384 Posted Topics
 | Guy, All excellent points. Great post. Ron  |
| | Everyone is all ga-ga this week over the [URL="http://www.t-mobileg1.com/"]G1[/URL], the new HTC phone from T-Mobile, which is the first phone powered by Google's Android phone OS. On one level, the geek in me certainly shares the excitement. It's open source. It's Google's first entree into the phone market. I'm not … |
 | I think it's unrealistic for us to expect that Apple will hit a home run with every single announcement. The iPhone and iPod continue to be wildly popular. At this point, what can we really expect from the iPod and iTunes, but incremental upgrades devoid of the Wow! factor. At …  |
| | Over the past year or so, [URL="http://twitter.com/"]Twitter[/URL] has become a full-blown communications phenomenon. For those of you who don't follow every social networking trend. Twitter is a micro-blogging site where you enter your thoughts, whatever they may be, in 140 or characters or less. Experts say if you aren't paying … |
| | Google quietly introduced an audio search tool called[URL="http://labs.google.com/gaudi"] GAudi[/URL] this week in [URL="http://labs.google.com/"]Google Labs[/URL]. For now, Google is using to the tool for experimentation purposes to index political content on YouTube videos, but chances are they are exploring this for more than good citizenship points and will expand it at … |
 | Great report, Ken. Wish I was there with you! |
| | After months of speculation, [URL="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/16/android-phone-the-g1-to-ship-mid-october/"]TechCrunch[/URL] reports that the first Android powered phone, the HTC Dream is set to be released in the US by T-Mobile on October 20th. T-Mobile did not return my calls to confirm or deny this rumor, but one thing is certain, the iPhone is no longer … |
| | The second [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBWPf1BWtkw"]Microsoft-Seinfeld ad[/URL] was released Friday. It had a few funny moments, but once again left most people shaking their heads wondering exactly what Microsoft hopes to achieve. I'm not sure they know. Although they may have a game plan, it's hard for anyone to see exactly what it … |
| | Congratulations on the new gig and I look forward to your reports, especially the cell phone announcement. I happen to be in the market for one and have been a holding pattern trying to figure out which direction to take. Maybe this will help me. |
| | The other day I downloaded the latest version of iTunes and discovered the much-heralded Genius feature is a not-so subtle way to sell content on iTunes. When I heard about the Genius feature, I mistakenly thought it was like Peter Gabriel's [URL="http://byronmiller.typepad.com/byronmiller/2007/04/filter_tool_for.html"]Filter[/URL] tool, a very cool utility for iTunes, which … |
 | Another great post, Lisa! |
| | Bill, Anyone who can find a way to fit in the word 'codswallop' into a post deserves five stars in my book. :-) Ron |
| | This morning EMC, Microsoft and IBM announced they had worked together over a two-year period to create a [URL="http://www.fiercecontentmanagement.com/story/ring-bells-major-ecm-vendors-send-content-sharing-standard-oasis-today/2008-09-10"]content interchange standard[/URL] for enterprise content management systems. It may not sound like much, but it's meaningful on several levels. For content management customers, it means it will greatly simplify moving content … |
| | According to a [URL="http://gizmodo.com/5046463/apple-admits-british-man-invented-ipod-in-1979-uses-him-to-win-patent-lawsuit"]Gizmodo post[/URL] published on Sunday, a British man claims he invented the iPod (or at least a prototype of what would become a portable music player) way back in 1979, the same year the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkman"]Walkman[/URL] cassette player first went on sale in Japan. Up to that point, … |
| | I believe the US and EU courts found these practices predatory and illegal and ordered Microsoft to stop, so no, Microsoft could not get away with the same tactics today, which is part of the problem it's having right now. It can no longer bully the market into buying its … |
| | Re: Portable crimes Not just you, Guy. USB devices have been recognized as a possible threat for years. That the UK authorities are only just getting the memo is a bit puzzling to say the least. There are devices that sniff the networks for unusual activities on USB ports. It's not exactly new …  |
| | [I]"Jerry, I have to tell you something. This is the dullest moment I've ever experienced." - George, watching laundry, in "Good News, Bad News" episode of Seinfeld. [/I] I woke up this morning to find a [URL="http://startupmeme.com/microsofts-first-seinfeldgates-ad-a-home-run-to-trash-can/"]Tweet from Startupmeme[/URL] that the first Seinfeld ad for Microsoft had hit the airwaves. … |
| | Wasting little time coming out of the long US Labor Day weekend, Google released a shiny new browser aptly called [URL="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/fresh-take-on-browser.html"]Chrome[/URL]. Why on earth would the world need another browser at this point in the history of the internet is unclear, especially another open source entry, but one thing is … |
