Service Pack ate my hamster.

Oops! It would appear that the rigourous pre-release testing Microsoft applies to patching and update has failed…again (remember SP2?). Microsoft has said that, due to a ‘compatability issue’, the updates should not be applied to machines running MS Dynamics RMS (Retail Management System). DRMS is a Microsoft application designed to handle retail chain management for small to medium sized companies. The glitch has caused Redmond to delay the SP3 release through Windows Upate and Microsoft Download Center.

The issue is also seen in Vista Service Pack 1. Microsoft is planning to filter automatic deployment of both Service Packs to systems running DRMS until the issues is resolved.

Hmm, no comment!

Popularity: 16% [?]

…India!

That’s right. According to recent survey, the number of IT graduates staying in India to work has risen from 65% between 1964 and 2001 to 84% between 2002 and 2008. The number of IITians believing that the West offered greater opportunities fell from 60% to 49% over the same period. Note: IITians - graduates of Indian Institutes of Technology. No, I didn’t make it up. That’s the phrase doing the rounds.

Respondents to the survey stated that India is catching up the West fast, citing improved range and career prospects quality and the major reason for no going West. Interestingly, 72% of IITians think that India will hold more promise of success within the next ten years. America polled 17% followed by Europe with 5% - Oops!

Popularity: 14% [?]

Going for the enterprise jugular.

There’s no disputing the rise of the iPhone. But how do businesses go about intergrating these cool toys? They could employ developers to write custom applications to support the specific corporate needs. Or they could just go to iRise and buy a template. The California based company has been selling a prototyping platform for other phones for some time now. It would appear that predicted sales figures of 10 million units in 2008 has made iRise sit up and listen.

Cutting the lawn with nail scissors.

Until recently, if a developer wanted to build an application for the iPhone they  had to make the code work on Safari - the iPhone uses this browser as does OS X. Apple decided to up the stakes by releasing an SDK for the iPhone allowing developers to write code that ran directly on the phone. The main problem here is that once an application is written is could cost a serious amount of money to make changes. iRise makes life simpler.

The software suite is used to create prototypes of applications. The key point here is that no code involved. It’s simply a prototype that looks and works like the end product. This gives the decision makers in the business to really see what they’re going to get. Changes, if necessary, can be made to the prototype at minimal cost. Once signed off the application can be built using the SDK. Everyone’s happy. I wonder how long it will take for Apple to buy iRise!

Popularity: 12% [?]

A snip at $8.5 billion!

Even the European regulators said ‘yes’! But why the rush to buy a middleware company? BEA produces code  that allows business applications to interact with databases. Now you can see why this acquisition is so highly prized by Oracle. The recent spending spree ($35 billion in total) effectively sets Oracle up as a one stop shop for businesses needing a single source of databases and business apps. Other companies snapped up along the way include PeopleSoft (databases) and Captovation (Enterrprise Content Management). When you look at these strategic acquistion a picture rapidly forms around Oracles future direction.

One point to consider here will be the workforce. BEA employs around 4,000 personnel and Oracle has acknowledged there will be layoffs as it tries to generate maximum profit from the acquistition.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Too expensive, allegedly.

I know that Eire isn’t a part of Great Britain anymore but the fate of the Irish workforce does have significance for the UK. Let me explain. Currently, Dell employs about 4,000 workers on two sites in Eire. As employees arrived for work they were told that 250 jobs would be lost. This is part of Dells plan to restructure the company and cut costs. In effect, it’s getting too expensive to do business in this region. Add in the current state of the world economies and that should give you an indication of how some of the big companies are thinking. Ok, some of the big beasts in the industry have recently announced a surprising rise in profits but how long will that last? If the economy does start to slide you can expect many other enterprises to start looking at ways to reduce cost. The easiest way to do that is by announcing redundancies and off-shoring production.

Sunny side up.

I’m not suggesting that it’s all doom and gloom. This is a relatively simple analysis of where things are now. Another aspect to consider is the rise of the Tiger economies of the Far East, India and China. Just as we currently enjoy a certain living standard so will the populations of the growing regions. That leads to a rise in the cost of goods and manufacturing. At that point Western companies will probably start looking at cheaper sources of labour; in the West.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Your route will gridlocked for 10 years…

…have a nice day! Well, maybe not that long but don’t your journeys to work seem to get longer and longer by the day? Yes, I travel as well. Endless queues of traffic stretching over the horizon. Not much fun, eh? Users of Nokia mobile devices are in for a treat. The mobile phone company has teamed up with ARC Transistence to provide Nokia handset owners with Real Time Traffic Information. Rather than just telling you that you are, in fact, stuck in a traffic jam the service will allow you plan a route around bottlenecks. The offering is a Premium Service - i.e. ‘We want your money’!

