Intel’s 64-bit Itanium processor never got much respect from the mainstream enterprise server buyer. A set of more established 64-bit chips based on the RISC architecture, the rapid evolution of the 32-bit x86 architecture – and then the 64-bit x86 extensions pioneered by AMD – kept the VLIW-based Itanium in a money-losing niche for ten […]
Trying to figure out this email. Is it spam? Is it business correspondence? It came to an obsolescent personal email address. The name of the sender doesn’t appear to match the name on the email address. Needless to say, there’s nothing in my fax machine. Here’s the message: From: “Mr. bobe” Date: November 18, 2009 […]
Adorable blog today posting today, by Christoph Niemann in the New York Times: Bio-Diversity. Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick
My brain is trying to wrap itself around two of today’s news items. The first is by SD Times reporter David Worthington, reporting from the Microsoft Professional Development Conference. His story, “Azure shines over Microsoft PDC,” covered the announcement on Windows Azure, now set to ship on Jan. 1, 2010. Windows Azure represents Microsoft’s extension […]
“Dirt. Noise. Crowds. Delays. Scary smells. Even scarier fluids swirling on the floor. There are lots of reasons to loathe the New York City subway, but one very good reason to love it — Helvetica, the typeface that’s used on its signage.” So begins “Mistakes in Typography Grate the Purists,” an excellent essay in the […]
The irony is ironic: Amazon.co.uk won’t accept payment from a U.S.-based Amazon credit card. But the online retailing service will accept other U.S.-based credit cards. Our family possesses an Amazon.com Visa card, used mainly to buy things on Amazon.com. We like the cash-back rewards on Amazon purchases. The Amazon card is offered through Chase. This […]
The box-office draw of the lawsuit between Intel and Advanced Micro Devices has been small but consistent. The companies have been embroiled in legal claims and counterclaims for many years. Now, the suits are apparently over, with Intel agreeing to pay US$1.25 billion to shut up its competitor. Talk about a letdown!AMD has done a […]
A few weeks ago, in “Can you trust the integrity of your data,” I wrote about the potential for shenanigans with a new computer-controlled watt-hour meter that a local electric utility installed at my home. The worry: My bill might go up. That, my friends, may only be the tip of the iceberg. We’ve all […]
“Welcome to Toronto!” said the cheerful flight attendant. “Voice rate is $.79/min; data is $15.36/MB. Unlimited domestic plans do NOT apply,” said the happy text message from AT&T Wireless. Not wanting to purchase a data plan for over a hundred dollars, and being unwilling to pay $15 per megabyte without a plan, I decided to […]
Jolt Cola may be gone forever from supermarket shelves. Fortunately, I’ve got quite a few hypercaffeinated bottles stashed away. Jolt Cola is the mascot of the Jolt Awards, which originated at Miller Freeman’s Computer Language Magazine in 1990. (I was one of the founders of the awards, and served as a Jolt Judge for many […]
It’s a given that spammers don’t put a lot of effort into filtering their lists to ensure that their marketing messages reach a specific target audience. Thus, the subject line on a spam received today by my friend Andrew: Did you suffer a Gallbladder injury while using Birth Control? Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick
Today is Windows 7 Day. What better way to celebrate than to remember the two Windows desktop genealogies? Let’s begin with the long-forgotten family that started out as a graphical shell for DOS: Windows 1.0Windows 2.0Windows 3.0Windows 3.1Windows 3.11Windows for Workgroups 3.11Windows 95Windows 98Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me) Then there’s the “New Technology” family, based […]
Attention PR and marketing professionals: An announcement that your Windows products support Windows 7 is not news. It’s fairly safe to assume that every company with Windows desktop products is making darned sure that those products run on Windows 7. The fact that your specific product runs on Windows 7 on Day 1 is not […]
This is one iPhone app that I won’t be purchasing, even for 99 cents. But I got a laugh from the press release. Subj: iPhone App to Serve Up Chicken WingsWhat’s everyone Kluckin’ about? NEW YORK, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire/ — Kluckr Communications announces today the launch of an iPhone app that will appeal to the […]
This year’s most coveted Christmas toy should be Tweet Me Elmo. But as far as I can tell, nobody has developed one. What would Tweet Me Elmo do? When you squeeze his furry tummy, Elmo says, “Won’t you friend me?” “Having lots of followers is fun!” “What are you doing right now? “Let’s count backward […]
