Logikworx
Yahoo, the company, not it's board
Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly....
...and we all know how that ended.
The same seems to be about to play out in the Redmond vs. Sunnyvale drama, with Microsoft being the spider, and Yahoo! taking up the role of the fly.
In my SmallBizVista Editorial, I look critically at the issue as it stands today.
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We have all seen those commercials/infomercials about noise canceling headphones all over the TV and in print.
Well, do not buy it.
Why?
The Able Planet NC1000CH Clear Harmony headphones with active noise cancellation handily beats it in performance, comfort, and cost.
I have been testing the Able Planet Clear Harmony active noise-canceling Headphones.
At the 2008 CES, I had the opportunity to try out the Able Planet Clear Harmony headphones, and I was impressed with two things: the clarity of the material being delivered me, and the very perceptible volume of the same material when active noise canceling was turned on. In fact, I had to do an audio double take between the Bose QuietComfort headphones and the Clear Harmony in order to make sure I was not being schniedered in any way.
Recently, I received the Clear Harmony to review.
As a frequent traveler, I wanted to see if the Clear Harmony could deliver on sound clarity and comfort on long trips. Secondarily, I also wanted to test for audio performance using home audio equipment for a follow-on review.
Conclusion
I enjoyed using the Able Planet Clear Harmony.
In this hotly contested field, it is surprising that the Able Planet Clear Harmony would be able to best a Bose product.
Then again, Able Planet has been in the business of providing superior hearing devices from its inception as a company providing hearing aids. The use of their patented LINX AUDIO™ technology no doubt gives them a great advantage over other manufacturers.
Based on my review of this product, and the very visible benefit to frequent travelers and businesses, I am awarding it the SmallBizVista.com Preferred award, and making it the recommended noise canceling headphone choice for our clients.
Really?
A better title should be:
In a post last week, on St. Valentine’s Day no less, Chris Pirillo states his 50 reasons to switch from Windows (any version?) to OS X.
After getting past his preamble about neutrality, he delivers his thoughts.
Actually, we are supposed to take his thoughts as neutral, since, in his opening statements he declared his relationships with some sponsors. Feel free to ingest a grain/several grains of salt with his recommendations.
I have taken it upon myself to provide a public service by attempting to debunk some of the outright errors, factual errors, product plugs, and gross misconceptions in his beliefs.
There you have it: an impassionate dissection of his reasons.
What did I find?
A few – total 5 good, true, or valid points.
Or 8%
8%!
He is true in his declaration that the article was not an Apple lovefest.
It was worse than that.
Without meaning to be invidious, the only thing I can say about the article is that he did his sponsors proud.
Who knew?
I have been testing Microsoft Windows Vista™ SP1 for the past several months.
Windows Vista SP1 is a worthy compatibility and optimization pack to Windows Vista. It is NOT a replacement for Windows Vista.
Contrary to the either uninformed writings of some so-called tech pundits, and the unprepared CYA rants of lazy IT administrators, it was NOT necessary to wait for SP1.
A year ago, the 'WOW' was born.
Windows Vista was released into general availability.
The rest is history: about 100 million units sold, new sales records, etc, etc.
Happy Birthday, Windows Vista.
Today, I received my first quad-core review system, a Dell PowerEdge 1900 server powered by dual Intel Xeon E5310 processors.
A few days ago, St. Steve of Jobs revealed the latest from the minds of the loops at 1, Infinite Loop, the Macbook Air.
Baldwin Ng, Senior Program manager for the Microsoft Assessment & Planning Solutions Accelerator is interviewed by David Tesar of TechNet Edge in this two-part video.
Part one:
Part two:
At the 2008 CES, I was given an opportunity to test a production HP Pavilion tx2000z Entertainment Tablet PC*.
What a delight!
The exclusive HP case is replicated here. Dubbed ‘Echo’ this black, high-gloss, imprinted finish is aesthetically pleasant, a departure from the mostly utilitarian choices out there.
It still has the same number of ports, the dual microphones, the webcam integrated into the lid, and that distinctive and most usable of touchpads.