The techy magic.

Nokia Maps 2.0 will be overlaid with information from ARC Transistence. As updates are applied the application can create new and faster routes for the user, apparently. Sounds a bit like the service my GPS gives me now. The bonus here is that Nokia maps currently covers over 150 countries so setting off from Brixham for a countryside drive in the Sahara desert just got a whole lot easier.

P.S Nokia Map 2.0 is currently available for selected devices. Just to to the Beta Labs website.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Part of the comeback plan?

AMD has announced an initiative to get ‘Business Class’ chips into small enterprises. This should, in theory, allow hardware vendors to extend the lifecycle of PCs.

Business Class processors will be drawn from the Phenom line, offering dual and quad core chips. In addition, computer builders will be given the opportunity to use Athlon processsors.

The launch of the Puma platform is expected later this year, extending the programme into laptops.

This could be seen as part of AMDs plan to recover from recent losses in the processor market. Admittedly, it’s a start on the long road back to the top but AMD will have to do a lot more work to pull consumers back onside.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Told you so!

Apples updated iMac has just been launched. The all-in-one machine sports:

• Updated processor - Intel Core2 Duo - 2.4GHz to 2.8GHz
• 1066MHz system bus and 6MB of level 2 cache
• More standard memory - 2Gb for all but the cheapest iMacs
• Faster graphics card - ATI Radeon 2400 XT in the 20″ model and a Radeon 2600 Pro in the 24″ version (with an option to add the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GS in this model).

The new offerings have undergone a redesign. The iMac now features a a slimmer profile and brushed aluminium casing - now all the Macs in your house will look the same.

So, good news all round. Apple’s sales of Mac have been flying high recently. I fully expect the new iMac to follow suit.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Annoying UAC beaten with a shovel!

A non-profit organisation, NeoSmart, claims to have bypassed Vista’s User Access Control. On Sunday they posted an article on their website which suggests that UAC has only been added as ‘annoyance-ware’ - I made that word up. Will it carry? To be fair, I think any of you that use Vista are already aware that this feature is pretty useless. In my opinion, the prompt that you receive should be more along the lines of: “Do want to run this software even though it might turn your machine into a useless lump of plastic and metal?”. Back to the article.

The system was designed to be broken!

Yes, you read that the subtitle right. Critics have said that, by bypassing UAC, NeoSmart are doing feature was doing as Microsoft intended - Yeah, let’s spend about $10 billion dollars on product with tightly integrated security features. The best part is that we want the security to be bypassed! It’s an odd world.curity”.

As you may know, UAC was designed to stop the installation or execution of dangerous code. I think most people will agree that it’s more of a hindrance. The constant requests for confirmation of trivial tasks make this a contender for ‘annoyance-ware of the year’ award.

Lowdown

NeoSmart have developed iReboot. This that helps users decide which OS they would like to reboot into. UAC caught the application at startup and  stopped it from running. Using some dark coding arts, the NeoSmart eggheads worked around this issue by splitting iReboot two. One of the parts, a background process, runs privileged access to the operating system. This does not require administrator approval at boot time. The second component runs as a client program and talks to the background service. This allows the code to run without invoking UAC.

There’s not much more I can say. Another hole or simply Microsoft having some fun to the tune of $10 billion. You work it out.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Rumour mill grinds on.

I admit to liking the HTC devices, especially the Shift. An easy to use handset featuring a Windows OS which integrates into your business network allowing access to email and apps on the move.  Not much more you can ask for. Or so it would appear. The latest rumours suggest that the company is about to launch two new products: HTC Touch Diamond and the Touch Pro. The new additions are expected to pop up on the 6th May.

Specs.

• Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
• Qualcomm MSM 7201A @ 528MHz
• 256MB ROM / 128MB RAM
• 7.2MB HSDPA / HSUPA (rev A EVDO for Sprint versions)
• 2.8″ VGA screen
• WiFi
• Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
• eGPS
• 3.1MP Camera with flash
• Forward facing camera
• Samsung MoviNAND 4GB internal flash storage
• Orientation sensor
• FM Radio
• microSD expansion
• 900mAh battery
• Dimensions: 51×99×10.7mm

In addition, rumours are rife that an Android based HTC handset may make an appearance on the same. Now that will be interesting.

Popularity: 10% [?]