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Dell abandons PDA development???

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Somebody wake me up!

Is dell still in the PDA business?

Their sad offerings have been eyesores for a while now, and now they finally pull the plug? What was the big event?

Apart from price, there was zero valueadd going with a Dell PDA.

Absolutely Z-E-R-O!

Design was an afterthought. There weren't any gee-whiz features. Even the stale design had been frozen for a while.

One would have thought that with Dell's reach, they could have morphed into a sorta MVNO for data services, a definite value-add, IMO.

HP sales droids for enterprises must be drooling in their sleep now that they will have a another entreport into Dell customers. (Apart from flaming laptops, that is.)

Nigeria orders 1 million $100 laptop computers???

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Why???

For all the good things Gen. Obasanjo has done, this is the most boneheaded decision I have seen come out of his administration.

What a joke!

For what?

A wanker using an OS tha no one wants or needs.

When these kids grow up, what, just what, are they going to use as their primary system?

Whatever flava' of Linux is available?

What a mess.

A real Godo-Godo idea!
© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

UK Requirement???

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Don't look now, but those advance fee fraud artists are at it again.

Popularly known as the Nigerian 419 fraud, advance fee fraud involves con artists defrauding greedy, gullible and, IMO, potential co-conspirators of a "fee" paid in advance for a fraudulent money transfer, lottery, or other get-rich-quick scheme.

The latest?

Country-by-country "requirements" for participating in the Bill Gates Foundation giveaway!

Can you fu*king believe the gall of these scammers?

A shame, that innocent Nigerians would be tarred by their cons.
Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Feedback Props

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Gotta give props when due.

This 'Holla' goes to both the Vista & Longhorn Beta, Office 2007 beta , Windows Live QnA beta, and Windows Live OneCare support crews.

Responses has been nothing short of speedy. With real answers by real people, not some canned answers by moronic droids without a clue.

Since it is against their company policy to list individuals, I am sending mad props to the entire crews involved.

Mad, mad props!
Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Vista Power-User SKU?

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In a post today at her Microsoft Watch website, Microsoft Analyst Mary Jo Foley talks about advanced users clammoring for a Vistatm Power-User SKU.

What a coincidence.

Since I believe that same question was asked at some of the private Vista briefings I attended at CES 2006 in Las Vegas this January.

Microsoft, heed this: We want our Power-User SKU!
Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

J.A. Adande on Barry Bonds

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J. A. Adande, a sports columnist with the Los Angeles Times, is a person that I mostly agree with his opinions about 0.1% ot the time, especially his, IMO, penchant for ripping KB24, the NBA star formerly known as Ko8e.

However, in this article, Adande hit it right on the head about the rumors of Barry Bonds' looming federal indictment for perjury and tax evasion.

He also, correctly, I might add, asks a poignant question that seems to be ducked by members of the press, which I will paraphrase as, "Apart from the fact that Lance Armstrong is liked by the media, what is the difference between his case and Bonds'?"

I would even go far as to say that Bonds has never had a sample test positive, as Armstrong's was, despite the fact that the results were dismissed, not for their veracity, but for some procedural errors.

What can I say?
© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Windows Live Mail Desktop now in public beta

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Windows Live Mail Center, formerly known as Windows Live Mail Desktop, has been moved out of a very private (meaning Yours Truly wasn't in it) beta into the public beta realm.

Hive member Sidebar Geek, not only provided the link, but has an interview with Lewis Lin, Product Planner of the WLMC, and PM of Windows Live Custom Domains.

Enjoy.

BTW, this IS the product that should be shipping with Windows Vistatm, not the included Windows Mail client.

Also, Lewis Lin, while he does not know me from Adam, Eve, or man+dog, is on my @#$% list since I was not in on his beta
Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Piracy? What Piracy?

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John Battelle, in his Searchblog, has this article about an acquaintance who finds that Battelle’s book, The Search is on the street-vendor’s bestseller list in….Mumbai (Bombay)!

Can you imagine?

I like Battelle’s view of this, “……how cool is it that The Search is a street bestseller in Mumbai?! Do I care about the piracy? No. No, no no. I care that someone in Mumbai cared enough to rip it off, and that someone there might be reading my stuff. That is just cool. Commercial markets always follow the free, or, well, the pirates in this case. Always.”

A lot of good will be served if people realize that about emerging countries.
Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

Discovery Lands in Florida

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Welcome home, People!

A few minutes ago, the Space Shuttle Discovery made a safe landing at Cape Canaveral, in Florida.

Hello!!!

I cannot be happier!

This has turned out to be a very good weekend for me: my son Trevor getting baptized, having a combined baptismal and late birthday party for him, seeing family members and friends, no more soccer on TV, Michael Schumacher winning at Magny Cours, and now Discovery coming home.


Praise the Lord! Amen!

Virtual PC is now free!

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Microsoft's Virtual PC product, both the currently shipping Virtual PC 2004, and the forthcoming Virtual PC 2007 and later versions, are now, and will be free!

This is a huge, huge announcement.

When the announcement was made on April 3, about the freedom of Virtual Server, I wondered why Virtual PC was not included. At the time, it seemed that Microsoft was still playing defense, trying to emulate EMC's freeing of their VMWare Server product.

Now they seem to be going forward with a lot more verve, and risking failure, a position which seemed to have altogether vanished from Microsoft over the past few years, when risk-aversion seemed to have come to the fore, both in products, and strategy.

Thanks, Microsoft.

About time, as well!

We really need you to be a more daring in moving computing forward. The rise of GOOG and all the other (current) media 'Ho's' darlings is entirely due to you having seeded the innovative ensign to them, our ostrich-like fight for you notwithstanding.

Kudos to your Windows Live team for not laying down the innovation colors.

In briefings with members of that team courtesy of The Hive at both privately at CES 2006 and at the Vista Beta Labs, what I can tell you (definitely not under NDA) is that those guys and gals are brimming with extremely brilliant and useful ideas. An indication of this is the amount of Windows Live products that have gone gold in the past few.

Heaven help their competitors when those ideas go gold.

Really.

Download link for Virtual PC 2004 SP1 is here.

Props to Hive member Sidebar Geek for breaking this, and Hive moderator Waggler for headlining it.
Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

Da Basement II

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I had thought I would be able to leave Da Basement by the 17th, but now it looks that it is definitel going to be extended for one more week, until July 24th.

What can I say: I (seem) to take a lot of downtime because I have a lot of downtime.
© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows