Monday - January 5, 2009
Freescale Semiconductor has launched a new low-cost processor, the i.MX515, that's designed to power what Freescale hopes will be new lines of Linux-based netbooks retailing for less than $200. There are lots of interesting angles to Freescale's efforts -- the lower price point, the technology behind the i.MX515, and a new path for Linux into the minds of everyday consumers. Most netbooks retail in the $300 to $400 range, so a sub-$200 netbook obviously could generate a lot of consumer appeal.
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Monday - January 5, 2009
So 2009 is here at last, and not a moment too soon! Finally we can put another Holiday Season behind us and get back to work. Some of us, of course, are still recovering from the seasonal merriment; others are still pondering gifts they received. To wit: On Digg, Rekzai earned more than 3,340 Diggs and 345 comments for posting a photograph titled, "I like Linux, so my aunt sends me this for Christmas!"
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Monday - January 5, 2009
Despite the daily onslaught of grim economic news, the need for skilled information technology staff remains stable, according to the Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report, released earlier this month. Twelve percent of chief information officers polled in the survey said they planned to expand their IT departments in the first quarter of 2009.
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Sunday - January 4, 2009
It's dawn at a Los Angeles apartment overlooking the Hollywood Hills. Laura Sweet, a graphic designer in her early 40s, sits at a computer and begins to surf the Net. She searches intently, unearthing such bizarre treasures for sale as necklaces for trees and tattoo-covered pigs. As usual, she posts them on a shopping site called "ThisNext.com."
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Saturday - January 3, 2009
Given the many options out there, someone in the market for a portable computer may have a hard time deciding whether to go with an ultra-small netbook or a small-but-not-THAT-small notebook computer. If you want a netbook, you've got another choice ahead of you: Would you like that with Linux or Windows?
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Friday - January 2, 2009
I recently carried out a personal quest for a netbook computer. Relying on a bit of insider snobbery since I write about computer technology almost daily, I was not expecting a big problem in making a selection. It's not that I really needed another computer. My home office is well-stocked with two desktops running Windows XP and a third former Windows box now running Ubuntu Linux.
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Thursday - January 1, 2009
New adopters often see virtualization as the Holy Grail of enterprise computing. It enables consolidation of separate servers and databases to provide more economic operations. Running consolidated computers from one virtualized machine also eliminates the electrical waste spent to keep idling servers and data-processing machines running.
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Thursday - January 1, 2009
Social media may be hailed as the savior of sagging sales these days, but few have figured out what social media are, much less how to wield them. Even fewer realize that games are the first, and arguably the most viable and sustainable, social medium in the mix.
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Wednesday - December 31, 2008
Universities and government agencies, even a few private corporations, are going all "mad scientist" on us in the realm of virtual worlds. But why are they experimenting there and why are so many drawn to virtual worlds like a dying man to a priest? Virtual worlds are today's answer to utopian communes, says one researcher.
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Tuesday - December 30, 2008
Universities and government agencies are conducting all kinds of research, both scientific and sociological, in virtual worlds -- but is this merely a newfangled boondoggle or is the research really real? "My general perspective is that virtual worlds are at least as real as many parts of the so-called real world," said William Sims Bainbridge, program director in human-centered computing at the National Science Foundation.
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Monday - December 29, 2008
As 2008 draws to a close, the time for dreaming of White Christmases, sugar plum fairies and Ubuntu-loaded netbooks is over for another year. Here's hoping everyone got their heart's desire! Now it's time to move on and turn our thoughts to the promise of the upcoming year.
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