This review unit came with Microsoft Windows Vista™ x64 installed with the full 4GB of RAM.
HP is listening
The change to an active digitizer is a sure sign of that. Over the late summer, HP asked for feedback from the community, and I am pleased that they incorporated that into this system, while keeping the price low. I commend HP for not resting on their laurels, and immediately coming out with an upgrade, knowing that competitors must have their copiers running full blast.
Since one of the most visible upgrades in the tx2000 series was the change to an active digitizer, I immediately opened up Microsoft Office OneNote in an attempt to see how well this system performs.
The use of an active digitizer optimizes the touchscreen user experience, allowing for better inking. As with all hybrid/convertible Tablet PCs, the tx2000’s touchscreen rotates 180 degrees for conversion to slate mode.
I was able to write, doodle, draw, and perform a variety of tasks that would have been somewhat laborious with its predecessor.
One of the design targets of this system is for use as an entertainment PC. There, this machine shines. The HP QuickPlay software, coupled with the included remote control offer access to a numerous combination of entertainment options, with the microphones, webcam, and media stored on the hard drive or integrated DVD drive – with LightScribe versions available.
An innovative feature of the extended battery in this system is the way it functions as a grip when the Tablet is in slate mode. Very nice.
While the tx2000 is developed as an entertainment Tablet PC, this system’s appeal goes well beyond that. I definitely see it as the ideal system for students, and other professionals with a requirement to acquire and save drawings, notes, and inking. Healthcare providers, realtors, and insurance agents immediately come to mind.
My thanks to Terri Stratton of TheTabletPC.net and Michael Reyes of HardwareGeeks.com for the use of their review units for this preview.
The HardwareGeeks.com review is here and you can find TheTabletPC.net’s review here.
I eagerly await my own review unit in order to test in our own usability scenarios, and bring the results of those tests to you.
*As I informed you of here, the tx2000 series units are the evolutionary upgrades to the class-defining HP tx1000 series which won both the SmallBizVista.com Editor’s Award, and the much-coveted HardwareGeeks.com Editor’s Choice Award.
At CES, I was briefed on the Logitech WiLife, a Windows-based video security system.
On the heels of Gizmondo's extremely stupid remedial pranks at CES 2008, comes news that some sites are proclaiming that the next release of Windows, currently dubbed Windows 7, will be released in H2 of 2009.
Seriously, when is enough, enough?
When Microsoft capitulated after that incredibly imbecilic decision by the milquetoasts at the stupidly misnamed Court of First Instance in Europe, I sounded the alarm. (I even delivered an ode to that kangaroo court.)
16. Set a credible baseline hardware requirement for functional UE scenarios. Remember that OEMs right now can create the most basic, and basically, useless configurations, and offload buyer angst at Microsoft. I seem to remember somewhere that the Windows Mobile people got the message, and are vowing to limit certifications of Windows Mobile devices to those that would deliver a realistic user experience to buyers henceforth. The Windows client team would do well to require that sort of baseline, or a very visible disclaimer as well.
17. Create a series of reference designs embodying the most forward-thinking innovations in the desktop, notebook, Origami, and server spaces., and use them as a cudgel to move stale and environmentally unfriendly design forward
18. Use data collected by crash reports or the CEIP to create a database of programs to be SoftGrid’d. The usefulness of application virtualization cannot be understated. I would like Microsoft to use the collected data to create a database of SoftGrid containers for the most problematic 10,000 programs as reported to the databases for inclusion in either the next service pack or the next version of Windows, eliminating a source of customer anger.
19. Use the same data to expose bad software OEMs, either directly or using a proxy. I volunteer.
20. Expand the role and visibility of the Microsoft Solutions Accelerators program. While I know the wonks on the SA team have enough on their plates, I feel the gongs have not pealed loudly enough yet. This program is a godsend. It is my opinion that were evangelists sent out with the MSDN, TS2, and TechNet teams to proselytize the usefulness of the components of the Solutions Accelerators, much of the annoyance directed at Microsoft by IT pros in this Windows Vista migration era would abate, since these solutions would greatly ease, and in some cases, completely automate migratory tasks.
