November 5th, 2009
Frugal Friday: Verizon DROID, Intel Antitrust, V-Block, Oracle/EU, ICCA
Frugal Networker Ken Hess and I discuss the new Verizon DROID smartphone, the recent antitrust charges filed against Intel by the New York Attorney General, the new V-Block data center solution joint offering between VMWare, CISCO and EMC, the Oracle/Sun merger delays by the European Union, and have an entertaining and nostalgic conversation with Independent Computer Consultants Association founder Steve Epner about the early days of computing and learn about the ICCA’s upcoming annual conference in San Francisco on November 13-15th, 2009.
Click Here to listen to the November 6, 2009 Frugal Friday Podcast.
November 2nd, 2009
Psystar: From Hell's Heart, I Stab at Thee!
Much like Khan detonated the unstable doomsday “Genesis Device” in Star Trek II before his defeat at the hands of Captain Kirk and crew, Miami-based Psystar’s last deed may very well be to inflict as many casualties on Apple Computer as possible before it dies. (Photo: Paramount Pictures)
In two weeks, last April’s blockbuster re-imagining of the classic Star Trek series and characters will be available on Blu-Ray, on November 17th. Since buying my Blu-Ray player I’ve only bought a few HD discs, saving my purchases for those films I really am a big fan of and am likely to watch multiple times. Star Trek will be one of those films, and I can’t wait to see it again on my home theater system.
Click on the “Read the next entry” link below for more.
October 29th, 2009
My Top Scary Technology Trends
Yes, it’s that spooky time of year again, and our “fearless” editors have asked upon the ZDNet contributors to come up with “Scary Tech”, the technologies that are so frightening, they’ll make you evacuate from multiple “interfaces”.
Halloween. All Hallows Eve. Dia de los Muertos. Whatever you call it in your culture, Halloween is a day that for many people evokes images of ghouls, the undead, vampires, witches, werewolves, ghosts and goblins — creatures of fantasy that are meant to scare young children. Although I’ve often been emotionally compared to a child, none of these things frighten me.
However, there are some things, at least in the world of technology, that really do scare the living crap out of me. While there isn’t one particular item that makes me turn completely ice cold with fear this Halloween, there are a number of trends that definitely have been keeping me up at night lately.
Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.
October 27th, 2009
Congratulations B&N, you've built my Kindroid. So now what?
The Barnes and Noble “Nook”, which was launched earlier this month, is the real-life version of the “Kindroid” I envisioned one year ago. So now that it has been built for real, what do we do with it?
A year ago, I posited that Amazon might do better with the Kindle platform if they abandoned their proprietary, locked down software platform on the device and embraced an Open Source platform, Google’s Android.
It never occurred to me that the Kindroid might actually become reality in the near future, and that the theoretical device would be introduced by Barnes & Noble, Amazon’s prime competition in the brick and mortar space. Still, I am impressed and somewhat vindicated that the Kindroid or a similar device that resembled my proposed configuration came into existence as the Nook.
Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.
October 25th, 2009
It never works right when you demo Windows 7 on Japanese TV
It’s always awful when you try to demo something to a large audience and then it fails miserably.
I found this video on Jason Calacanis‘ Mahalo.com site, a snippet of a Windows 7 demonstration on a segment of “Tokudane” on Fuji TV, a show roughly analogous to the “Today” or “Good Morning America” show in the United States. While clearly the SONY touchscreen PC had some driver issues, and it would be hard to point the blame directly at Windows 7, it’s still painfully hilarious to watch.
[EDIT: Apparently, they eventually got it right. :)]
And for more comic relief, check out CheapAssGamer’s utterly stomach-churning video review of the Windows 7 Whopper, also only sold in Japan. I love the guy’s quote “I’m just glad it wasn’t Windows 95″. Hey, it could be worse, it could have been a Windows 2000 burger.
October 24th, 2009
Ding Dong, The Vista's DEAD!
This Halloween, let’s all celebrate what we’re really feeling: The Wicked Vista is DEAD!
In the United States, we’ve got a bunch of frivolous holidays.
I’ve always regarded Halloween as a particularly frivolous holiday, one in which we encourage our children to engage in mischief and vandalism, of which the original purpose has been co-opted by business, like Easter and Valentine’s day, all of which seem to be of a single mindset which is to support the mass-market confectionery and High Fructose Corn Syrup industry.
Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.
October 23rd, 2009
Frugal Friday: Mac refresh, Magic Mouse, Verizon DROID, The Nook, Windows 7, Likewise
Frugal Networker Ken Hess and I discuss the 4th quarter 2009/Q1 2010 Apple hardware refresh, the new Apple Magic Mouse, the quaintness of keyboards, the new Verizon DROID smartphone, the Barnes & Noble “Nook” Android-based ebook reader, the Windows 7 launch and Windows XP migration solutions, and talk with Barry Crist, CEO of Likewise Software, the Windows networking and identity management interoperability company for Linux, UNIX and Mac.
Click Here to Listen to the October 23rd, 2009 Frugal Friday Podcast.
October 22nd, 2009
Windows 7's latest fan: Linus Torvalds
Linus Torvalds, pictured at an unidentified Yodobashi store in Tokyo, Japan. Source: Chris Schlaeger (click to enlarge)
I was determined to not write about Windows 7 today, because any analysis I wrote would get buried in all the other news. I was going to wait to deliver my “last word” sometime next week. But then a co-worker emailed me the photo above, clearly of Linus Torvalds at the software counter at Yodobashi, a Japanese consumer electronics store in Tokyo in front of a huge display of Windows 7 boxes, giving it the international sign of recognition: Thumbs Up. I HAD to post that.
Of course, if you happen to be Japanese, the custom is to make the “V” sign rather than a “Thumbs Up” when you are being photographed, but I won’t criticize Linus for his trivial knowledge gap.
Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.
October 20th, 2009
EvriChart: A Linux Success Story
Tony Maro, CIO of EvriChart, a hospital records management and archiving business, successfully migrated his company’s Windows-based line of business document management extranet application and his employees’ 40-odd Windows-based desktops to a 100 percent Linux-based server and desktop infrastructure.
Jason Perlow interviews Tony Maro, CIO of EvriChart, Inc.
I had the pleasure of speaking to Tony Maro, who is CIO and an owning partner in EvriChart, a medical records management company based out of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
EvriChart had some unique requirements which included replacing a Windows-based line-of-business application for document management that would not scale with the continuing growth of their business. By migrating to a Linux/Open Source-based Web application, it paved the way for full desktop Linux adoption at his company. I asked Tony to summarize his experience so that I could share it with you in the hopes that you might gain some valuable insight from the process he had to go through.
Next –>
October 20th, 2009
Who's a candidate for Desktop Linux? Your Kids.
“Hannah Montana Linux” may not be ready to give to your kids yet, but it’s an idea that has legs.
My partner in crime in the Frugal Tech Show, Ken Hess, who blogs over at Daniweb, recently published his list of Top 10 Linux Distributions for 2009. His readers gave him a lot of feedback due to the exclusion of some of their favorites, so he published a second piece, a “Reader’s Choice” list of their Top 10 based on their submissions.
One of the distributions on that list that caught my eye was “Hannah Montana Linux”. No, I’m not joking.
Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.
Jason Perlow is a technologist with over two decades of experience integrating large heterogeneous multi-vendor computing environments in Fortune 500 companies. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations. Follow Jason Perlow and Tech Broiler on Twitter!
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