Triplesourced
Reporting, musing and not to mention some random scribbling on tech issues from green/sustainable IT to security. (http://adonoghue.wordpress.com/)
Friday 16 October 2009, 11:46 AM
Recession is over - it's Champagne time for the IT industry at least
After just receiving my second invite to a Champagne-fueled IT launch for next week - is it safe to assume the recession is over?
Microsoft is promising champagne at lunchtime to mark the launch of Windows 7 next week, and if lunch-time boozing wasn't indulgent enough - Dell is hosting a champagne breakfast later in the week to launch something or other (lost interest after the mention of champagne)
Google claims the recession is over too this week and it's hiring again - and along with US banks making obscene profits once more - those nasty old-days of questioning the ethics of capitalism and progress may be safely behind us.
Microsoft is promising champagne at lunchtime to mark the launch of Windows 7 next week, and if lunch-time boozing wasn't indulgent enough - Dell is hosting a champagne breakfast later in the week to launch something or other (lost interest after the mention of champagne)
Google claims the recession is over too this week and it's hiring again - and along with US banks making obscene profits once more - those nasty old-days of questioning the ethics of capitalism and progress may be safely behind us.
Thursday 3 September 2009, 3:23 PM
Has EC Shot Itself In the Foot Over Oracle Sun?
The news has just broken that the European Commission is about to kick-off a protracted investigation into Oracle's purchase of Sun Microsystems. EU authorities are concerned about the implications for the open source database MySQL owned by Sun.
An analyst I just spoke to reckons that the EC fundamentally doesn't understand open source or it would realise their is no real threat to MySQL as the community will simply fork the platform if it thinks it is under threat from Oracle.
Full story on its way.
An analyst I just spoke to reckons that the EC fundamentally doesn't understand open source or it would realise their is no real threat to MySQL as the community will simply fork the platform if it thinks it is under threat from Oracle.
Full story on its way.
Thursday 6 August 2009, 5:37 PM
Twitter Goes Down Just After Iran Election Ceremony
A coincidence - very possibly. But it is odd that someone would choose to launch a DDOS attack at Twitter just after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was voted in as president.
Twitter was very useful to opponents of the president during the disputed election as Twitter boss Evan Williams told Newsnight recently.
But then again, Facebook appears to have been having some issues today too which could either be just another coincidence or point to some kind of wider targeted attack against social networking sites.
Twitter was very useful to opponents of the president during the disputed election as Twitter boss Evan Williams told Newsnight recently.
But then again, Facebook appears to have been having some issues today too which could either be just another coincidence or point to some kind of wider targeted attack against social networking sites.
Sunday 24 May 2009, 5:47 PM
Forget EC Fines: Microsoft is "IT" for many EU Governments
Although the European commission might be proud of its record of hitting Microsoft with fines that dig deep into Redmond's seemingly bottomless coffers, the fact is that for many European countries, Microsoft is still the first and sometimes only choice when it comes to government tenders.
http://press.redhat.com/2009/05/21/red-hat-challenges-microsoft-lock-in-and-seeks-open-competition-in-switzerland/
As last week's Switzerland example showed, some government's operate on the basis that IT is basically another word for Microsoft. That means tenders that specifically call for Microsoft products as if no other alternatives exist.
Hungary - where I am currently based - only a month ago agreed to put open source options on the tender list for government tech projects. Previously, government tenders would simply state, "Microsoft or equivalent products". Microsoft has splashed its cash around the country both in terms of marketing and lobbying that it has much of the public sector sown-up, as open source guru Richard Stallman remarked on a recent visit to Budapest.
And let's not forget that the UK only just agreed to "level the playing field for open source" software - basically admitting that up till now the game has been firmly rigged against non-proprietary software.
That said - that doesn't meant that all UK government projects are considering open source all of a sudden. The head of IT for the Olympics told me at a recent green IT conference that he had more or less ruled out open source because it was "high risk" in terms of issues such as application compatibility.
http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/london-olympics-says-no-to-open-source-821
Yep - it seems that while the Olympics might carry lofty ideals of international cooperation and openness - that doesn't actually carry to the software running the event.
And it's not like the Olympics has money to burn - the event is way over budget already by billions of pounds - you'd think that the organising committee would be looking for the most cost-effective options available. Time's are tough it seems but not tough enough for some.
http://press.redhat.com/2009/05/21/red-hat-challenges-microsoft-lock-in-and-seeks-open-competition-in-switzerland/
As last week's Switzerland example showed, some government's operate on the basis that IT is basically another word for Microsoft. That means tenders that specifically call for Microsoft products as if no other alternatives exist.
Hungary - where I am currently based - only a month ago agreed to put open source options on the tender list for government tech projects. Previously, government tenders would simply state, "Microsoft or equivalent products". Microsoft has splashed its cash around the country both in terms of marketing and lobbying that it has much of the public sector sown-up, as open source guru Richard Stallman remarked on a recent visit to Budapest.
And let's not forget that the UK only just agreed to "level the playing field for open source" software - basically admitting that up till now the game has been firmly rigged against non-proprietary software.
That said - that doesn't meant that all UK government projects are considering open source all of a sudden. The head of IT for the Olympics told me at a recent green IT conference that he had more or less ruled out open source because it was "high risk" in terms of issues such as application compatibility.
http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/london-olympics-says-no-to-open-source-821
Yep - it seems that while the Olympics might carry lofty ideals of international cooperation and openness - that doesn't actually carry to the software running the event.
And it's not like the Olympics has money to burn - the event is way over budget already by billions of pounds - you'd think that the organising committee would be looking for the most cost-effective options available. Time's are tough it seems but not tough enough for some.
Thursday 23 April 2009, 9:13 AM
Can netbooks really cut it in Africa?
The genesis of netbooks can be seen in machines such as the One Laptop per Child XO device, and its rival the Intel Classmate - both originally targeted at the developing world.
However, design doesn't always translate to execution - so a year or so ago ZDNet.co.uk teamed up IT charity Computer Aid to test a range of low-power PCs including the OLPC, Classmate as well as more mainstream netbooks such as the Asus Eee to see whether they could really stand up to the riggers of day to day life in African schools.
Computer Aid - which sends refurbished PCs to developing countries - wanted to find out whether netbooks and other low-power options such as thin clients would be a better solution for the patchy and relatively expensive electricity provision in Africa than a standard PC.
The full report of the charity's findings - compiled from initial trials in ZDNet UK's labs as well as testing at three African Universities - are now live on Computer Aid's site:
http://www.computeraid.org/
You can also find the initial ZDNet UK tests here:
http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000323,39363065,00.htm
However, design doesn't always translate to execution - so a year or so ago ZDNet.co.uk teamed up IT charity Computer Aid to test a range of low-power PCs including the OLPC, Classmate as well as more mainstream netbooks such as the Asus Eee to see whether they could really stand up to the riggers of day to day life in African schools.
Computer Aid - which sends refurbished PCs to developing countries - wanted to find out whether netbooks and other low-power options such as thin clients would be a better solution for the patchy and relatively expensive electricity provision in Africa than a standard PC.
The full report of the charity's findings - compiled from initial trials in ZDNet UK's labs as well as testing at three African Universities - are now live on Computer Aid's site:
http://www.computeraid.org/
You can also find the initial ZDNet UK tests here:
http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000323,39363065,00.htm
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