emergency

Microsoft study overlooks Windows biggest cost

Microsoft has been a little quiet on the "independent TCO (total cost of ownership) study" front for at least a week now, so it is perhaps not surprising to see the company promoting a new TCO study comparing the cost of deploying Linux and Windows in emerging markets. Vital Wave Consulting, that paragon of research (no, I've never heard of it, either), published the study.

But who wrote it is somewhat immaterial here. The problem is that the research fails to acknowledge the biggest cost of working with Microsoft: the cost of exit.

First, to the research. … Read more

Dell launches global charitable initiative

Dell made a move to expand its charitable giving overseas on Tuesday, launching its YouthConnect Initiative.

Dell YouthConnect plans to focus on education and digital inclusion in emerging technology countries such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China.

In addition, the computer maker plans to increase its overall charitable donations to 1 percent of its pre-tax profits by the beginning of February 2010. The contributions will come in the form of corporate cash, in-kind giving, and employee directed giving.

Execs predict next Google-like tech

You could easily forget a business birthday, but Google wields more star power than most. It was officially incorporated 10 years ago this Sunday while co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were still working from a garage.

To celebrate, the journal Nature has asked researchers and business pundits to postulate on which young technologies might have as much impact on the world as Google 10 years down the road. After all, in the last 10, Google has grown from running a few loaner servers to a vast network of data centers that can not only deliver a map to a … Read more

Dell's new low-cost PCs for emerging markets

As promised, Dell unveiled several new computers Wednesday made specifically for emerging PC markets like China and India.

There are four new models in all under the Vostro line--two laptops and two desktops. The notebooks will start at $475, and the desktops at $440, and will be available in more than 20 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe.

The notebooks are available in 14.1-inch and 15.6-inch sizes, and come with Intel Celeron or Core2Duo processors, and Ubuntu Linux or Windows Vista. The desktops come with Intel Atom, Celeron, or Pentium processors, and Ubuntu or Vista.

Dell … Read more

Kids, not Russian government, attacking Georgia's Net, says researcher

Initial information suggests that Internet attacks on Georgian Web sites over the last two weeks are the work of kids, according to one researcher, while another says the intensity of these attacks is short-lived when compared with attacks in Estonia last year.

In an e-mail to CNET News, Gadi Evron, founder of the Zero Day Emergency Response Team, said that "although the impact on their Web sites is clear, I believe this may end up being just some kids who got overexcited, with Georgia being ill-prepared to say the least. "

Posting on CircleID, Evron wrote that there are … Read more

Exit-architecture: design between war and peace

Stephan Tr?by is a theoretician, curator, and architect, and his new book "Exit-Architecture -- Design between War and Peace" is essentially a pamphlet that condenses his preceding writing. He rehashes the key theses of his previous publication, the anthology "5 Codes -- Architecture, Paranoia and Risk in Times of Terror," and substantiates them in his own words and with more contemporary examples.

"Exit-Architecture" maintains Tr?by's obsession with "anti-panic design" and examines how paranoia, as a cultural force, shapes architecture and ultimately entire societies. In a time when war and … Read more

Bill Gates, which we disagree with

As but one more piece of testamentary evidence that the old guard at Microsoft needs to be shown the door, Bill Gates has demonstrated conclusively that he has exactly zero understanding of open source, or at least zero desire to have an intelligent discussion about it. Speaking to a pharmaceutical industry group, Bill Gates took time out to utter irrelevancies and inaccuracies about the GNU General Public License:

There's free software and then there's open source," he suggested, noting that Microsoft gives away its software in developing countries [largely in response to open source, I might add]. With open source software, on the other hand, "there is this thing called the GPL, which we disagree with." Open source, he said, creates a license "so that nobody can ever improve the software," he claimed, bemoaning the squandered opportunity for jobs and business.

Ahem. It's the exact opposite, Mr. Gates. 100% the exact opposite.… Read more

Gore's RSA talk updates 'Inconvenient Truth'

SAN FRANCISCO--Global warming is real, and new evidence shows it may be worse than we previously thought, former Vice President Al Gore said during an RSA keynote address on emerging green technologies Friday.

The talk, which ran 45 minutes and closed the conference here, updated the presentation used in his Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Friday's talk was similar to one Gore delivered in February at the annual TED conference, but without the slides. During the speech here, the 2007 Nobel Laureate was interrupted by hecklers three times; each was removed by security.

In an arrangement with RSA, … Read more

FCC greenlights text message emergency alert system

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a plan on Thursday to team up with wireless carriers for emergency text message alerts.

Cellular service providers can opt into the new system, called the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS); then, their customers will receive three varieties of text message from a not-yet-specified government agency.

There will be "presidential alerts" for major national emergencies like terrorist attacks, "imminent threat alerts" for localized emergencies like hurricanes and tornadoes, and Amber Alerts for missing children--which have been broadcast to cell phones since 2005.

A release from the agency hinted that as … Read more

Bill Gates is all for the poor: Now he tells us

I have to admit that I found the irony stifling in this CNET article on Bill Gates and his efforts to bring compassion for the poor to capitalism. Gates, who for years resisted pricing Microsoft's software lower for developing markets has suddenly become a big believer in helping the poor.

In every industry, Gates said, businesses need to start thinking about how they can use some of their energy and resources, say 6 percent, to expand their reach to poorer segments either in their own country, or globally. Food companies need to focus on micronutrients, while drug companies should devote some energy to diseases that affect largely the poor, such as malaria and tuberculosis.

But not in software, apparently. It wasn't until 2004 that Microsoft - more in response to the need to fight Linux and piracy than any increase in the size of its heart - started to lower its pricing for markets like Indonesia. Until that point Microsoft continued to price its software above the annual wages of people in these developing markets.… Read more