21. Improve and increase the current SkyDrive offerings. Seamless integration with Hotmail should be task #1 for SkyDrive. To a lot of users, it would represent Web 2.0 nirvana: Windows Live ID, mail, Office Workspace, collaboration, instant messaging.
22. Improve the stickiness of the Windows Live properties by adding usable VOIP phone services, or even a GrandCentral-like service, and a working Internet fax gateway such as j2.com offers.
23. Re-do Windows Search completely. Search as it currently is in Windows Vista, frankly, sucks! The UI is flawed, non-customizable, slow, and worst of all, the results are inconsistent. I get better results opening up a command line and entering in the search parameters there. Do I need to add that indexing is the mother of resource hogs?
I am in receipt of this device which marries a touchscreen GPS, contact manager, and a portable media player.
Just ahead of the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, in Las Vegas, Nevada, HP announced a space of new products including a update to my favorite lapper, the HP tx2000z Tablet PC.
Last week I was at the Microsoft Windows Consumer Experience space in New York City.
At this event, primarily targeted at the consumer, as the name proclaims, I saw the directions being embarked upon by manufacturers in the notebook space and also in the gaming and all-in-one systems space.
My takeaway: watch out!
These systems represent the vanguard of a new thought process in delivering products in the PC space, with great design being in lockstep with engineering.
I demo-ed the following systems:
For a while now, CRN seems to have hopelessly lost its way.
Formerly required reading for VARs, solution providers, and (IT) industry luminaries, CRN, in the last few seems to have overindulged in the myth of open source, and totally forgot about their ultimate customers, the endusers.
Any reader of the magazine these past few years would have seen a transition from a glossy focused on resellers/solution providers delivering the best solutions, to one seemingly held hostage to that vocal minority of resellers hell bent on wringing the very last sum of money from unsuspecting clients in the name of services.
What brings this to mind?
A so-called study finding that Windows Vista ™ is no more secure than Windows XP™.
???
Are you freakin’ kiddin’ me?
I skimmed quickly through the article for the punchline, and or to find the methodology use to formulate those absurd assertions.
Nothing satisfactory.
Note: Looking at my feedreader, I see Ars Technica has already posted on the article.
Since they beat me to the punch with a pretty detailed article, I will keep still for a moment.
Still, you have to wonder who is minding the store there.
I wonder why executive management at the parent company does not put a smackdown on these yum-yums due to falling readership.
Brings me back to the headline question:
"Will CRN become the next Infoworld?"
And fade into irrelevancy?
What a shame!
OpenVMS?
Are you freakin' kiddin'?
In this Computerworld.com article, Dave Harrold, a lead systems administrator for a health care provider that he asked not be named is fretting about the end-of-(vendor) life of the OpenVMS operating system.
The company has four AlphaServers with 32 processors each that support Cerner Corp.’s Millennium medical applications.
Harrold said Cerner would like his company to move to HP-UX, Hewlett-Packard’s version of Unix, running on Itanium-based servers.
But he noted that he and other IT staffers aren’t familiar with HP-UX and that moving to it would require a database upgrade from Oracle 9i to Oracle 10g.
For any migration to a different platform, “there isn’t a seamless path,” Harrold said.
Just how many things are wrong with this dolt's statement. Not to mention his company's position on preserving a dead system architecture.
Harry, AlphaServers and Alpha processors are D-I-D, DEAD, you moron!
You and IT staffers are not familiar with HP-UX? That is what schools are for, you freak!
I cannot imagine why everyone at his company starting from old Harry above shouldn't be summarily fired for dereliction of duty, and drawing a paycheck.
The CEO head monkey in that zoo should also be banned from heading a company with a payroll greater than one!
DEC's VMS was ported to Alpha back in 1991, for goodness sakes, dum-dum!
Also hasn't it been like ten years since Compaq purchased DEC?
This idiot and his crew have been feeding at the iron rice bowl of VMS for quite a while.
And you wonder why healthcare costs are so high?
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®