2010 November 15 archive at Robert Pogson

Archive for November 15th, 2010

Correction?

Published by Robert Pogson November 15th, 2010 in technology. 0 Comments

In our rush to congratulate M$ on the fine quarter produced by its wonderful “7″, we missed something. Again, M$ had cooked the books to make “7″ division look better, 5% better. Information Week found, Exclusive: Microsoft Altered Windows Sales Numbers
“Eliminating the effects of the deferral plan and Microsoft’s internal reorganization shows that the Windows group’s year-over-year sales increase in the most recent quarter was nowhere near the 66% Microsoft reported last month.
By Microsoft’s own admission in its 10Q filing of Oct. 28, Windows sales from the OEM channel, which account for 75% of all Windows sales, increased just 11% year-over-year when the deferral program is considered. Not bad, but it’s pretty much in line with most estimates for overall PC market growth during the period, including Microsoft’s own.”
So, I noticed that many PCs had gone by without installing “7″ and growth is not to be found in the numbers beyond the normal expectation with respect to numbers of PCs shipped and InformationWeek noticed some slight-of-hand. One wonders how bad the news would have been if they had not been able to force “7″ on consumers.

- Robert Pogson

Folio Follies

Published by Robert Pogson November 15th, 2010 in technology. 0 Comments

There’s news that Dixon’s, a retail chain in UK, has stopped selling Toshiba’s Folio 100 because of high return rates. Shades of Walmart’s netbooks… A review by PC Pro reveals no show-stoppers but a handful of short-comings. It may be a bad batch or that the particular configuration of software was defective. Toshiba rushed the product a bit to beat competitors to market. That may have been a mistake.

The version of Android Toshiba was using is optimized for smartphones and others are waiting for the next release of Android which is reported to be more suitable for tables. We shall see if Toshiba responds with a better configuration. Someone had to be first. If is a learning experience for all. One obvious problem is that Toshiba pushed their own small app store rather than letting Google’s ride. I would bet that discovery may have been the last straw for some who knew a bit about Android.

- Robert Pogson

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.