PC Power: How Much is Enough for the Average User and Why PC Sales May be Suffering from Satiated Users

Brad Chacos has the story at PCWorld in Why Moore's Law, not mobility, is killing the PC.

Facebook as The New Yorker's Ultimate Dot-Com

John Cassidy has the story at The New Yorker in Facebook: The Ultimate Dot-Com

HTML vs. Flash: Can a turf war be avoided? | Deep Tech - CNET News

HTML vs. Flash: Can a turf war be avoided? | Deep Tech - CNET News
by Stephen Shankland

"A difference of opinion among developers has become a high-profile debate over the future of the Web: should programmers continue using Adobe Systems' Flash or embrace newer Web technology instead?

The debate has gone on for years, but last week's debut of Apple's iPad--which like the iPhone doesn't support Flash--turned up the heat. Before that, Adobe had been saying with some restraint that it's happy to bring Flash to the iPhone when Apple gives the go-ahead."

The Mozilla Blog : Firefrox 3.6

The Mozilla Blog

"What’s new in Firefox 3.6:

Below are some of the coolest features of Firefox 3.6:

* Personas: Personalize the look of your Firefox by selecting new themes called Personas in a single click and without a restart
* Plugin Updater: To keep you safe from potential security vulnerabilities, Firefox will now detect out of date plugins
* Stability improvements: Firefox 3.6 significantly decreased crashes caused by third party software – all without sacrificing our extensibility in any way
* Form Complete: When filling out an online form, Firefox suggests information for fields based on your common answers in similar field
* Performance: Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness, and startup time
* Open Video and Audio: With the world’s best implementation of HTML 5 audio and video support, now video can be displayed full screen and supports poster frames"

Put the Computers in Prison? Computer Crime as a Balance of Technology and Behavioral Science

Steve Lohr at the New York Times in Google Case in China Highlights Gaps in Computer Security writes that:

"“Fighting computer crime is a balance of technology and behavioral science, understanding the human dimension of the threat,” said Mr. Stroz, the former F.B.I. agent and security investigator. “There is no law in the books that will ever throw a computer in prison.”"

A Giant iPhone? Apple to Unveil Touch-Screen Slate Computer ?

Apple invites press to see 'our latest creation' - CNN.com

"(CNN) -- It's official: Apple Inc. will host a much-anticipated press event January 27 in San Francisco, California.

Invitations went out Monday.

Tech insiders expect the company to unveil a touch-screen 'slate' computer, which would look something like a giant iPhone."

Read the full article here.

Notebookcheck: Medion: 17,3-Zoll-Notebook Akoya E7212 bei Aldi für 599 Euro

For our readers in Germany, a good notebook deal coming at Aldi:

Notebookcheck: Medion: 17,3-Zoll-Notebook Akoya E7212 bei Aldi für 599 Euro

Cloud Computing at the ASIDIC Association of Information and Dissemination Centers Fall Meeting October 13-15 at the Westin in Arlington, Virginia

We note at Newstex that its President, Larry Schwartz, is to lead a session on cloud computing at the (ASIDIC) Fall 2009 Meeting of ASIDIC (Association of Information and Dissemination Centers) to be held October 13-15 at the Westin Arlington Gateway Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, to be joined on the panel by Michele Kimpton, Chief Business Officer of DuraSpace (repository platforms to manage, preserve, and provide access to digital content), Steve O’Keeffe, Founder and President of Meritalk - the Government IT Network (view their IT Dashboard (beta))- and George Landau, President of NewsEngin (engine for digital and print publishing).

Mini Mac by Apple

The blog Datapoint at ZDNet points to an amazing explosion of readership for Apple in the last month, a "heightened buzz" which they attribute to announcement of a low cost Mac PC, which also fits into the iPod strategy.

A Special Report at Platinax Internet News entitled "Apple explodes mass marketing" covers not only the "Mac Mini" but also Apple's unprecedented "major incursion into mass consumer shopping", citing to NixLog.

There is surely enough dissatisfaction out there about Microsoft Windows, its instability and security problems, that many will now give a cheaper Apple a second look. The PC competitors always had some advantages. We ourselves look fondly back to the days of our Atari Mega ST4 (in those days with absolutely dependable 4MB RAM) which ran without a hitch for years and NEVER crashed - not once. We have a good friend who composes music and today still runs his synthesizer programs on a Korg workstation using aging Ataris. Incredible.

By contrast, our Windows XP PC still crashes (freezes) regularly as it reaches its memory and virtual memory limits.

So it will be interesting to see what the "Mini Mac" can do.

Crossposted to LawPundit.

Comdex 2004 cancelled

Comdex 2004 cancelled

A June 23, 2004 article by David Becker of CNET News reports at ZDNet that Organizer cancels Comdex 2004.

This is a distrubing sign of the troubled times being experienced by the pc sector of the once glamorous computer industry which has been replaced by consumer electronics as the symbol of modern "high tech".

Op-Ed Columnist: Meet the Zippies

At Op-Ed Columnist: Meet the Zippies a February 22, 2004 article by Thomas L. Friedman, we meet Generation Z in India, the zippies, to whom we are increasingly outsourcing technological work. What does the future hold? Read the article.

Worm and Virus Writers

Clive Thompson at the New York Times has an article on worm and virus writers called The Virus Underground. It is a lengthy well-researched read on this growing internet problem. Thompson points out that what youngsters initially think is simply fun can land them in jail.

Smack the penguin

Here is a game for anti-Linux users (?) Smack the penguin [steroids version]!!! which probably violates all kinds of SPCA regulations in spirit, but it is kind of fun, and no harm is done. Click the caveman once to get the penguin to jump and try to strike him like a baseball and send him on his way with the club which will give you a score - our top is 1200,1. Hint: a vertical trajectory gets more distance than a high flyer.

It is absolutely mindless entertainment but the fact that you have the motivation of obtaining a high score - as always - is catching.

Internet Replacing Television

Via Steve Hall's blog AdRants we discover that the Internet is in fact moving 18 to 34 year-old males away from Television to the World Wide Web. This in part massive and we expect continuing move of "viewers" from traditional TV to WWW will greatly change the media scene over time.

Hail to the Queen ! - Tim Berners-Lee to be Knighted

Tim Berners-Lee is to be knighted.

See the W3C under the title "W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee to be made Knight Commander, Order of the British Empire".

It is beginning to appear that those persons who are recently being "knighted" by Queen Elizabeth are looking very much more like a "Who's Who" of the world than those being honored by allegedly more illustrious awards such as the Nobel Prize, which - as in the case of the Nobel Prizes for Peace and Literature - appear to be very politically motivated and, in the case of the sciences represented, often go to persons who work in obscurity and remain obscure even after the award.

By contrast, the Knighthoods seem to be awarded to people who are visibly shaping our world.

Hail to the Queen!