I'm working up a story on dumb IT mistakes, either ones you made or observed first hand. My guess is that all (or almost all) of these stories will run anonymously, unless you really want to get these bad experiences off your chest.
Share the worst of the worst by writing me at [email protected] and I'll be in touch.
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/09/201111 comments
Even though there is not yet a version of Windows that runs on ARM processors, research house IDC claims ARM will own 13 percent of the PC market by 2015. That's because Microsoft promises to port Windows 8 (or whatever it'll call it) to ARM's system-on-a-chip.
ARM processors don't need a lot of power, which was an advantage until Intel's announcement of a super-low-power consuming processor.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 05/09/20110 comments
Tomorrow IT pros can breathe a sigh of relief and maybe even take a real hour-long lunch. That's because Microsoft is releasing only two patches. A "critical" patch fixes remote code execution (RCE) holes in Windows Server 2003 and 2008, while an "important" patch fixes RCE vulnerabilities in versions of Office -- from Office XP all the way up to Office 2007.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 05/09/20110 comments
I'm not sure if I should be surprised that Google was found to be the most reputable company in America. The vast majority of us use Google for search, and lots of its stuff is free.
You have to really follow technology to know some of the insidious things the company does, like killing media companies and invading our privacy -- all while not seeming to care.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 05/09/20113 comments
Should there be a better term for cloud computing? Here are some of your thoughts:
Just a brief FYI -- you don't need to use the 'cloud' to be sure your files are safe. All you need is a USB stick or a handheld USB 'Passport' by Western Digital (or your favorite brand name).
I recently read in the Orange County Register about huge data compromises for major companies who entrusted the cloud -- the cost and lost reputation has been enormous for these major players. My only concern is their boards of directors might feel the cost savings outweigh the damage to the people whose data was stolen in the form of bank account info, social security numbers and other such stuff.
Because the world is so fragmented, trusting the cloud is like trusting a twister to deliver your mail.
Enjoy your articles, Doug!
-Steven
What is commonly called/labeled 'Cloud' -- on-demand provisioning and pay-as-you-go -- was actually more accurately referred to as 'utility' in the past. "Utility Computing," to be more accurate, reflects the provisioning and billing aspects which are very similar to what most folks come to expect (maybe subconsciously) from the telephone, gas or electric company -- you walk/call-up to start the service account, then you are billed based on your usage. Those companies, in kind, are able to (mostly) scale to the usage needs of the customer/subscriber and/or build out additional capacities and capabilities.
The 'cloud' probably came out of the Internet marketers looking for something catchy... If you think about it, about the only thing the term 'cloud' aligns with in this context is the Internet delivery aspects -- which, itself, is debatable when you factor in the VPN aspects that some configurations require. The Internet, in this respect, is just a cheaper telecommunications/delivery option from the traditional private circuits -- like most other Internet-based services.
-Chiu
Doug, I'm in complete agreement with Don on his cloud opinion, including how the term cloud came about as an IT marketing catch phrase.
As an IT director, I will not push everything to the cloud as vendors would wish. I will, instead, make use of Internet-provided services that make sense to our organization.
-Howard
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Posted by Doug Barney on 05/06/20111 comments
During the U.S. antitrust investigation and prosecution of Microsoft , WordPerfect and Novell were two major flies in Redmond's ointment. Two enemies became one when Novell bought WordPerfect as an effort to counter Microsoft Word and Office.
WordPerfect believed that Microsoft leveraged its monopoly in operating systems to gain a monopoly in productivity suites. The argument was not as clean as the Netscape situation, which was clearly harmed by bundling IE with Windows 95.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 05/06/20115 comments
For years the Internet intelligentsia has warned that the Internet sky is falling -- as we run out of IPv4 addresses, we'll lose the ability to expand. IPv6 was the answer, but after a decade of promoting the address scheme, IPv6 is still barely out of the gate. During this time various kludges have squeaked more life out of IPv4.
Microsoft, hoping to help, just cooked up a deal with Nortel to take seven million old or unused IPv4 addresses that can now be put back into circulation.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 05/04/20112 comments
Microsoft, the company critics like to claim is passé, had another killer quarter. It brought in over $16 billion and an annual run rate of some $64 billion. That ain't chump change.
While Windows faltered a smidge (down 4 percent), the Xbox 360 (and especially Kinect) kicked some major hiney. Office also did well, with Office 2010 showing some impressive upgrade results.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 05/04/20112 comments
First, chunks of Amazon's cloud went down for around three days. Then, chunks of customer data on Amazon's cloud were lost for good. Now, Amazon is saying it's sorry and is finally telling the world what really happened.
An upgrade to add capacity at a Virginia data center went awry. The traffic was mistakenly diverted to a low-capacity backup router, which couldn't handle all the traffic. Because the network was compromised, various nodes were isolated, and data made vulnerable.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 05/04/20113 comments
Apple and Google both have black eyes after news surfaced that their mobile devices track and store your every move, even when you tell them not to. And one of the little secrets that has come to light is that Joe Law has been given this data as part of investigations.
Hey, I'm all for putting creeps behind bars, but spying on all of us to do so may not be such a great trade (agree or beg to differ at [email protected]).
If you are a criminal or freedom-loving American, you may want to opt for Windows Phone 7. Microsoft says it tracks location only if users asks it to. But it does not do so without explicit permission and doesn't store the data in hidden, encrypted files like the iPhone, iPad and Android devices clearly do.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 05/02/20112 comments