Practical Technology

I know, I know. Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram hasn’t even been finalized yet and I’m already calling it a complete waste of a billion dollars. How can I say that? Easy. Let’s look at the facts, shall we? Facebook paid about $28 for each of Instagram’s 35 million users. As such things go, that doesn’t [...]

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There are two major kinds of patent lawsuits. On the one side, there are the patent trolls, like Eolas making fundamental Web technology claims . Here, the idea is to use flimsy patents to collect hundreds of millions from the businesses that actually use ideas to make a product or service. Then, there’s what Apple [...]

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liked webOS, HP’s Linux-based take on a tablet operating system. I thought it had a shot to be a tablet player. But, then, Leo Apotheker, HP’s new CEO, along with spinning off HP’s PC business, killed webOS. Was it because, as Apotheker said, the tablet effect is real and sales of the TouchPad are not [...]

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I can’t prove it, because I didn’t write about it, but I’ve thought for a long time now that Google buying Motorola Mobility made a lot of sense. It wasn’t my idea though. I give full credit to billionaire investor Carl Icahn. In July, Icahn said that Motorola should shop around its patent portfolio, in [...]

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I may reboot my Linux systems once every six months. That’s great for my personal use and a small business. For an enterprise, that’s not good enough. Even twice-a-year reboots is twice a year too often for them. That’s why Ksplice, which enables running systems to update even critical files without rebooting was so popular [...]

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