Radio frequency identification devices (RFID) are amazing if you're Wal-Mart
trying to keep track of thousands of pairs of Wrangler cargo pants, cheap TVs
and copies of the National Enquirer.
But with RFID devices getting smaller and smaller, there is also the potential
for abuse. Previously small enough to embed under one's skin, Hitachi now has
RFID
tags so small you can barely seem 'em. While this may prompt fears of RFID
tags stuck secretly in your hair, skin, or on your clothes, the antenna needed
to make it work is a monster -- over a sixth of an inch!
Posted by Doug Barney on 03/01/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Before going gaga over Google's goods, keep in mind that Google has security
holes like everyone else. Just last week,
Google
announced it had to fix a major hole in its Desktop Search tool (which I
can't live without).
If left unpatched, the hole could let hackers see your files, like the password.doc
file that holds all your passwords!
As for the Google productivity suite, I would be concerned about having my
files stored remotely. If I'm going to lose all my work, I want it to be my
fault!
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/28/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Google has been nibbling around the edges of Microsoft's huge Office market
with free, low-end, Web-based software. Now, the online giant is kicking into
high gear, with
software
that is actually worth money.
For $50 per person, per year, you can get an Office equivalent (or at the least
the same basic range of apps) along with calendaring. And you get 10 gigs of
Google storage. Whadda you think? Have you used earlier Google apps? Does this
model make sense for corporate America? Let me know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/28/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
I am more than a mite dumbfounded over the news that
only
high-end versions of Vista will be authorized to run on Intel-based Macintosh
computers. Through Boot Camp, Parallels and other forms of virtualization, there
is nothing technical stopping you from running XP, Vista, heck, even Windows
ME on a new Mac.
But Microsoft is putting its foot down on Vista, only allowing the $300 Business
edition or the $400 Ultimate to run. That's a huge hunk of change for an OS
you'll only run half the time.
Microsoft argues that the lower-end versions are a security risk in these virtualized
environments. I wonder what Redmond has to say about running Vista Basic under
its own virtual PC?
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/27/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
French company Alcatel is now about a billion Euros richer,
having
won $1.5 billion in a lawsuit against Microsoft. The court decided that
the way Windows converts sound files into MP3s violated patents Alcatel gained
when it bought Lucent.
How worried was Wall Street? It drove Microsoft stock down all of 3 cents!
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/27/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Cuba is
giving
Microsoft the heave-ho and moving as fast as humanly possible (or as fast
as a slow-moving communist government can) toward open source. Besides thumbing
its nose at the capitalist Microsoft, Fidel apparently believes that Microsoft
products present a real security threat, that somehow Redmond is in cahoots
with the U.S. to spy on Cuba through secret software hooks.
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/27/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
The
list
of "Certified for Vista" applications is now over 100, which sounds
impressive until you think about how many apps exploit Vista versus how many
are merely compatible. Our analysis is that it's going to take many months and
perhaps several years before we see a groundswell of software that truly taps
the power of Microsoft's latest desktop OS. Check out
Redmond editor
Ed Scannell's take on this issue
here.
Meanwhile, Microsoft updated a whole host of tools to help you migrate to Vista.
Check out the deets here.
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/27/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand Microsoft licensing; you
just have to be a Harvard MBA and an MIT Ph.D. in statistics!
Let me tell you, this stuff is complicated. I studied the subject for weeks
with the help of gurus like Scott
Braden, now a Redmondmag.com columnist. I then wrote two large articles
dissecting licensing and discussing negotiation ("SA
Exposed" and "Negotiating
with Microsoft"), but I'm still confused in many ways.
Microsoft is trying to simplify licensing, not by actually simplifying the
licensing, but by improving
tools to help customers makes choices, including the Microsoft Product Licensing
Advisor and the Forrester ROI tool.
Here's a bit of free advice for you: Take the Forrester ROI analyzer with
a huge pile of salt. If you use it, or have a salesperson try to run you through
it, make sure you build in negative assumptions along with all the positive
ones.
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/26/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
When journalists move to PR or marketing, it's called "going to the dark
side." I'm not sure what you call it when an independent analyst becomes
a Microsoft shill -- hopefully, you can at least call it a pay raise.
Former analyst Michael Gartenberg -- by all accounts a good and smart guy --
is now a
Redmond product evangelist (I've always been a bit offended by the evangelist
title, not for its religious connotations, but because it just seems so darn
arrogant).
As soon as the news broke, critics crawled out of the woodwork saying Gartenberg
was hired to dispense disinformation.
I say it's a free country and if a smart guy wants to get paid for explaining
Microsoft's virtues, then good for him. Tell me where I'm wrong at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/26/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Bill Gates may have the OS, the browser, Web services, games and a whole bunch
of sites, but that doesn't mean his kids can spend all day in front of a screen.
Gates and his wife strictly
limit
the amount of time the kids spend online.
Like any other average parent, Gates says the kids can do whatever they want
-- once they're 18!
Do you limit your kids? If so, tell us how at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/26/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
A week after fixing a few major Word zero-day vulnerabilities,
Microsoft
is fessing up to another one. This hole is only in older versions, specifically
Office XP and Office 2000, and like the recently patched problem, can let a
hacker take over your computer. Redmond is working on a fix as we speak.
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/21/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
After years of slogging, Microsoft has turned the old SQL Server code it got
from Sybase into a major database competitor. Now SQL Server 2005 is an even
closer member of the Microsoft family by virtue of its new ties to Excel 2007,
Visio 2007 and Vista.
All these hooks come courtesy of SQL
Server 2005 SP2.
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/21/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments