Cloud computing took a big hit this week amid two significant service outages. The biggest one, at least as it affects enterprise computing, is the eight-hour failure of Amazon’s Simple Storage Service. Check out the Amazon Web Services service health dashboard, and then select Amazon S3 in the United States for July 20. You’ll see […]
Disk defragmenting is generally good thing. However, some would argue that depending on the file system and disk access patterns on your rotating media, any performance improvements aren’t worth the effort. Take the Macintosh, for example. In “Defragmenting your Mac’s hard disk,” updated just yesterday. Apple says that The file system used on Macintosh computers […]
To my son’s everlasting dismay, I stumbled across the Potter Puppet Pals videos on YouTube over the weekend. He’s embarrassed because I think think these videos are cute, particularly the episode, “The Mysterious Ticking Noise.” The tune is catchy! Watch it a) if you have speakers and b) if you have 2:06 to waste. Neil […]
My family really enjoyed The Dark Knight, which we saw at 10:00 am on Saturday. The movie deserved all of its many accolades. We prepared for the film by re-watching Batman Begins the week before. However, if you truly want to get into the mood for the latest Batman movie, you should watch Bat Thumb, […]
I love this press release headline: “Q2 Search Engine Performance Report: Google gets $1.10 of Every New Search Dollar.“ How can someone get more than 100% of the money spent? Has Google reinvented statistics? Is this gMath? The press release came from Efficient Frontier, a search engine marketing company. While the headline is weird, it […]
The new songs from Journey on their 2008 album, Revelation, are a delight. Okay, I’ve never left the 1970s and 1980s — queue up Bowling for Soup’s catchy song, 1985. Even so, it was with some trepidation that we ordered Revelation, the new disc by Journey. Would the band sound like Journey, or like a […]
How long does a Sunbeam Mixmaster last? Based on three data points, the answer is, “Twenty five years.” Today, our trusty Mixmaster’s motor died. My wife and I purchased it right after we got married, 25 years ago. It was sad to see it go away. So many memories, so many cakes! When we got […]
Microsoft has very quietly pushed back the date when it will discontinue its support for Windows XP. The new cutoff date is August 4, 2014. The decision came without fanfare; you won’t find an official announcement. But on a page called “Windows XP: The facts about the future,” Microsoft now says that “After careful consultation […]
Submarines are fascinating — well, I’ve always enjoyed studying big naval vessels like submarines, aircraft carriers and battleships. Touring museum ships like the USS Missouri, USS Massachusetts, USS Intrepid, USS Hornet, HMS Belfast, SS Jeremiah O’Brien, USS Pampanito, USS Constitution, and many other ships have created powerful memories. Of course, the monument to the USS […]
I was a lot younger on July 18, 1968. We all were – and many of you weren’t even born when the company that changed the world was founded. Intel has become a powerhouse since Gordon Moore (of Moore’s Law fame) and Robert Noyce created the company. Starting out manufacturing RAM chips, the company – […]
What the heck does ‘teh fail’ mean? A technical writer, who I think is in her mid-20s, mentioning in passing that she was teh FAIL at something. My immediate thought, of course, is that she made a typo, and meant to write “the fail.” But that didn’t make sense in context. So, I did what […]
Remember SCO? Judge Dale Kimball does. And so does Novell. It’s been a while since I’ve written about SCO. But my last entry on the subject, “The SCO Group files Chapter 11,” didn’t mean that the case was closed. Au contraire. Yesterday (July 16), Judge Kimball issued a ruling that covered a wide range of […]
My friend sent me this wonderful video of her dogs discovering, destroying and devouring a box of dog bones… Even if you’re not a dog person, you’ve got to admit, they’re adorable. That is, if you can consider huge Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs to be adorable! See that only one of the dogs (Juno) is […]
This badly written faux story came in a couple of months ago from a company that sells writing software. It looks like news, but it’s a company-issued press release. Below is a straight copy/paste. I left in the numerous grammatical and punctuation errors. How many can you find? This really makes you wonder about the […]
Gizmodo, the irreverent gadget site, did a great job with this one. The story, “Apple Cancels All iPhone 3G Orders, Releases iBrick 3G,” starts: Cupertino, California (Agencies). In a surprising move that is set to stun consumers all over the world, Apple has cancelled all orders for the iPhone 3G today. People who already bought […]