| | To no one's surprise, except perhaps the [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/business/30pipes.html"]New York Times[/URL], internet traffic is going global, and more so with each passing year. The result is that more traffic is flowing through servers outside the United States. The chief concern about this development, according to the NYT article, was the fact … |
| | On a Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend, Comcast released its latest volley against its customer base, announcing a 250 GB monthly download limit. According to reports, after the first violation, you will get a message from your friends at Comcast warning you about your dastardly behavior (aka using the … |
| | For the past couple of years I volunteered at my son's elementary school to set up blogs for his classroom, but the projects never got off the ground. Nervous school IT staff unable to find a platform that offered them the privacy and control they wanted, and knew parents would … |
| | Web 2.0 came crashing into the enterprise a couple of years ago and was given the new moniker: Enterprise 2.0 (which was coined by Harvard Business School Professor [URL="http://blog.hbs.edu/faculty/amcafee/"]Andrew McAfee[/URL]). While business has come a long way when it comes to understanding social networking tools and how to use them … |
| | Microsoft has announced a $300M dollar ad campaign, featuring 90s TV star [URL="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098904/"]Jerry Seinfeld[/URL], which according to multiple reports has been designed to save Vista and salvage Microsoft's battered reputation. There is so much wrong with this strategy, it's really hard to know where to start. First of all, the …  |
| | Microsoft products have always presented a paradox for organizations. On one hand they seem to be universally derided. On the other, they remain the corporate standard. Open source, SaaS/online and other alternatives have had a hard time gaining widespread traction in large organizations. That's partly because companies would likely rather … |
| | Community journalism encourages members of the community to participate in the news process, not just as passive readers, but as active producers of the news itself. This direct connection to the product is similar in many ways to the kind of community building that goes on in open source development. … |
| | I'm on vacation right now in Germany, and I thought I could watch some American TV here on my PC. But I've learned that US sites consistently block their TV shows outside the US, a practice I find more than a bit curious. I tried the network sites. I tried … |
| | Many of the operating system tools that come with Windows are far inferior to free alternatives, and you can't beat the price. This post looks at some of my favorite free utilities. [URL="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/"]Firefox [/URL]– Web Browser No round-up of free utilities would be complete without the fabulous Firefox, perhaps the … |
| | There’s an old saying, 'What do you want for nothing, your money back?' But the fact is there is lots of good free software out there. Much of it has a much smaller footprint than your typical Windows software from Mega Corporation (you know which companies I’m talking about) and … |
| | Alfresco released [URL="http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Alfresco_Labs_3"]Alfresco Labs (Beta) 3[/URL] today and with it announced a new capability that enables businesses to leverage Microsoft Sharepoint functionality without buying additional Sharepoint licenses. Sound too good to be true? It’s not, and what has allowed Alfresco to do this is the 2004 EU Commission order for … |
| | When you make changes to your site design, it’s not always easy to figure out how the changes affect traffic and visitor behavior. That’s where the [URL="https://www.google.com/analytics/siteopt/new_expt?account=5119167"]Google Website Optimizer[/URL] tool comes into play. You can experiment with two or more designs and see which one works best to achieve your … |
| | By most people’s measure, it was quite a quarter for Apple, but apparently not for the geniuses on Wall Street. While Apple sold almost a million iPhones in the first week (think about that for a second) and had what [URL="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2008/tc20080721_851111.htm?link_position=link1"]BusinessWeek[/URL] called a “blowout quarter,” an off-handed remark by Apple’s … |
| | In a promising technology mash-up, [URL="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=105317&p=irol-pressArticle&ID=1177390&highlight="]the New York Times (NYT) has entered into an agreement with LinkedIn[/URL] that displays a list of suggested content for readers on the NYT web site based on information in their LinkedIn profile. For now, the service is confined to the Business and Technology section. … |
| | Hey Eddie: I did an article about life casting for Streaming Media Magazine a while back that will be printed in the Fall and interviewed these guys. Just yesterday I considered writing about them in my DW blog, but you beat me to the punch. Nice job. Ron |
