On February 4, Microsoft named Satya Nadella the new CEO, replacing Steve Ballmer. I decided to jump, and gather a group of folks to discuss what the transition means, using Google Hangouts On Air. What’s the saying about reading the instructions first?
Category: Tech
Windows XP is All the Air You Need
How strange a story: Windows XP showing much stronger growth than Windows 8.x — Yes XP! Years ago someone inside Microsoft told me that O2, Oxygen, was one of the contenders for XP’s name. Given how […]
@N is for Nagging Security Questions
Ars Technica’s security primer on the @N highjacking is a must-read. Excellent reporting, Lee Hutchinson.
But there are two things that bug me about the whole affair, and one really nags, and I haven’t seen it mentioned in the dozen different stories I took time to read.
My Macintosh Moment
Macintosh is 30 years old. If this were “Logan’s Run“, January 24 would be Last Day. Or the 1960s, time to ditch the computer because, you know, don’t trust anyone (or anything) over 30. Declaration: I am a Mac user, which surely surprises the long line of people accusing me of being anti-Apple. My Mac sojourn started on a Winter’s day in December 1998. I’ve abandoned Apple a few times since, even briefly boycotting, but always come back.
My first Macintosh sighting was August 1984. I spent the summer in Chapel Hill, N.C. and often hung out on the University of North Carolina campus. The college book store displayed the Apple, which I found remarkable. I wasn’t a computer geek, nor am I one now, but nevertheless found the device charming. A decade later, I started using a Windows PC and for a while was a Macintosh bigot. I particularly enjoyed ribbing the graphic designers with whom my wife worked when their Macs crashed, wiping out hours of Photoshop or QuarkXpress work. “Get a PC!” was my common retort.
Yahoo Mail Fail
My oldest online identity, claimed in 1996, is with Yahoo . I use it for Flickr but gave up on Yahoo Mail years ago. Email address spoofing is a long-standing problem, which I assumed the […]
Google Tightens the Noose
Over at BetaNews, I’ve repeatedly cautioned about Google’s increasing cross-integration of products and interdependence among them. Now come tighter ties between Google+ and Gmail. As Selena Larson observes, for ReadWrite: “Google+ is Getting Harder and Harder to Avoid“.
But I wonder. URL to the story reveals a better, and perhaps, the original headline: “Google Plus is Inescapable”. As editor, that is exactly the headline I would have used. It’s punchier, more clickable, and better fits the story’s tone.
Twenty-Fourteen isn’t Year of the Chromebook
There are reasons why I am so obnoxiously loud about bad news reporting tactics. NPD innocently kicked off a writ-storm about 2014 being year of the Chromebook. A Dec. 23, 2013, press release observes strong Chromebook commercial channel sales of preconfigured desktop and notebook PCs.
Looks like NPD pulled the PR—I can’t find it—over this whole “year of #chromebook” meme; it’s a blog and press echo chamber that continues to boom. Goddamn, my ears hurt. Even The Register, of which I expect much better, misquotes the NPD press release, too. That 21 percent market share figure refers to commercial U.S. channels only, not the entire market.
Resistance is Futile
Okay, I can agree: We should be worrying about Google’s assimilation and consolidation, and here’s why. Without question Google is the new Microsoft. The search giant seeks a unified suite of indispensable integrated products—indispensable not […]
Buzz Cut Wireless
I can’t help but wonder why a Barber Shop offers free WiFi. For what? Snapchat selfies while getting a buzz cut? I took the photo using the Fujifilm X-E1 and 18-55mm kit lens. I enhanced […]
Chromebook Matters
My fourth ebook, Chromebook Matters, published over the holiday, and this one is available from Kindle Store, Google Play, and Smashwords. I’m done with Amazon exclusives.
Chromebook Matters is not a how-to book. It’s all “why” and “what”—why Chromebook matters and what it can do for you. I write an introduction for anyone—businesses, consumers, government agencies, or schools—considering buying Chromebook. I also address anti-Chromebook propaganda. Some claims are valid. Most are not.
iPad Air is the Best Tablet
Sometimes there is revolution in evolution. That’s my surprising reaction to iPad Air, which Apple started selling on November 1. This is simply the best tablet I have ever used. Period. The fruit-logo company wisely chose to resist reinventing the wheel and build a vehicle around four instead.
For people who complain—and there are many—that Apple’s newest 9.7-inch tab shows waning innovation, let me correct the record. You are oh-so wrong. iPad Air is an amazingly refined piece of art—like a sculpture chiseled to perfection. iPad 3 and 4 are unpolished bricks by comparison. More importantly, anyone looking for a tablet to largely, or completely, replace a Windows PC or Mac, Air is it.
All This Googlism disturbs Me
Today, Ian Betteridge posts: “One thing that is impossible not to notice on Google+: There’s a very distinct skew towards big Google fans in commenting. It doesn’t matter which tech site’s page you look at, the (in my view, tedious) ‘fanboy’ mentality is hotter here than on any other social network”.
I commented on his post but want to draw more attention to Ian’s observation, to which I concur. I am rethinking my social service presence because of pervasive Googlism. While now immersed in the Google lifestyle, I am not a Google fanboy. But the leanings here are quite strong now, and tipping more all the time. Also, there is increasingly less tolerance for non-Google tech posts and more criticism of those regarding competitors like Apple.