Microsoft's browser has been dominant so long that perhaps we thought we'd never see the day that IE usage would dip below 50 percent. Well, it's finally happened, at least
according to StatCounter. That company's findings also show that Firefox and Google Chrome are gaining where IE is losing.
Take those numbers for what they're worth. Other equally reliable measures from other companies still see IE dominating overwhelmingingly, such as these results from Net Marketshare. It's truly a matter of how one slices up the data.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 10/07/2010 at 11:59 AM1 comments
Take a guess how long bar codes have been in use. Twenty years? Thirty? Try more than half a century. In IT years, we're talking Stone Age, 1952. The first item scanned for its bar code in a commercial application was a pack of gum.
Bar codes have evolved since the very first ones, and they're everywhere. You might have seen a few nerds with bar code tattoos. With newer smartphones, a form of bar code dubbed the QR code can now be seen in e-mail messages, magazine ads and Web sites. Just point your smartphone app that reads the QR code and zap! -- you get instant info or redirection to a Web site.
More interesting factoids in this week's IT Webgems segment on Redmond Radio. Listen now!
Posted by Michael Domingo on 10/04/2010 at 11:59 AM0 comments
In this day and age, it's all about free apps. But free also sometimes means living in limbo. Take my personal Yahoo! e-mail account -- had it for years, but will it stick around? It's one I consider mission-critical. Another one that's mission-critical for me as an editor is OpenOffice. Yes, I refuse to pay for an office suite, blah blah ... you heard this all before. Oracle's got it now, but it looks like
OpenOffice.org is going to handle things going forward. Let's hope it's a smooth transition.
If you're an OpenOffice user, have you been concerned with the future of the free suite, and, for that matter, free software in general? And, frankly, do we have a right to complain? (It's free, so we get what we paid for -- yes?).
Posted by Michael Domingo on 09/30/2010 at 11:59 AM1 comments
PowerPivot slices data and information from various and large data sources into the right sized form, whether you need a little or a lot. The kicker? No coding skills necessary. John Lauer at Hitachi looks at a few scenarios for working with this new power for the masses in
this piece on the ESJ.com site. Read that and let us know what you think here
.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 09/30/2010 at 11:59 AM0 comments
Who has time to go to a conference these days? People who are out of work, that's who! Usually, being out of work also means having no money. Still, sometimes you do have to splay out the wallet to get something worthwhile. Microsoft is pulling together a virtual event, the
Microsoft Certified Career Conference, for job seekers who want to attend technical sessions and gain valuable career-building skills. Plus, tech recruiters will be there, virtually, of course. It all takes place Nov. 18.
Yes, there is a registration fee of $50, but consider it money well spent if you actually learn something that can help you step out of the unemployment line and into a techie career that you're meant to pursue. Bonus: no travel expenses for this conference.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 09/30/2010 at 11:59 AM0 comments
In 1983, computer programmer Richard Stallman announced that development on the GNU project had commenced. Its development in the minds of some pundits marks the beginnings of the free software movemement.
More interesting factoids in this week's IT Webgems segment on Redmond Radio. Listen now!
Posted by Michael Domingo on 09/27/2010 at 11:59 AM0 comments
What, have we gone back in time, back to when browsers and OSes were conjoined twins? It's a shame that
IE 9 will need Windows 7 to run, and at minimum you'll need SP1. That IE9 sounds slick, but I can only guess how slick -- what, with me running Vista on the work-worthy desktop and XP on my laptop. If you're running the IE9 beta, tell us at MCPmag.com what you think here
.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 09/23/2010 at 11:59 AM5 comments
A
Gartner report sees two events happening with the death knell for XP in the enterprise ringing in 2014: the need for Windows 7 migration pros will grow exponentially as companies start replacing XP boxes in large numbers. That migration will be like wildebeests crossing the savannahs of Kenya, except Gartner expects it to be about 250 times bigger.
That Gartner report might be flawed, though -- it doesn't take into account the world coming to an end in 2012.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 09/23/2010 at 11:59 AM1 comments
The incredibly successful Wii is just among a string of successes coming from Nintendo the last few decades, but the company has been at the gaming business a long time. True to its entertainment origins, the company made playing cards when it was founded way back in 1889. The company had been involved in other ventures since then, but it wasn't until 1975 that the company hit the jackpot in the electronic games manufacturing business, when it made the first Magnavox Odyssey video game consoles.
More interesting factoids in this week's IT Webgems segment on Redmond Radio. Listen now!
Posted by Michael Domingo on 09/20/2010 at 11:59 AM0 comments
What can you do with 5MB? Today, not much except load up one song or video file. Yet, it's all they had to work with at Chrysler this week back in 1956, to store information on the carmaker's parts inventory system. They stored it all on an IBM RAMAC 305, the first computer to use disk storage. More interesting factoids in this week's IT Webgems segment on Redmond Radio.
Listen now!
Posted by Michael Domingo on 09/16/2010 at 11:59 AM0 comments
Apple may have topped Microsoft on one list -- highest market cap -- but Microsoft can still boast that its brand is more recognizable. The Redmond giant comes in third on
Interbrand's study of "brand value," while Apple makes some gains at the 17th spot among the also-rans. Who's number one? Coca-Cola.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 09/16/2010 at 11:59 AM0 comments
The news on jobs in general is bad, but IT jobs might be a bright spot. Here's the lowdown from a
TechAmerica study of IT employment: 32K jobs added in the first half of 2010 comes out to an increase of 0.5 percent. Skimpy, yes, until you compare those results year over year: 143K jobs lost in first half of 2009. While most of those jobs might be foot-in-the-door help desk and support types of tech jobs, it's better than working in
fast food. Trust me on that one.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 09/16/2010 at 11:59 AM0 comments