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Sep
22
SAP, the world’s largest business software company has joined the on-demand software movement with the launch of Business ByDesign, a web-based, hosted suite of applications aimed towards mid-size companies that are between 100 and 500 employees. SAP has geared Business ByDemand towards growing companies that have not yet invested significantly on their IT needs. SAP estimates this market to be worth $15 billion globally.
Sep
18
The New York Times reported today that it would abandon paid access to certain parts of its online content and make the entire online edition accessible for free. The paid access service called TimeSelect had been introduced in 2005, wherein for $7.95 per month, subscribers would get access to the editorial and columnists opinions along with NYT archives. The columnists’ content were indeed premium and I had subscribed to it for a few months in 1996. But the problem was that the monthly subscription price seemed too steep. While I lamented losing access to Tom Friedman’s brilliant columns, $7.95/month just did not seem like a good value. Besides, I was still able to read most other parts of NYTimes for free anyways.
Sep
15
There was a time when Acrobat Reader was easy to use, quick to load and never crashed. Unfortunately, these days Adobe’s Acrobat reader is a pain. I use Acrobat 7.0 and the latest version has a download file of 22MB! Only 4 years ago, the Acrobat Reader download file was less than 2MB. Its sad to see such a great program become so bulky, slow and buggy.
Sep
13
The Associated Press is reporting about a hacker Max Ray Butler, who has been indicted on several counts for hacking, stealing and selling credit card information from financial institutions like the Pentagon Credit Union, Citibank, etc. Max Butler goes by the online alias “Iceman”. He also operated an online forum on buying and selling stolen credit cards. Apparently he would check into hotel rooms and then using high powered antenna would connect to nearby wireless networks. He would then launch his attacks from those wireless networks. Read more »
Sep
9
Home technology has been over hyped and under delivered for almost a decade. The initial vision had consisted of home appliances being controlled by a central system, much like the security system in most North American homes. The central system could be configured to offer various services such as security, environmental control, home entertainment, etc. Unfortunately this vision has not translated to practical and wide ranging implementations.
