Tuesday, September 22, 2009 10:33 PM/EST

Live at DEMOfall 2009: Getting Secure and Getting Paid

The second half of day one at DEMOfall 2009 saw a weird mix of security products (for both business and consumers), products designed around either getting paid or paying someone, and a couple of products that didn't seem to fit any other category at DEMOfall.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 5:40 PM/EST

Live at DEMOfall 2009

DEMOfall, which launched this morning in San Diego, is the final Demo for longtime Executive Producer Chris Shipley. During Shipley's opening remarks, replacement Matt Marshall jumped in to interrupt a couple of times, seemingly playing Kanye West to Shipley's Taylor Swift.

This was somewhat amusing but, as always, the most important thing about Demo is the new products that launch there.

Friday, September 18, 2009 11:02 AM/EST

Raw Power Standards

When one thinks of engineers, especially engineers on standards bodies, the last thing that comes to mind is legendary glam and punk rockers.

James Williamson is a member of the Standards Association Board of Governors at IEEE and was also until recently a Vice President of Technology Standards at Sony.

James Williamson was also the lead guitarist for Iggy and the Stooges and played guitar on Raw Power, one of the most legendary rock and punk albums of all time (and a personal favorite).

Friday, September 11, 2009 11:57 AM/EST

PlayOn Turns Gaming Consoles into Internet Video Players

If your main living room television is anything like mine, you've probably already run out of space and connections for any new devices. Between things like the satellite box, the DVD player, gaming consoles, etc. there just isn't any more room for new devices.

So while I've been intrigued by devices like the Roku, which lets you play Netflix Watch Instantly movies on your TV, I just don't have the room for any new devices. But what if I could use one of the devices I already have hooked to my TV for playing any Internet based video, whether its Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, YouTube, whatever?

That's where a little piece of software called PlayOn comes in. PlayOn is a Windows application that, when installed on a PC, makes it possible to send Internet-based video and other media from your PC to a gaming console.

Friday, September 04, 2009 9:55 AM/EST

Netbooks and the Enterprise Are a Good Match

My colleague Don Reisinger recently wrote an article where he talked about the rise of netbooks and stated how they were not yet enterprise ready, pointing out their inability to multitask, connect securely to company networks and handle business class graphics tasks.

I have to admit I was a little bit surprised by Don's article, especially since, as I was reading it, I was on my own netbook, running multiple applications, including Adobe's latest Creative Suite graphics applications and connecting to my office network over a VPN connection.

So what gives? Is Don just wrong to state that netbooks are not yet enterprise ready?

Well, yes and no.

Thursday, August 20, 2009 10:46 AM/EST

Trippin on Windows 7's Backgrounds

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.

Friday, August 14, 2009 10:17 AM/EST

Adventures in Netbook Land: Part One

While I've had the chance to test out and try various netbooks, I haven't actually been a netbook owner, that is until just about a week ago when I plopped down my own cash and picked one up.

Scratch that. I was a netbook owner in the past, they just didn't call it that back then. Years ago I was a very happy owner of a tiny Sony Vaio that would have fit in nicely with today's netbook crowd.

I always loved the lightweight and small size of that Vaio so as netbooks grew in stature and increased in power and capabilities that approximate full size laptops, I knew that I would eventually get one.

Thursday, August 06, 2009 11:16 AM/EST

Testing a Google Wave Embed

I'm currently working on a review of Google Wave, trying out some of the API and developer oriented features. One of the capabilities is the ability to embed a Wave into another web site. Several of the Waves I attempted to embed failed but this one worked.

In this Wave, I'm also using a Wave robot, which has the ability to provide feedback based on other information in the Wave.

This Wave is a standard Magic 8 Ball, which responds to basic questions. Clearly, it knows its baseball.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009 11:24 AM/EST

Voicing the Need for Network Neutrality

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.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009 4:36 PM/EST

This Week in Emerging Technology - July 29

Here are the emerging technologies stories for the week of July 27th.

4G Network Tests - Verizon announced that they will launch tests of their 4G LTE network in Seattle and Boston later this year. The 8 to 10 Mbps speed sounds nice but we'll see.

Robot Firefighters - The London Fire Brigade has been using robot firefighters to deal with high-risk situations such as fires involving acetylene tanks. According to the report, the tests of these robot firefighters have been very successful.

Aluminum Goes Transparent - Scientists at Oxford University were able to turn aluminum invisible (for a very short time) using a high-powered laser blast. The scientists claim that this could have a huge impact for future technologies such as nuclear fusion. Though it doesn't sound like it would work as a Romulan cloaking device.