The Decline and Fall of IBM

Cringely_eBook-cover_1563x2500Well my IBM eBook is finally available. Right now that’s just on Amazon.com for the Kindle (just click the link to the right) but by next week it will be on every eBook platform (iPad Nook, etc.) and there will be a trade paperback as well as an audio edition. I’ll announce all of those here as they appear. 

I feel I owe an explanation for the long delay in publishing this book. I finished it in early January, about a week after my mother died, only to learn that my old-school book publisher didn’t want to touch it. Or more properly they wanted […]

By |June 4th, 2014|2014, Books, Breaking News, Business, Companies, Computing, Finance, Industry, Outsourcing|229 Comments
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Apple’s iPad Problem

ipadboyzMy three sons share an Apple iPad given to them by Mimi, their grandmother. When she bought it a couple years ago the iPad was top-of-the-line with 64 gigs and a Retina display. The boys run it hard on car trips where it functions as a hotspot and under covers in their bedrooms along with a couple iPhones, iPod Touches, various Kindles and some cheaper seven-inch Android tablets. In all we have probably a dozen touchscreen devices in the house but most of the action takes place on iPhones or that one iPad. Great for Apple, right? Not really. Apple’s iPad sales are dropping you see and the reason nobody seems to […]

By |May 19th, 2014|2014, Companies, Computing, Family, Gadgets, Industry, mobile technology, Phones, Tablets|79 Comments
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Big Data is the new Artificial Intelligence

deskset4This is the first of a couple columns about a growing trend in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it is likely to be integrated in our culture. Computerworld ran an interesting overview article on the subject yesterday that got me thinking not only about where this technology is going but how it is likely to affect us not just as a people. but as individuals. How is AI likely to affect me? The answer is scary.

Today we consider the general case and tomorrow the very specific.

The failure of Artificial Intelligence. Back in the 1980s there was a popular field called Artificial Intelligence, the major idea of which was to figure out how experts […]

By |April 15th, 2014|2014, cloud computing, Computing, Internet, Science, Technology, Television|119 Comments
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Some thoughts on the passing of Windows XP

winXPIt may be hard to believe but there was a time when people looked forward to new versions of operating systems. Before Windows XP many PC operating systems were not very good. The developers of applications had to code around problems.  Companies wanted their business applications to be more reliable.  Over the years operating systems improved.

Before Windows XP Microsoft had two PC operating systems.  One was the descendant of Windows 95 the other of Window NT.  In the years that preceded Windows XP Microsoft incrementally improved the user interface on the Windows 95 side and the reliability and performance on the NT side.   Windows XP was the convergence of the best of both.   Before XP […]

By |April 9th, 2014|2014, Companies, Computing, Software, Technology|71 Comments
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IBM sells Intel server business, company is doomed

Zemanta Related Posts ThumbnailIBM today sold its Intel server business to Lenovo, yet another example of Big Blue eating its seed corn, effectively dooming the company for the sake of short-term earnings. It’s a good move for Lenovo and an act of desperation for IBM.

Wall Street analysts may see this as a good move but then Wall Street analysts typically aren’t that smart. They’ll characterize it as selling-off a low-margin server business (Intel-based servers) to concentrate on a higher-margin server business (Z-series and P-series big iron) but the truth is IBM has sold the future to invest in the past. Little servers are the future of big computing. IBM needs to be a major supplier […]

By |January 23rd, 2014|2014, Breaking News, Business, Companies, Computing, Technology|117 Comments
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