Tech Blog

Man Overboard: GNOME Cofounder Joins the Mac Side
March 11, 2013

It seems that the FOSS community sees its ranks expand just about every day, as new fans of free and open source software join the fold. What's much less common is to see former advocates of Linux and FOSS change their minds and depart. That's pretty much what happened last week, when GNOME cofounder Miguel de Icaza announced that he had abandoned desktop Linux in favor of Apple's Mac platform.

IBM's Big Bet on Cloud Analytics
March 08, 2013

A growing number of established and emerging software and technology vendors are seeking to take advantage of the convergence of Big Data and the cloud. None has made a bigger bet than IBM. Since 2005, IBM has spent more than $16 billion on 35 acquisitions to boost its analytics capabilities. The company is hoping that this investment will generate approximately $20 billion in annual sales.

China Starts Arm Wrestling Android
March 07, 2013

Android -- and, by extension, Google -- has too much control over China's smartphone industry, according to a white paper from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Android is used by handset manufacturers such as Huawei and ZTE, as well as Samsung, which has a solid footprint in China.

The Puzzling Case of the Chromebook Pixel
March 07, 2013

Here in the Linux blogosphere, most fans of FOSS are nothing if not outspoken with their many opinions. Those opinions tend to be unequivocal on matters large and small, so it's always notable when a new technology comes along that leaves bloggers scratching their heads in uncertainty. That's a rarity, needless to say, but just recently a shining example emerged: the Chromebook Pixel.

Open Source's Deep Dive Into the Enterprise
March 06, 2013

Server provisioning and configuration management and automation are the latest examples of where the tech industry is being driven, largely by open source software. The leading open source server and IT infrastructure automation frameworks, Opscode Chef and Puppet Labs' Puppet, sit on the leading edge of significant trends under way in enterprise IT.

For Microsoft, There's Something Costly in Denmark
March 05, 2013

Little Denmark is looking for a big check. In one of the biggest tax cases in the history of the Scandinavian country with a population of 5.5 million, the Danish tax authority is seeking $1 billion from Microsoft in back taxes. The case stems from Microsoft's 2002 purchase of Danish software company Navision.

VCE's Next Wave of Innovation
March 05, 2013

Taken together, VCE's recently announced new offerings qualify as a generational step forward not only for the company, but also for the cause of converged infrastructures and, most importantly, for VCE customers and partners. Prior to this, the company's Vblocks delivered dramatic improvements in common data center metrics.

Lights, Camera, Console: Xbox Live Premieres Its 1st Original Movie
March 04, 2013

A comedy film called Pulp will skip theaters and DVDs and instead premiere on the Xbox 360 -- the first time a feature-length film has ever been distributed exclusively on the video game console. The film chronicles the adventures of a comic book publisher recruited by police to stop a crime syndicate.

IBM: Giving Open a Smarter Strategic Advantage
March 04, 2013

IBM just announced SmartCloud Orchestrator -- a massive open source initiative designed to help companies better balance public and private cloud resources and even switch vendors. This is in sharp contrast to the lock-in strategy that IBM used to found the technology segment -- largely because IBM learned the hard way that lock-in, while tactically sound, is strategically stupid.

Advocating for Linux on the Front Lines and in the Kernel
March 04, 2013

Well March has arrived here in the Linux blogosphere and with it, widespread hopes for the rebirth and renewal of spring. Linux Girl wishes she could say things have been calm and tranquil over the past few days, but of course they haven't -- this is the Linux community we're talking about, after all. There have been many trials and tribulations for Linux fans recently.

China Returns US Cyberattack Volley
March 01, 2013

What, China was just going to say nothing? On the heels of a report that China's military has for years been engaging in cyberespionage against the U.S., China's Ministry of Defense claimed that a pair of its military websites were attacked more than 100,000 times per month in 2012.

The Dollars Are in the Details - and the Details Should Be in CRM
March 01, 2013

The devil is in the details, the saying goes. When it comes to B2B selling, the dollars are also in the details. That's something I learned many years ago while writing about the reseller channel. Back in 2000, the Internet caused significant disruptions of traditional reseller relationships, because many large technology vendors expected online sales to eliminate the need for resellers.

Samsung Shores Up Security to Pluck BlackBerry Biz Users
February 28, 2013

Having established its credentials as a key player in the consumer smartphone world, Samsung is bolstering security to take a stab at business users, a demographic traditionally dominated by BlackBerry. For the past year, Samsung has been beefing up the Android software that powers its smartphones to protect it against malware.

Benioff's Social Proof
February 28, 2013

Salesforce came to New York this week for its annual winter meeting with customers. The company had two goals: test new ideas, and gather customer input. The event was held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel for a relatively small group -- less than 1,000 -- rather than at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, which can accommodate the maintenance facilities for a squadron of F18s.

Apple's Obsession With Simplicity Can Really Complicate Things
February 28, 2013

Apple makes powerful products that do complicated things very simply and easily, and are mostly intuitive. You don't need an owner's manual to figure out how to use most Apple products. Apple aggressively whittles down its products so they become the essence of the most important things they do.

Linux Admin Tips, Tricks and Tools of the Trade
February 28, 2013

Here in the Linux community, most of us enjoy high-level debates about strategies and trends just as much as the next technology enthusiast does. At the end of the day, however, it seems safe to say that what we tend to relish most of all is a good ol' nuts-and-bolts discussion of the tools and tricks of the trade.

UK Police Order Social Nets to Stop Outing Released Child Murderer
February 27, 2013

Police in the UK have ordered Google, Twitter and Facebook to remove photographs claiming to show the recently released murderer of James Bulger, who was killed in Liverpool 20 years ago. In addition to the injunction that bans the photos, authorities threatened Monday to take legal action -- in the form of fines or even jail time -- against individuals posting photos of the murderer.

Planting Seeds of Injustice
February 26, 2013

At the oral argument in Bowman v. Monsanto, Chief Justice Roberts cut off Bowman's attorney seconds into his delivery, questioning his thesis, which undermined the purposes of patent law. "Why in the world would anybody spend any money to try to improve the seed if as soon as they sold the first one anybody could grow more and have as many of those seeds as they want?"

Facebook Blocks Millions of Photos From Instagram-Like App
February 26, 2013

Step aside, Google: Now it's Facebook's turn to take flak from France. A few months back, France demanded that Google pay for displaying links to French media's news articles. Next, a French Internet service provider demanded that Google pay extra for bandwidth consumed by YouTube.

North Korea Widens 3G Coverage - for Outsiders Only
February 25, 2013

North Korea is modernizing its technologies -- as only North Korea can. Foreigners are now able to bring their phones -- with the caveat that they must purchase North Korean sim cards upon arrival. Now Koryolink, a North Korean mobile phone provider, plans to launch a 3G data service -- but only foreigners can use it.