By Peter Judge/ZDNet UK
IBM has said it is not getting back into the PC market, despite selling "Microsoft-free" PCs running Linux and OpenOffice in Eastern Europe.
"We're not getting back into the PC business," said an IBM spokesman, after the company announced deals with system integrators in two Eastern European countries last week.
It is IBM's intention to sell the so-called "Open Referent" systems, based on Red Hat Linux and the company's own Lotus Symphony software, which uses the open source OpenOffice productivity software, in Eastern Europe.
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Monday, March 24, 2008
IBM denies re-entering PC market with Russian deal
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
People power transforms the web in next online revolution
By: Charles Leadbetter/The Observer, March 9 2008
n July 2004, US cinema advertisements for Halo 2, the science fiction computer game, briefly carried the address for a website - ilovebees.com - which appeared to belong to a beekeeper who had mysteriously disappeared. Her honey-based recipes had been replaced by an apparently random list of numbers. Over four months 600,000 people joined in solving the mystery of what the numbers meant. What unfolded was a striking display of 'We Think': structured, mass collaborative creativity and intelligence.
People set up blogs and bulletin boards, websites and instant message groups. One 4,000-strong group, the Beekeepers, became the community's core, and discovered that the numbers were 210 sets of global positioning co-ordinates around the world and at each there was a public payphone.
The game's designers at 42 Entertainment in Los Angeles set the players a series of complex tasks and on the final day started calling 1,000 payphones on the East Coast of America. Whoever answered had to provide five words of intimate information, such as the name of their first girlfriend. The caller would then call another phone within the hour and expect to be told the five words. In the last of 12 challenges that day, the players had just 15 seconds to get the five words. They never once failed.
If ingenious games designers can inspire thousands of people to collaborate to solve a puzzle, could we do something similar to tackle global warming, keep communities safe, provide support for the elderly, help disaster victims, lend and borrow money, conduct political and policy debates, teach and learn, design and make physical products?
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Thursday, March 6, 2008
Microsoft's Chief Exec says Gates's company is thinking green
Microsoft has become environment friendly?
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer says it is but a US IT services company, Softchoice, disagrees. In a survey by Softchoice of 113,000 desktops from over 400 US organisations, 50 percent of the machines wouldn't be able to meet the basic Vista requirements. This being the case, Tony Roberts, chief executive of Computer Aid International, warned that Vista could lead to a glut of unwanted PCs entering the waste stream as users are forced to upgrade their hardware.
Roberts continued that as many as 10 million PCs may be discarded in the next two years as they are replaced by Vista-compatible hardware.
Meanwhile, the UK's Green Party has also criticised Vista for requiring "more expensive and energy-hungry hardware, passing the cost on to consumers and the environment".
Speaking for the Green Party, Derek Wall stated that: Vista requires more expensive and energy-hungry hardware, passing the cost on to consumers and the environment... This will also further exclude the poor from the latest technology, and impose burdensome costs on small and medium businesses who will be forced to enter another expensive upgrade cycle.
As earlier stated by the British Computer Society, "PCs contain many toxic components, so if they end up in a landfill we are creating a real problem for the future. It can be really easy to pass on the old machine to be reused, and if it's beyond use, to recycle it."
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Putin to remain as Russian President despite Medvedev's election?
With almost all the presidential votes counted, the Russians now have a new president: Dmitri Medvedev. Observers, however, are unanimous in saying that while Medvedev is the president-elect, out-going president, Vladimir Putin, will still be running country.
When Putin endorsed Medvedev last year, rumors have it that the former will actually be the one who will run Russia. He cannot just compete in this year's presidential elections because of the term limits imposed by the Constitution. The rumors, however, seemed to have been validated when Medvedev said his policies would be "a direct continuation of that path which is being carried out by President Putin".
Further, Medvedev seemed to have returned the favor by categorically stating that Putin will move out from Kremlin but will remain in the White House as a prime minister. And the prime minister, according to Putin himself, "is the highest executive authority in the country."
According to Adi Ignatius of Time:
Medvedev's rise means the presidency is now in the hands of a Putin loyalist. Yet that doesn't mean Medvedev will have broad authority... But now that Putin is moving office, it seems safe to assume that real power will reside with the Prime Minister.
Time's Sergei Guneyev even opines that the presidential election is "a ritual marking a prearranged transfer of power... with [the] formal outcome [is] already generally known, long before voters even enter the balloting booth" while "Medvedev may be less the heir to Putin's throne than its caretaker".
The Russians, meanwhile, have mixed reactions. According to ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, one of the losers in the presidential elections,
It seems that we don't have elections but a procedure of confirming the appointed president...This disgusts not me but the citizens of Russia."
Others, however, accept these without questions on the belief that only a Putin or an administration similar to Putin's can speedup Russia's economic development. Proof is Putin's un-waning popularity of 70%.
Of the 99% ballots counted, Medvedev got 70.22% vote-share followed by Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, with 17.77%. Tailing them are Zhirinovsky with 9.37% and pro-Western Democratic Party leader, Andrey Bogdanov, with 1.29%. According to the Russian Central Election Commission, the voter's turnout is only 69.9% of the total number of voters.###
Photo Credit: www.nytimes.com Sphere: Related Content
Monday, March 3, 2008
The Queen in Check: Has GMA still a way out?
Political forecasters predict that Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will not anymore last in power. Despite the absence of the "show of force in EDSA" last February 25 and the solid stand of the Catholic Bishops on her ouster, analysts see that the direction is already towards the Arroyo demise. But will these predictions hold? And if so, has Mrs. Arroyo still a way out?
Speaking in celebration of the First People Power in the Philippines, President Gloria Arroyo stated that the world will not forgive another EDSA uprising. Defying her words, political and independent forces blew the horn signaling the start of another series of protests three days thereafter.
Indeed, the lacking sight at EDSA on February 25 was seen in Makati under the guise of an inter-faith prayer rally. Ousted President Joseph Estrada even shared the stage with one of the key figures that caused his ouster -- former President Cory Aquino -- while Leftists and anti-imperialists brushed elbows with business leaders and capitalists just to air the call for Mrs. Arroyo to resign and give way in the search for truth. Similarly, religious leaders of various denominations also joined hands for the same cause while politicians hungry of media mileage agreed not to steal a moment to keep the people intact and united.
Second, Vice President Noli De Castro, after years of silence, is now talking of his readiness to succeed Mrs. Arroyo in case she resigns or get ousted. And his lips now sings his support for the search for truth. These, along with the mistakes of Mrs. Arroyo and her camp to control the reins of their statements are no doubt pointing to one thing -- the end of the Arroyo Administration.
But, if the end is near, will there still be a way out?
The answer, of course, is on the affirmative. And this can be done by just balancing properly all interests. The only question is: Is Mrs. Arroyo willing to make some sacrifices?
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Medvedev set to win Russia poll
BBC News
The man initial results suggest has won Russia's presidential election, Dmitry Medvedev, has vowed to continue the course of predecessor Vladimir Putin.
While cautioning that the full results were not in, Mr Medvedev told reporters he hoped to work in an "effective tandem" with Mr Putin as his PM.
As president, he said, he would control foreign policy with the defence of Russian interests his chief priority.
Mr Putin, he confirmed, would be moving out of the Kremlin.
Mr Medvedev is leading with about 70% of the vote with more than 98% of ballots counted, the Russian election commission reports.
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