E-mail used to be an ephemeral thing. Then archival storage came along and
we couldn't get rid of it. Now,
new
rules from the Supreme Court
mandate that companies store, and prove they
can retrieve, e-mail so they can be used as evidence in a lawsuit.
Storing is the easy part. Disks are cheap and getting cheaper all the time.
But knowing what message is where and how to get it back -- now, there's
the rub. Fortunately, the rules apply to messages and data that could be relevant
to the lawsuit, so nonrelated archives can still be purged.
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/06/20060 comments
Apple had an Ivan Putski-class lock on the education market in the 1980s --
that is, until Microsoft started giving away and steeply discounting software
for schools. The Apple II and Mac may have been cute, but free is free, and
cheap is cheap.
Google is now trying to do the same thing to Microsoft. The company is not
just giving away spreadsheets and word processors (these Google apps are, after
all, already free), but is
offering
to store students' and teachers' files
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/05/20060 comments
A year ago, I ran across whosarat.com, a site where snitches and informants
are exposed. I didn't quite know what to think.
Some of the profiles indicated that the informants were bigger dirt bags than
the folks they finked on. But it seemed a rather dangerous undertaking. Bikers,
the mob and gang members aren't always shy when it comes to revenge, and having
your name, photo and address plastered on a Web site about rats isn't the healthiest
thing in the world.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/05/20062 comments
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation focuses far more on tough issues, like
malaria, than high-tech ones, but that didn't stop it from giving
$17.5
million to fund Internet access
in libraries in Botswana, Latvia and Lithuania.
This is an attempt to let these countries catch up, at least a little bit,
to the U.S., where nearly all libraries are connected. Wonder how many users
will be Googling versus. using MSN or Live Search?
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/05/20060 comments
Novell exec Susan Heystee has been picked to
oversee
the patent and interoperability deal with Microsoft
. Sometimes, these deals
are window dressing and PR, in which case Heystee's job will be as easy as that
of a security guard at a convent. But with Microsoft and Novell already quibbling
over patents, Heystee could be burning the midnight oil.
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/05/20060 comments
If you're a fan of
Seinfeld
(or former fan, after Michael Richards'
Tourette's-like outburst), you'll remember the episode where Elaine got
a cartoon published in the
New Yorker
. Unfortunately for her, the idea
was lifted subconsciously from a Ziggy.
Well, Scott Adams of Dilbert fame did the very same thing to yours truly.
My October 2006 Redmond column was entitled "Bill for President."
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/05/20060 comments
A 2,000-year-old astronomical computing device of Roman origin has been found
in the waters off of Greece. No, this isn't a fake news report from theonion.com
--
it actually
happened
.
No word on what OS it ran, but the corroded remnants of the Ctrl, Alt and Del
keys do offer a clue.
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/04/20060 comments
Windows 3.0 and Windows 95 were monster launches -- you would have thought
cancer had been cured. But despite
calling
it the "biggest launch in company history,"
last Thursday's Vista
press conference in New York was as subdued as Don Rumsfeld getting his walking
papers.
As Redmond magazine editor Ed Scannell explained, he expects the real launch
to happen in January, when the consumer version of Vista appears.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/04/20060 comments
A new operating system isn't much without new apps, and the news on Vista is
good and bad. The good news is that
ISVs
are arriving in droves to announce Vista plans
.
The bad news: These apps in general ain't showing up anytime soon. First up
are utilities like communication software from Attachmate (not sure how terminal
emulation software will exploit the Vista interface!) set to ship this spring,
and security, backup and disk imaging software from Symantec due this month.
But the killer software meant to exploit the new UI will, like
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/04/20060 comments
Maybe Microsoft should have shipped the consumer version of Vista first. After
all, home users were the first to buy speakers, CD-ROMs and high-res graphics,
and I dare you to find a corporate PC that is the match of a 12-year-old's gaming
machine. Many of these pre-teens will move to Vista on day one, with some standing
in line at Circuit City to be the very first.
Corporate types are different, and for a good many it will be a
year
to a year-and-a-half until Vista upgrades begin in earnest
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/04/20060 comments
Craig Ferguson is not my favorite talk show host (he was the annoying English
boss in the "Drew Carey Show"), but he did a
mildly
amusing riff on the Zune
. Ferguson assumes the Zune is inferior to the iPod.
Just looking at the features list, I have the opposite impression. Have you
used both? What do you think? And what gizmos are you asking for/buying this
holiday season? Let us know at
[email protected]
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/30/20060 comments
Recent research shows that despite having a brand-new search engine,
Microsoft
continues to lose ground to Google
. And you know why? Because Microsoft's
Live Search isn't as good. I made the vain move of Googling myself (admit it,
you do it to!), and came up with 18,700 results. Live Search crushed my ego
with only 3,527 pages. I'm not switching till Live has at 20,000 Barney hits.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/30/20060 comments