Scot Petersen

LAS VEGAS—Millions of computer users participate in software beta programs every year, usually toiling away in anonymity, never quite sure if whatever they find or report will matter in the final product. Others find the experience a lot more fulfilling, such as the families that participated in Microsofts Life with Windows Vista program. In addition […]

Michael Dell was in a giving mood Jan. 9 in his keynote at International CES. The Dell founder and chairman announced several new initiatives to encourage support of green computing and other charities, and challenged the rest of the industry to follow Dells lead. Dell announced the Plant a Tree for Me campaign, which will […]

The Consumer Electronics Show—aka International CES or just CES—kicks off Jan. 8 in Las Vegas in what has become the official start of the technology-industry year. The show has filled the vacuum left by Comdex when the latter closed the doors to its annual November tech fest in 2004 due to plummeting attendance. Microsofts Bill […]

LAS VEGAS—Eons ago it was thought that the Earth was the center of the universe. Later that was revised to be the sun. Still later, scientists proved that we are but an insignificant speck of star dust in the infinite cosmos. Good thing, because now, Microsoft has sought to reverse time and space and re-create […]

To paraphrase a well-known bumper sticker, stuff happens. In a year lacking in any singular event, we have to look under the covers to find what really happened in 2006. Sure, new products rolled off the assembly lines, notably Apple Computers MacBook Pro and Lenovos ThinkPad X60 Tablet—both cited as products of the year by […]

Most of the news these days is about the future. Deploying Windows Vista is a 2007 problem. Budgets are being hammered out to allocate 2007 spending. Some news is even more futuristic. IBM Research, always known for developing tomorrows technology today, has come up with a middleware prototype that will let mobile devices share data, […]

Most things in life can be represented by the classic bell curve: test scores, voting preferences, economic class, height and weight, for example. Count businesses in that great middle area of the bell curve, too, though you could even skew that curve further toward the smaller end of the scale. The fact is, most companies […]

Another week, another Linux bombshell: In late October, it was Oracle offering full support of Red Hat Enterprise Linux; on Nov. 2, it was Novell teaming up with longtime archenemy Microsoft to effect platform integration and patent protection. Together, the two moves signify a tectonic shift in the Linux landscape and big wins for customers—if […]

Microsoft has set the date for the long-awaited arrival of its next-generation flagship software products, Windows Vista, Office and Exchange. The Redmond, Wash., company has sent out invitations to the media for a “Microsoft New Day for Business” press conference on Nov. 30, where CEO Steve Ballmer will demonstrate the products along with Microsoft partners […]

Voice over IP is here, sort of. In one of the few cases of enterprise and carrier technology being way ahead of consumer IT, VOIP is being deployed in some of the largest companies in the world, but home and individual use is still lagging, the popularity of Vonage and Skype notwithstanding. PC-to-PC VOIP calling […]