Stories about: New Toys

Trying to boost the IT capabilities at his digital forensics company, Brian Dykstra invested in a quad-core processor-based server. After all, he figured, more cores means a more powerful machine that can do far more work than single-core systems.

The glow is off Steve Jobs' halo. Turns out the patron saint of electronic hipness has feet of clay and they don't walk on water. What should have been a triumphant resurrection of the Jesus Phone turned into a public relations disaster last week, as Apple's servers got overwhelmed by eager phanboys trying to activate their new toys.

WiMAX ready to launch, Verizon expands FiOS, Microsoft and Nortel partner, Intel shows off a new robot, Australia gets an Apple store, Tokyo shows off new toys and more!

All communities develop rituals over time. One of the enduring linux-kernel rituals is the regular heated discussion on development processes and kernel quality. To an outside observer, these events can give the impression that the whole enterprise is about to come crashing down. But the reality is a lot like the New Year celebrations the author was privileged enough to see in Beijing: vast amounts of smoke and noise, but everybody gets back to work as usual the next day.

Anyone who refers to their key audience as coneheads deserves to wear the dunce cap.

Customers are getting annoyed. They spent good money on the latest and greatest PC peripherals, only to find out that the hardware is only partially supported on their operating system of choice. Without the kernel drivers necessary to power them, some of the best features of the new toys are going unused.

Australia's Defence Force's new fleet of Wedgetail early warning aircraft will have more than an eagle eye when fitted with a CSIRO-developed, battlespace analytics program.

The basic mistrust of IT by senior executives has been going on far too long now. When all this stuff was so new that only a select few had any idea what it was all about, you could excuse management for being somewhat wary of the new breed of boffins with their expensive toys. But how long must this go on?

You know who he is. (It’s almost always a guy.) He’s the user who loves gadgets. He’s the first one to have every new high-tech toy, from the Apple Newton to a wireless modem to a camera phone. He used to ask you to support his gadgets when he tried to use them for work. And maybe you did, back when you still had the staff and budget to cater to one user’s whims.

"Let us redefine progress to mean that just because we can do a thing, it does not necessarily follow that we must … do that thing."

IT managers doubting the uncanny ability of some business intelligence systems to bridge budget boundaries within the enterprise need to get hip with alignment or watch their wallet.