Miscellaneous

Cisco's consumer electronics dream

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Cisco's yearly earnings.

If you haven't noticed, Cisco Systems, whose products have been used to build the Internet for 20 years, has spent the past 6 years becoming a big player in the consumer electronics market.

While Cisco still generates the bulk of its nearly $40 billion in yearly revenue from selling routers and switches to large companies and Internet service providers, the company has also been pushing into new markets, such as consumer electronics, over the past several years.

Still, most consumers probably have no idea who Cisco is or what it does. Sure, they may have seen those cute "human network" commercials on TV. But other than that, I'd guess the average Joe has no clue what Cisco does.

Some might be familiar with the Linksys brand, which has traditionally sold home networking gear. But Cisco executives say they are on a mission to make Cisco a household name. Not only is the company making a bigger effort to brand its products as Cisco, but it's also busy developing a slew of new products for the consumer market.

And on Thursday the company announced its most aggressive play in the consumer market to date with the $590 million acquisition of Pure Digital Technologies, the maker of the popular Flip Video mini camcorders.

But Pure is by no means the only major acquisition Cisco has made in the consumer market. In fact, the company so far has pretty much built this part of its business through acquisitions. In 2003, it got its start in the competitive CE market with the $500 million acquisition of the home-networking equipment maker Linksys. Then in 2005, it bought Scientific Atlanta, a quasi-consumer electronics company, for $7 billion. Scientific Atlanta makes set-top boxes that Cisco sells to subscription TV providers.… Read more

When 5 percent equals 20 percent

A lot of companies have torn down the PC Berlin Wall and now allow employees to use Macintosh computers as well as PCs. Apparently, this creates some interesting dynamics for PC support people.

From what I've heard, most organizations settle in at approximately 95 percent PCs, and 5 percent Macs. Seems like a small and manageable percentage, but here's the rub. According to some services vendors and PC administrators I've talked to, a large portion of the Mac users are executives--CEOs, COOs, chief legal counsel, etc. These folks get top priority and can be very demanding, so … Read more

Bill for moratorium on cell phone taxes gets bipartisan support

Cell phone taxes emerged yet again in Congress this week when Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) introduced the Cell Phone Tax Fairness Act of 2009 (HR 1521).

The bill, which has 20 additional cosponsors, would ban state or local jurisdictions from imposing "a new discriminatory tax on or with respect to mobile services, mobile service providers, or mobile service property, during the five-year period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act."

The legislation would not affect current state and local taxes, nor would it affect federal taxes, like the FCC Universal Charge. … Read more

ATI gets graphics ready for Windows 7

ATI graphics drivers will now be delivered in one tidy package for both Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Advanced Micro Devices said Wednesday that it has released Catalyst 9.3, a set of new graphics drivers that constitute a "unified" driver installation package, with support for both Windows Vista and Windows 7.

One of the biggest changes for Windows 7 is support for the Windows Display Driver Model 1.1, an update from WDDM 1.0 used in Vista, according to Andrew Dodd, a software product manager at ATI. "(Catalyst 9.3) is one single binary and … Read more

Diana Eng's DIY guide to geek gorgeous

Hoodie. Check. Headphones. Check. Soldering iron, wire cutters, conductive thread. Check, check, and check. Now if I can just figure out how to wield those last three items, I'd have me a handmade headphone hoodie. As the title suggests, that's a jacket with the speakers built in to the hood--and wearing one would be extra cool if I could say I made it myself.

And I might just be able to, with a new book from fashion designer Diana Eng. Some will remember Eng as the adorably nerdy contestant from reality TV show "Project Runway" who … Read more

McCain "Twitterview" not a journalistic high point

ABC's George Stephanopoulos is an excellent reporter and Senator John McCain has given some great interviews. But while yesterday's " twitterview" may have been a watershed moment for Twitter, it was far from a high point for either journalism or politics.

After reading a transcript of the interview, I have to question whether the 140 character format makes any sense as an interview technique, especially when dealing with life and death questions such as "What worries you more: Pakistan or Iran?" to which Senator McCain responded, "Both. The challenges are different but both significant.&… Read more

Open-source mobile software to save lives

It won't grab headlines like the newest version of the iPhone operating system, but a Palo Alto, Calif., nonprofit today announced a suite of open-source applications that aids in communications and collaboration for humanitarian workers dealing with diseases and disasters.

InSTEDD (Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters) has released three applications to empower aid workers to use inexpensive, off-the-shelf mobile phones to better detect and respond to disasters, diseases, and economic catastrophes.

The organization currently runs projects in Southeast Asia, including the Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance project and the Phnom Penh Innovation Lab.

One of the new programs, … Read more

PBwiki goes mobile on iPhone, BlackBerry

PBwiki on Tuesday announced the mobile optimization of its hosted wiki service for its Professional and Professional Plus Edition subscription clients.

PBwiki, which hosts, among other wiki services, Twitter's API docs, FedEx's marketing extranet, and the BarCamp wiki, has now made its wiki interface more readable, when surfed to from the browser of an Apple iPhone or Research In Motion BlackBerry.

PBwiki's Mobile Edition lets visitors to PBwiki's Web site participate most of ways from the field as they can from the desktop, with the exception of editing an existing page. It's a shame that … Read more

Systems go for Sunday Shuttle Discovery launch

Update at 4:44 PDT: Space Shuttle Discovery has successfully lifted off as scheduled.

If the weather cooperates--and forecasters predict that it will--Space Shuttle Discovery will take off for the International Space Station on Sunday evening. A hydrogen gas leak delayed a planned launch last week.

NASA said blastoff is scheduled for 7:43 p.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Commander Lee Archambault is set to lead a crew of seven on the STS-119 mission, which is aimed at installing the fourth and final set of power-generating solar arrays to the ISS. The arrays will provide electricity … Read more

USB prosthetic finger gives new meaning to thumbdrives

This is a story about Jerry Jalava, a Finnish software developer who lost part of his finger in a motorcycle accident last July. According to his friend, Henri Bergius, when the surgeon assigned to work on Jalava's prosthetic finger discovered his hacking history, he made a clever suggestion: incorporate a USB key into the new digit.

The prosthetic finger contains a 2GB USB key, and Jalava also loaded it with Billix distribution, CouchDBX, and Ajatus to run off the drive, throwing even more geek cred into the mix.

When Jalava needs the drive, he simply pulls it off his … Read more