“Symantec Offers New Service Delivery Model that Helps Ensure Specific Business Outcomes” That’s the headline of a press release received today from Symantec. My hat is off to the company’s marketing copywriters, whose prose is 100% buzzword compliant, but doesn’t appear to say anything. Here is the first paragraph: MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – October 21, […]
This afternoon, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. installed a new electric meter at our home. The SmartMeter reports its data over the powerlines – and can be remotely controlled by the utility company. Now, we’re not sure if we can trust our energy bills. In the old days, before things were networked, possession of your […]
“Sir, your reservation is correct. That’s what it says in the computer,” the young lady said for the fifth time, pointing at her screen. I was at the Hertz rental desk at New York’s JFK Airport on Tuesday, picking up a car for my regular trip to BZ Media’s Long Island offices. The return flight […]
Break out the bubbly! My blog, Z Trek, has made the “Top 200 Tech Blogs: The Datamation 2009 List,” published on Monday. My humble blog scored #186, with the description: 186) Z Trek: The Alan Zeichick WeblogIT, software development, security, and networking, with a touch of humor from the Bay Area consultant-editor. Yay, me! You […]
“The Status of the P versus NP Problem” is the title of an excellent paper in September’s Communications of the ACM. For many developers, it may be a look at the world you live in, where solving complicated problems in a reasonable amount of time may be easy – or it may be difficult. For […]
My hats are off to the gang at GameStreamer for today’s press release. I have no idea about the games, but who cares? They’ve got a great sense of humor, and have delivered a solid marketing message. GameStreamer, Inc. Today Announced a New Plan to Keep America Cool, Starting With Congress GameStreamer vows to arm […]
“I love it when a plan comes together.” Those were the memorial words spoken during many episodes of “The A-Team,” a U.S. television show than ran from 1983 through 1986. During the show, a group of good-hearted Army veterans would ride to the rescue of an opposed. The word “ride” is meant literally, as the […]
The CueCat is the archetype of the bad business model. Ted Bahr (the “B” of BZ Media) and I often wave off a bad business model as “it’s another CueCat,” which is about as blanket a dismissal as you can have. Do you remember the CueCat? It was a cute little barcode scanner – shaped […]
We purchased the Playstation 3 in May 2008, for the primary purpose of watching Blu-Ray movies. At $399, a 40GB PS3 was the same price as a dedicated Blu-Ray player. (You can read the story here.)For the first year, we enjoyed the hi-def movie experience. Since the summer, however, the movie images had been deteriorating, […]
When checking one of my bank accounts, I noted that my surname displayed on the welcome screen was misspelled, as “Zeicnick.” I wrote to the bank’s customer service dept., thinking that my name was somehow wrong in the account database. The reply came in under 30 minutes, which is impressive. The response, however, is puzzling. […]
Where’s the scam here? This messages, like many scam message, came in from one free email service (Yahoo), but has a reply-to address at another (Gmail). I believe the Yahoo addresses was forged. The recipient list was suppressed, and it came to one of my personal email addresses. How’s this scam work, do you think? […]
It’s 3,613 miles from Honolulu to San Francisco. If you’re driving, it’ll take you 14 days 19 hours. Be sure to leave plenty of time for kayaking, as you go from the Turtle Bay Hilton in Waikiki (near Diamond Head) to Seattle. Don’t ask why we were asking Google Maps for directions from Honolulu to […]
It’s time to hire some new software developers, folks! I was checking out the Extended Stay America hotel in Bethpage, New York — it’s not far from BZ Media’s headquarters on Long Island. When going for a virtual room tour, I was stopped dead by the system requirements: System Requirements for Surround Video: For Windows: […]
I made the mistake of wandering over to the News-Computer blog home page, and have wasted too much time there. Here are some of the lead paragraphs for the latest stories published here. These are clearly stories that were machine-translated from English to another language (I think Russian) and then back again. (See my previous […]
Talk about “lost in machine translation.” I was pointed to this interesting page, http://news-computer.com/page_all_1.html, which you may enjoy as much as I did. (Websites are lacework sites!) The lead story on the page, “Technology News: Social Networking: A Week of Free Updates, Free Advice and Free Speech,” begins with, That could be a copious poser […]