Stories by Ian Lamont

On24 touts virtual events as alternative to real thing

If you asked 100 random people what they dislike most about attending conferences, it's safe to say "travel," "scheduling," and "cost" would be at the top of the list for most of them. Finding the time to attend conferences and dealing with the hassles and costs associated with getting there can take away from benefits such as hearing experts talk and networking with industry colleagues.

Early iPad reaction: 'It's just a giant iPod touch'

After hitting a grand slam with the iPhone, Apple can't be too happy with some of the early reaction to the iPad. On message boards, Twitter, blogs, and Facebook, a recurring theme has been to compare the device to a "giant iPod touch."

Wikipedia loses editors: Crowdsourcing reality check?

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia built on the backs of a seemingly never-ending supply of free labor, is in a bit of a bind.

Good vibes for Microsoft 'point-and-click cloud computing'

People who write code for a living have a love/hate relationship with Microsoft. Over the years the press has played up the hate (and the hype), but today I thought I would turn to one Microsoft software project which is generating genuine interest and kudos from some developers.

Mac OS X gets thrashed in OS social media face-off

If you were a betting man (or woman), who do you think would win in a social media face-off between the two most widely used desktop/laptop operating systems?

Google Wave reality check: weighing the challenges

"Google Wave [is] a highly interactive communication environment," intones the official Wave Extension Design Principles document. "As such, it provides both rewards and challenges to programmers wishing to extend its functionality."

Larry Ellison mocks cloud computing, sells it anyway

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has had a tough year. The man who was once dubbed the "Muhammad Ali of software" is helplessly watching as the competitive landscape shifts and his personal wealth takes a hammering.

Linden Lab focusing on higher-end systems for Second Life

A senior Linden Lab executive has indicated that Second Life's client software is being developed to take advantage of more powerful computers, but did not rule out future efforts involving low-end systems.

US police show Web 2.0 savvy in kidnapping case

The Boston Police Department has demonstrated its Web 2.0 savvy by using blogging software and online video to highlight the case of alleged kidnap victim Reigh Rockefeller. While the department's blog has only basic features and does not permit discussion of the case, updates relating to the kidnapping have been posted within hours of new developments and information on the blog has been reposted by local and national media organizations.

Why is Yahoo boosting domain fees by 30%?

Like many people, I "own" a few personal domains for my blogs and a few old business ideas that never got off the ground. And, like many people, they have been parked at Yahoo Small Business, partially because I already had a Yahoo account when I registered them a few years ago, and partially because I was lured by the US$1.99/year offers for new domains that they had running at the time. The rate increased to $9.95 after the first year, but I was OK with that. I was able to reserve the domains and set up redirects to my blogs, and have the option of building real sites if I ever get too frustrated with Google's Blogger service.

10 'Net services that will succeed, and 10 that will probably fail

The following slideshow contains capsule reviews of all 20 products and services.

Tom Musgrove discusses Blender development

Blender is a popular open-source software package used for modeling and rendering 3-D images. Computerworld recently spoke via e-mail with Tom Musgrove, one of the 35 active core developers on the Blender project. Besides explaining how the tool is used by 3-D artists, Musgrove also addressed complaints about the Blender user interface and discussed directions for future development.

Readers throw other technologies on the pyre

Computerworld's list of 10 dead or dying computer skills prompted some readers to submit their own technologies that they felt deserved to be mentioned on the list.