Practical Technology

for practical people.

January 2, 2014
by sjvn01
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The Windows killer: Chromebook

I’ve been a believer in Chromebooks for a long time. Now, everyone else is getting the religion.

NPD, a retail market analysis company, reports that sales of Chromebooks exploded from zilch in 2012 to more than 20% of the U.S. PC market in 2013. This helped push overall notebook PC growth up by 28.9%.

Meanwhile, Windows notebooks sales were as flat as a pancake, and Mac sales shrank by 7%. At the same time, overall PC sales declined in 2013 by a record 10.1%.

None of this has been lost on the OEMs. In 2012, only Acer and Samsung had seriously invested in Chromebooks. By the end of 2013, all the major OEMs were making them. Of the top five PC OEMS, Lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer and Asus are all onboard. Dell, the last holdout, announced its Chromebook in December 2013.

The Windows killer: Chromebook. More>

December 5, 2013
by sjvn01
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Amazon Drone: Stunt or service?

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the town
Not a creature was stirring, not e’en UPS brown.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that Amazon Drones soon would be there.

Seriously, Jeff Bezos? Do you really think that, God and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration willing, Amazon will be delivering five-pound packages from your warehouses to customers’ doors by the holiday season of 2015?

Or did you just realize what a great PR stunt it would be to have Amazon Prime Air octocopters buzzing about on a national TV news show?

Amazon Drone: Stunt or service?

December 2, 2013
by sjvn01
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Microsoft after Ballmer: Can this company be saved?

If there’s anything sadder in tech circles than a pathetic Windows fan still trying to convince himself that Windows 8.x has been anything except a total failure, it would have to be someone who believes that Steve Ballmer did anything during his tenure as Microsoft’s CEO other than set the company up to follow in the footsteps of failed U.S. carmakers.

Scot Finnie, Computerworld‘s editor in chief, recently spelled out Ballmer’s shortcomings. Bottom line: Microsoft lost its vision. Instead of being a leader, it’s been playing catch-up in mobile, tablets and search while losing its way on the desktop with its user-hostile Metro interface.

You don’t have to believe us. Look at the numbers. Microsoft’s board cut Ballmer’s bonus because of an 18% decline in Windows Division operating income and a $900 million inventory charge related to Surface RT.

Microsoft after Ballmer: Can this company be saved? More>

November 4, 2013
by sjvn01
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From Microsoft, more Windows fail

Computerworld – Having seen Windows 8.1, I have a question I’d like to ask Microsoft: “Is that the best you could do?”

My assessment: Windows 8.1 doesn’t suck as much as Windows 8. If you felt, when using Windows 8, as if you were banging your head against a brick wall, Windows 8.1 might feel as if you’re banging it against a wooden wall. Much better, right? Of course, someday you might ask yourself why you need to bang your head against a wall at all.

Let’s start with Start. Yes, we’ve all heard that Microsoft is bringing the Start button back, responding to all those users shrieking about its disappearance. So that’s better, right? Not so much. All that the new Start button does is bring up the touchy-feely Metro — uh, I mean, Modern — no, wait, make that “Windows 8 Store apps” interface. Is it any wonder that Lenovo bundles the Pokki Start button and menu replacement software with its Windows 8.x machines?

From Microsoft, more Windows fail. More >

October 24, 2013
by sjvn01
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Mavericks: The end of Macs in the enterprise?

Macs have never been that popular in the enterprise office. Sure, people love their MacBook Airs and their MacBook Pros, but CIOs usually frown at their price-tags. Still, the shiny Macs laptops have induced some big businesses, including ZDNet’s own parent company CBS Interactive, to buy these high-end laptops and, thanks to the Adobe Creative Suite/Creative Cloud, publishing, graphics design, and Web design departments all still use and love their Macs. Well, they do for now. They may not tomorrow because of Apple’s lack of security updates for older versions of Mac OS X.

Mavericks: The end of Macs in the enterprise? More>

October 23, 2013
by sjvn01
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Arbor Networks, Google draw digital-attack map

How bad are Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks getting on the Internet? Arbor Networks, which specializes in DDoS defense and mitigation, has found that so far in 2013 the average DDoS attack now stands at 2.64Gbps, up 78 percent from 2012. Now, in concert with Google Ideas, a Google think tank, the two have created a global, data visualization map of DDoS attacks: the Digital Attack Map.

Arbor Networks, Google draw digital-attack map. More>