Walmart needs to pay more attention to its Web site. My wife and I wanted to purchase the new Journey CD, Revelation, which is currently only available at Walmart. Last week, while in Las Vegas, we stopped at a Walmart store looking for the CD, but it was out of stock. No problem, we decided: […]
United Airlines has joined the chorus of organizations blaming speculators for the dramatic rise in fuel prices. Yes, prices are higher. Yes, there are more speculators. That doesn’t make a cause-and-effect. Perhaps there are more speculators because prices are rising — not vice-versa. That’s not the politically correct viewpoint, because it’s attractive to find a […]
There’s a lot you can do while you’re waiting to get your iPhone 3G. You can browse the enterprise applications on the Apple App Store, for example. Or you can check out the games. I received a press release for one last week: Griptonite Games today announced its exclusive Chimps Ahoy! game will be available […]
What should one do on a hot summer week’s vacation? Go someplace hotter! From Saturday through Thursday, my wife and I hung out in Las Vegas, while our son attended a music workshop in Los Angeles. The temperatures in Las Vegas were high, never dipping into double digits. Most days, the temp hovered around 105-107. […]
It’s been a good day for many Apple fans, and a bad day for many other Apple fans. I’ve been watching today’s launch of the iPhone 3G, and also covering it in my Mac-specific blog hosted on TechWeb’s bMighty. For my detailed observations, based on visits to two nearby AT&T stores, I’ll refer you to […]
The Aribeco Observatory — the world’s largest radio telescope — is an essential tool for basic scientific research. It’s the home base for SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, and the source of data for the SETI@home program. Founded in 1963, the Puertan Rican facility is well known for its affiliation with Cornell University and […]
Let’s say that there’s a magazine in your market that says it has 100,000 qualified subscribers. So, you buy an ad in that publication, believing that your ad will reach, at minimum, 100,000 subscribers. Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t. Maybe they only have 90,000 subscribers. Maybe they only have 10,000. Not all publishers are […]
It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Portable Document Format. Thanks to PDF, you can distribute documents to people – and they can read it without knowing what type of application created it. Consider the world before PDF’s debut in 1990. If someone sent you a legal contract to review, and it was created […]
I’m happy to share this public service announcement.SAME COMPANY, SAME MISSION, DIFFERENT NAME Greater Dallas Chamber becomes Dallas Regional Chamber DALLAS (June 30, 2008)… The Greater Dallas Chamber is changing its name to the Dallas Regional Chamber. This name change better aligns the name with the mission. The name change transition will begin July 14 […]
The Windows NT kernel and architecture, which are at the heart of Windows XP and Windows Vista, are getting more bloated all the time. Packed with every conceivable feature, Windows is home to a huge numbers of different APIs and programming models, object formats and legacy shim layers. Microsoft needs a reboot — a fresh […]
As of July 1 (tomorrow), it is illegal for a car driver to use a handheld phone in California, thanks to two new laws. The Calif. Dept. of Motor Vehicles has a wireless telephone laws FAQ. Here’s an excerpt. Q: What is the difference between the two laws?A: The first prohibits all drivers from using […]
Do you have a Kindle Wireless Reading Device? I don’t. One reason, quite frankly, is price. I couldn’t justify shelling out $399 for the device, sight unseen. Amazon has just cut the price of the Kindle by 10%. But even so, I can’t justify paying $359 for an e-Book reader. Of course, that’s not the […]
A friend, chatting via instant messenger yesterday, referred to the need to go deal with some e-mal. It was a typo for e-mail, of course, but e-mal instantly resonated as a malapropism. When you get into your office in the morning or after lunch, and find dozens (or hundreds) of new messages dancing around your […]
The Eclipse Ganymede release train rolls out tomorrow, June 25. As part of the festivities, the Eclipse Foundation is having a movie poster conference. There are 35 great posters available, and you can even vote for your favorite. Sadly, I didn’t realize about the voting until now — and the polls close about 15 minutes […]
Ganymede, the big Eclipse release train, leaves the station tomorrow, June 25. And what a release train it is, encompassing 23 separate projects (new or updated) and 18 million lines of code. This is the fifth year in a row that the Eclipse Foundation has a huge simultaneous release in late June. The habit started […]