ZDNet Blogs

Now I Can Recycle My Old Pre-digital TV Sets

Harry Fuller — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:57:36 PST

My home state of Oregon has joined many other states with electronics recycling centers. If you are one of the six other people who live in this seemingly empty state, here's where you can find the "ecycling" centers. Many other states had electronic recycling before us. Illinois. Maryland. Kentucky, which privatized ecycling. Ecycling may not be too profitable right now. It appears the recession is playing havoc with private recycling business models. Here's a link to the clever private company that managed to glom onto the URL: ecycling.com. Sadly Oregon only collects monitors and TV sets and computers. They don't accept the two most trashed and trashable pieces of electronics: keyboards and cell phone. Best of all: mighty New Hampshire...

Mac OS X Snow Leopard: What price?

David Morgenstern — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:42:05 PST

Behind the scenes at Macworld Expo, developers have mostly good things to say about OS X 10.6, called "Snow Leopard." While details may emerge during Tuesday's keynote presentation, the biggest question mark is the cost of the update. One developer wondered about Snow Leopard's marketing: "From a marketing point of view, if you call something 'Leopard' and the next version is 'Snow Leopard,' then that [latter version] has to be free. Maybe [Apple can charge] a slight bump, but not a $99 upgrade." (All of the developers requested their discussion be without attribution.) Another developer agreed that Snow Leopard would be a "tough sell" as an update. However, the cost question was important to developers' plans and for customer...

The 2009 Green Wars Being Fought Now

Harry Fuller — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:19:28 PST

In Washington D.C. the stakes are high. The stakes are huge. The stakes are for a major porton of the cash that will go into the United States' mounting federal debt. That means big money. How much will Obama's version of the federal government put into greentech? That is the multi-billion dollar question. The line forms in front of Uncle Sam's seemingly bottomess ATM. Bottomless as long as China and Japan and Saudi Arabia are willing to lend the U.S.ever more money. Who wants what? The Union of Concerned Scientists are asking for more facts, less faith, in making regulatory decisions. Here you can find their list of ten things they want to see from the Obama Admin. To save...

A technical look at how parallel processing brings vast new capabilities to large-scale BI and data analysis

Dana Gardner — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:12:18 PST

The core problem we've solved is the ability for our engine to redistribute the data and the computation on the fly, as these queries and analysis are being performed. ... The combination of the software-switch interconnect, which Greenplum built into the Greenplum product, and the underlying use of commodity parallel computers, is brought together in this database system that makes it possible to do SQL query and languages like MapReduce with automatic parallelism.

HP's SaaS PPM solution

Brian Sommer — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:53:36 PST

A Relevant and Robust Offering for today's IT organizations I had a chance to speak with Marc Olesen – VP SaaS for HP Software and Solutions recently. We discussed HP’s offerings in the Project Portfolio Management (PPM) and IT Management spaces. Background: HP’s software organization is a large entity although that may get overshadowed by HP's hardware or services product/service lines. The firm has expanded its PPM software offerings in recent years via acquisitions and the most relevant to this discussion include: Peregrine (2005), Mercury Interactive (2006) and Kintana (2003). The company now possesses a relatively complete and formidable line-up of solutions to help internal IT groups manage complex projects and project portfolios. So who is HP’s target customer for...

Google launches Picasa for the Mac!

Garett Rogers — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:47:46 PST

Last week I blogged about a piece of information that was handed to me: "... A Mac version of Picasa will be launched this year at Macworld ..." It turns out that Google did indeed launch Picasa at this year's Macworld Expo, and it looks great. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but I will surely be installing it on my Macbook tonight. today, we're releasing Picasa for Mac. While we've previously offered both a standalone Picasa Web Albums uploader and an iPhoto plugin for Mac users, Picasa for Mac finally brings all of the advanced sharing and sync features of Picasa to the millions of Mac OS X users who use Picasa Web Albums. Not...

Seagate crams 329 gigabits of data per square inch

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:34:06 PST

Seagate has announced that it is shipping the densest 3.5 inch desktop hard drive available - cramming an incredible 329 gigabits per square inch.

FileMaker 10 looks to be the real deal

David Morgenstern — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:27:47 PST

Customers will point to FileMaker's friendly new interface in Version 10. However, some significant improvements in the database's programming support may drive sites to upgrade, according to several FileMaker consultants.

New Year's resolution: de-crap your desk of (most) technology

Zack Whittaker — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:26:53 PST

My desk is a bloody mess. There's more crap sitting where I work than Amy Winehouse's music taste. Productivity is a word most people recoil from in utter horror; the connotation of having to sit down and "be productive" releases gasps of shock amongst the student community. I make it my New Year's resolution is to halve, at least, the amount of technology on my desk, to make me a faster, more efficient worker. For example, this is my desk as it is now. (Click for a larger, annotated version of this over-cluttered mess, of which I call a "workspace"...) As you'll see, I've got myself a laptop, a keyboard and mouse (obviously), a monitor, and a digital frame with...

It takes a lot to dismantle an Empire

Mary Jo Foley — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:18:06 PST

I'm not buying the rumored 15,000-person layoff that first percolated on Mini-Microsoft's blog before Christmas. There is a long legacy -- and lots of layers of fat -- protecting Microsoft from annihilation. This isn't a Microsoft apologist talking; it's a Microsoft realist.