Click here to see the slideshow When I test out a new operating system, especially when I'm dealing with early betas and release candidates, I tend to be very utilitarian, focusing on just the hard core features and capabilities.
So it wasn't until I installed the recently released RTM of Windows 7 that I noticed the wild and crazy underbelly of the new Microsoft operating system. Digging around in the included themes and desktop backgrounds in Windows 7 I found a few that were quite different from the typical landscapes and nature photos.
I'm not sure whether it's a tribute to the 40th anniversary of Woodstock or if the developers of Windows 7 are just fans of the old TV show H.R. Pufnstuf (or maybe they've just been puffin some stuff if you know what I mean), but among the new backgrounds and themes are some decidedly psychedelic and trippy images.
Once again the enemies of Network Neutrality are doing their very best to help out those dedicated to pushing through laws to ensure Network Neutrality on the Internet.
How does this happen? Well, the main opponents to Network Neutrality on the Internet are the major national ISPs that provide most of the broadband connections for Americans. And many of these very same ISPs are also the large national cell-phone carriers.
And there is no greater example of the potential dangers of an Internet without Network Neutrality than the major cell phone carrier networks.
With the Microsoft earnings report this week, the big news was the first ever year-over-year decline in quarterly revenue for the software giant.
But to me the interesting news in the report was the fact that the company's servers and tools unit surpassed the client unit (which includes the Windows OS) to become the biggest profit area for Microsoft. Servers and tools was also the only unit to post a revenue gain over the same quarter last year.
With mergers and company failures regularly in the news, the amount of healthy competition in the technology world is clearly decreasing. This, of course, means that more companies will gain a monopoly in their markets.
This got me thinking about monopolies in general and the companies that are typically seen as monopolists in the technology arena. Just which tech companies are true monopolists, and which ones fall short of being a monopoly?
My dictionary defines a monopoly as "exclusive ownership through legal privilege, command of suppy, or concerted action, exclusive possession or control, a commodity controlled by on party, one that has a monopoly".
My colleague Joe Wilcox recently posted on the Microsoft Watch blog an interesting article entitled "The Problem with Netbooks". In this article he puts forth a compelling argument why netbooks won't last as a significant segment and will become subsumed into laptops or disappear altogether.
If I had read Joe's article a week before he posted it I probably would have agreed with nearly all of his arguments. But after traveling to DEMO 09 and getting a firsthand look at how many people are using netbooks, my opinions on the category have changed a bit.
Xandros has long been a major player when it comes to taking Linux and open source technologies and making them easy for non-techie people to use. With Presto, they are taking a stealth approach to work with Windows systems but to make it more attractive to boot into Presto as opposed to Windows.
Click here to see screenshots of IE 8 With the release of Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1, we are finally in the home stretch of the long trip to the latest version of the Microsoft Web browser.
And since this is a release candidate, this means that, unless there is a major problem found, this version of Internet Explorer 8 is pretty much the version that will be officially released. So, how will IE 8 stack up?
Well, if compared solely with earlier versions of Internet Explorer, IE 8 is a massive improvement that boosts the usability, security and flexibility of the Microsoft browser.
This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of the first Macintosh computer, easily one of the most influential computers of all time.
As many like to point out, almost all of the innovations of the Macintosh (its windowed GUI, its use of the mouse, its intuitive interface touches) had been introduced previously, many of them at Xerox Parc. But while original innovators are important, often just as important are those who can take these innovations and make something that is truly useful to many.
The Mac was definitely this type of innovation. For those who had used other computers and mainframe systems of the time, trying the Mac led to a light bulb moment. The first time you used a Mac you usually felt, oh, this is how a computer is supposed to work.
People say computers are too complex and too prone to security problems. These same people will often also say this is one of the reasons we don't have more broadband and general PC adoption.
But don't worry. These people have a solution. They'll replace your hard-to-use and worm-infested computer with something that "just works," like your toaster.
That's right! To take advantage of the next phase of the Internet, you won't need to deal with PCs and their incompatible hardware and plethora of operating systems and applications. That's because the next device you use to access the Internet will be an appliance, you know, like a refrigerator or a toaster. And what could be easier than that?
Wow, that sounds great. And I'm sure it would work, if using the Internet and doing modern computing were as easy as toasting a piece of bread (though given the amount of burnt toast I've encountered in my life, maybe that isn't all that easy).
Click to see the slide show When you cover and analyze emerging technologies, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement and the promise of these new technologies. And it's even easier to look at these technologies only from a positive angle.
And what's not to like? After all, most emerging technologies were designed from the ground up to bring about positive ends. Their creators want to improve people's lives, boost productivity, cure disease, provide security and bring about new waves of technology where anything is possible.
But almost any new technology that has a positive side also has a negative and more dangerous side. Technologies that can cure disease can also cause disease. Products that provide convenience imperil safety and privacy. Tools that ensure security also help secure criminals from law enforcement.
Such is the nature of innovation. But some new technologies are more dangerous than others. With that in mind, here is my list of the 10 most dangerous new technologies either available today or being worked on for the near future. Please comment below and let me know what technologies would make your list.
And, oh yeah, I decided to limit this list specifically to computing technologies, so that's why there aren't any biotech or genetics entries.
