Walmart is not alone in the eCommerce world for going overboard with bleeding-edge web development practices. Rather than using W3C standards, a set of guidelines created by web developers all over the world to ensure that all web sites work with all browsers, Walmart and companies like them are choosing to use proprietary web […]
IBM has announced a new initiative with ghostly reflections from the past, but perhaps with a more promising future. In a climate where business users are unimpressed by the bulky and costly lackluster Windows Vista, IBM is offering corporate customers a viable alternative. IBM has created a “Microsoft-free” virtual desktop. The […]
On November 17th 1951, the J. Lyons Company began weekly operation of a bakery valuations job on a computer called LEO (Lyons Electronic Office). This was the first business application to go live on a stored program computer anywhere in the world. David Caminer, LEO’s systems and programming manager at the time, died June 19 […]
Has an eBay seller ever shortchanged you, the item wasn’t nearly as good as described or had some defect? When the seller wouldn’t make things right, you wanted to leave that person a negative, but wouldn’t, because you knew they’d retaliate. That was the flaw in the old eBay feedback system. Dishonest […]
The Gateway computer company unofficially, but for all intents and purposes, ceased to exist at the end of 2007. It was split asymmetrically and sold to two different companies. ACER has acquired most of Gateway, including the low-end home user line of notebooks and desktops. They will continue to make laptops […]
Newegg.com is an online technology store selling primarily computer hardware. It was founded in 2001, in California, by two Asian immigrants. The company is often mistakenly confused with the old “Egghead Software“, but there is absolutely no relationship between the two. Newegg’s explosion from primarily eBay sells to their own direct online […]
What’s the difference between the CD that you burned in your home computer versus a commercial CD that you bought at the store? There is indeed a significant difference! When asked, “can I really make an exact copy of that CD” the answer is not simply “yes” or “no,” because, it is more […]
A new law in France went into effect Thursday, August 3rd, that Apple Computer Inc. calls “state-sponsored piracy.” Supporters say the law will force Apple to make their technology compatible with competing products and give consumers reasonable choices. Under the new law, songs purchased on iTunes must be compatible with players other than […]
After purchasing my last piece of computer hardware, which offered a rebate, I firmly decided to never go through that hassle again. The entire point of the rebate is to save the manufacturer money, not you. Rather than lowering the price, which guarantees everyone wins, they offer a rebate fully realizing that a […]
Once again Linux Torvalds has proven he is a complete schmuck. For the newly drafted General Public License provisions address the issue of a dark and evil technology becoming ever more pervasive in our industry, DRM. In his wisdom Stallman has addressed this in GPL version 3. Linus, who has demonstrated his […]