| | Is your vendor giving you trouble? Won’t respond to your calls? Won’t help with your problem? Who you gonna call? Well, when I spoke to [URL="http://www.brentleary.com/"]Brent Leary[/URL], a partner at [URL="http://www.crm-essentials.com/"]CRM Essentials[/URL], yesterday, Leary surprised me when he suggested if your vendor won’t help you, go on [URL="http://twitter.com/home"]Twitter[/URL], find a … |
| | [I]Though nothing will Drive them away We can beat them Just for one day ~David Bowie, Heroes.[/I] That collective sigh of relief you hear this morning is probably the millions of YouTube users who are relieved that [URL="http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2008/07/15/youtube_viacom_agree_to_mask_viewer_data/"]Google and Viacom have reached an agreement[/URL] to protect their privacy. All I … |
| | Eddie, You can get used the touch screen fairly quickly. What bothers me is there is no external keyboard available for it yet. For some reason, Apple won't develop a driver for a third party blue tooth, collapsible keyboard. I'm sure it's because Apple is convinced that touching the screen … |
| | By all rights, iPhone consumers should be storming the gates of Apple headquarters this morning in true [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastille_Day"]Bastille Day[/URL] fashion after Friday's mishandling of the iPhone 3G launch, but as far as I know all remains calm in Cupertino, and consumers remain strangely silent over the whole affair. In a … |
| | You're absolutely right. There is no excuse for this. They should have made sure they had the server capacity, period. They had to know what was coming, especially after the same thing happened last year. You have to wonder how long that goodwill that Apple seems blessed with is going … |
| | [I]It's not always easy, And sometimes life can be deceiving, I'll tell you one thing, its always better when we're together ~Jack Johnson, Better Together. [/I] [URL="http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2008/07/11/schmidt_independent_yahoo_better_for_competition/"]AP is reporting [/URL]this morning that Eric Schmidt, he being CEO of the great and almighty Google, thinks it would better if Yahoo! remained … |
| | The other day, my buddy got a shiny new 32GB iPod Touch. This morning he was kind enough to let me play with it and I’m glad he did because I learned that using that touch keyboard takes some practice. The bad news: you can get frustrated in a hurry … |
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| | [I]Nothing's wrong as far as I can see We make it harder than it has to be and I can't tell you why ~Eagles, I Can’t Tell You Why. [/I] Apple and Adobe have both gotten some press lately for going to the trademark police after a couple of small … |
| | It seems to me that it's Viacom that is being irresponsible and possibly illegal here. What possible grounds could they have for going on such a wholesale fishing expedition that they have to see the logs including user information. Why would they need to see user information at all? More … |
| | I’ve been highly critical of many of Microsoft’s moves lately, mostly because they have felt like the awkward ramblings of a company one step behind the curve, but the other day Microsoft made, what in my view, is a smart play. They bought [URL="http://www.powerset.com/"]Powerset[/URL], a San Francisco-based semantic search company … |
| | You might have woken up this morning to a distant noise not unlike the pounding of hoof beats. Yesterday you could see the dust cloud forming far off on the horizon, but today, July 1st, it’s a little easier to hear the slow and steady march toward July 11th when … |
| | My colleague Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols recently wrote a piece on his fine Practical Technology blog called [URL="http://practical-tech.com/operating-system/dear-microsoft-thanks-for-the-help-linux/"]Dear Microsoft, Thanks for the help, Linux[/URL] 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 releasing the … |
| | Apple may have a point, but they are way over the top here. This is a small business person after all. He may have taken liberties with the iPod name, but one side is a mega corporation and the other is an average joe trying to make a living. Triple … |
| | Yesterday [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zFiu3aqfmg"]a (slightly) risqué ad[/URL] 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 … |
| | Last week [URL="http://www.adobe.com"]Adobe[/URL] surprised a few people—well, at least it surprised me--with the announcement that it was including [URL="http://www.alfresco.com/"]Alfresco[/URL] 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 services at all and … |
| | 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 [URL="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/var_1c.html"]Google[/URL], [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=16427261"]Amazon[/URL], [URL="http://www.salesforce.com"]Salesforce.com[/URL] (or whatever company) provide all the software and back-end infrastructure support. They even update … |
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