Stories by Robert Mullins

Even high-performance computing is seeking energy efficiency

High-performance computing centers are the Indy cars of the technology industry: built for speed and little else. Let the other guys build the Corollas and Civics for economy.

The iPhone: Why one little gadget matters so much

With its picture gracing the cover of Time's November 12 "Best Inventions of 2007" issue, the iPhone is undisputed as a technology product that matters to consumers. These days in IT that can mean only one thing -- the enterprise is its destiny.

How Cox Communications joined the teleworking revolution

The popularity of teleworking is based on a simple premise posed by an obvious question: Why should someone have to drive to an office to talk on the phone and use a computer for work if they have a computer and a phone at home?

Oracle takes on VMware, others, with its own hypervisor

Oracle is going after its piece of the hot virtualization market by introducing an open source Xen-based hypervisor to compete against those from Novell, Red Hat and VMware.

Red Hat expands Linux server, partners with Amazon

Red Hat is updating its Linux-based server operating system and offering a number of other related improvements aimed at helping the company assume a leadership role in enterprise computing. The enhancements include support for software appliances, improved virtualization, and a partnership with Amazon's compute "in the cloud" service that lets companies tap additional computing capacity on demand via the Web and access software-as-a service offerings.

Data integration tool goes open source

XAware, a provider of commercial data integration software, is now going the open source route, introducing the latest version of its product, XAware 5, under the GPL v2 license.

AMD vs. Intel

Advanced Micro Devices deployed Darth Vader and a platoon of Storm Troopers to greet visitors to a Barcelona launch event at Lucasfilm in September, but it was Intel that was assigned the role of the "Evil Empire."

Open source vs. commercial software

Open source software initially was a head-scratcher: "How can you make money selling something for free?" But once open source advocates clarified the meaning of free - "Free as in speech, not as in beer" - the open source economy took off.

Sun countersues NetApp over storage patents

Sun has filed a countersuit against rival Network Appliance over patent infringement allegations regarding network storage management software.

CTIA - Ballmer disses Google on wireless plans

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Tuesday, in a swipe at rival Google, that his company does not have any plans to bid on wireless spectrum in January, because being a wireless carrier goes beyond its core competency.

Mobile Firefox out to break industry hold on device apps

By developing a version of its open source desktop Firefox Web browser to run on mobile devices, Mozilla hopes to break the hold some handset makers and carriers have on what mobile applications consumers can use, an executive of the company says.

Oracle fixes glitch in PHP Web applications

Oracle has released a database driver free to the open source community that improves retrieval of data from Oracle databases for Web applications developed using PHP.

Ballmer claims Red Hat violates Microsoft IP

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says Red Hat Linux uses intellectual property owned by Microsoft and that Red Hat's customers should pay Microsoft for it.

Azul Systems cheats death with US$40 million bailout

Azul Systems, secured US$40 million in new financing Thursday just as the provider of Java "network-attached processing" servers was laying off employees and reading media speculation that it was looking for a buyer.

AMD Barcelona premiere brings out the stars

Hollywood draws Nicole Kidman, Jack Nicholson or George Clooney to its premieres. Monday night, Silicon Valley brought out Hector Ruiz, Michael Dell and Steve Ballmer.