, could go a long way toward providing web site owners with an easy way to add social features to their sites and get access to users on social networks like... (Read More)

May 2nd, 2008 - The other day in a short period of time, I came across two seemingly contradictory pieces of information about Google's ability to adapt to the mobile ad space. On one hand, CRM Daily published an article called Are Cell Phones a Threat to Google, and then almost immediately afterward, I got an... (Read More)

Apr 25th, 2008 - In what might be characterized as a big ‘Duh!’ Mac World reports that Google and Adobe cited a trend at the Web 2.0 Expo conference in San Francisco this week, toward enabling offline access for online applications. Gee, you think? In my article last month in EContent Magazine on online office... (Read More)

Jun 13th, 2008 - On Monday afternoon I arrived in Boston a couple hours ahead of my first event at the Enterprise 2.0 conference and I decided to make a pilgrimage to the new Apple store on Boylston Street. I guess from the hype around the opening and all I had read about this store, I had set the expectations... (Read More)

May 27th, 2008 - I love browsing in the Refurbished section of Apple’s online store trolling for bargains. When the second generation 1GB iPod Shuffle dropped below $40 U.S., I couldn’t resist and ordered one in metallic green. Just last year I had ordered a refurbished first-generation iPod shuffle, so I have... (Read More)

May 15th, 2008 - Everyone in Boston and New York is aware of the sports rivalry that exists between the two cities. Now comes news that Apple has built its largest retail store in North America on Boylston Street in Boston, beating out the current front-runner...you guessed it: Apple's outlet on West 14th Street in... (Read More)

May 6th, 2008 - It’s good to be king and have your own way Get a feeling of peace at the end of the day ~Tom Petty, It’s Good to be King. It’s often been said that marijuana is the gateway drug, but an article in this week’s BusinessWeek, The Mac in the Gray Flannel Suit, suggests that perhaps the iPod is a... (Read More)

Jun 11th, 2008 - I spent the day yesterday at Enterprise 2.0 in Boston, all in all a fascinating day and great conference, but what caught my attention was a presentation by two representatives of the CIA, and I’m not talking about the Culinary Institute of America, but *the* CIA, as in the preeminent intelligence... (Read More)

Apr 21st, 2008 - Zoho, makers of an online office suite and business tools, aimed mostly at small to medium sized businesses, made its best effort to make a big splash last week when it announced it was introducing an enterprise version of the Zoho CRM product. Unfortunately, Zoho’s announcement was timed in the... (Read More)

Jun 2nd, 2008 - All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity. ~Robert Kennedy Bobby Kennedy undoubtedly wasn’t thinking about global warming when he made this statement all... (Read More)

Apr 23rd, 2008 - Even though RIAA executives will probably spit out their coffee if they happen upon this post, I’m going to give you a round-up of some of my favorite free (and completely legal) internet music services. WE7: This free site delivers free tracks from mostly unknown artists (although you will... (Read More)

May 19th, 2008 - Fool if you think it's over 'Cause you said goodbye Fool if you think it's over I'll tell you why ~Chris Rea, Fool (If You Think It's Over). Those two crazy kids, Microsoft and Yahoo! are talking again. I know. I know. You thought it was over. Everyone did. They had nothing left to say to... (Read More)

May 8th, 2008 - Well there’s nothing to lose And there’s nothing to prove I’ll be dancing with myself ~Billy Idol, Dancing with Myself. Microsoft is 30-something and that’s an elder statesman in personal computing terms, and maybe it’s feeling a bit old. The desktop is so yesterday. The future is on the... (Read More)

Apr 30th, 2008 - Sometimes you're the Louisville Slugger Sometimes you're the ball ~Mark Knopfler, The Bug Technology moves so quickly it's a bit like the weather in New England. If you don't like it, wait five minutes. To prove this, not long after I published my post last week, Microsoft Misses the Boat in... (Read More)

Apr 22nd, 2008 - Microsoft is not old by corporate standards, but in the world of technology it is down-right staid. That’s why it takes a while for it to make major changes (or five years to roll out an OS). A few years ago when Bill Gates was still in charge, he recognized that Microsoft had to embrace the... (Read More)

May 12th, 2008 - I’ve found myself using online apps more and more lately. Whether it’s Google Reader, the Daniweb blogging tool, my online calendar or Facebook, I’m spending more time in my browser and less time using desktop applications. This got me thinking if more and more of our work is moving online, what... (Read More)

May 5th, 2008 - There has certainly been a lot FUD being spread around lately by the likes of Comcast about how P2P networks are filling up the Internet pipes. Just a couple of weeks ago, fellow Daniweb blogger, Davey Winder wrote (with tongue firmly in cheek), The Internet is Full, please get off, for his... (Read More)