Rick's Short Circuit: tech news from around the Web
The US prepares for cyberwar while Microsoft Bings and Google Waves. Meanwhile, streaming content and PC sales come up short, and illegal file sharing continues unabated. Amid the bad news, I’m, like, curling up with an incandescent bulb.
• The Pentagon is preparing for offensive and defensive computer warfare and will create a new military command for cyberspace, reports the New York Times. The article reports that President Obama “will announce the creation of a White House office—reporting to both the National Security Council and the National Economic Council—that will coordinate a multibillion-dollar effort to restrict access to government computers and protect systems that run the stock exchanges, clear global banking transactions, and manage the air traffic control system.”
• Dell experienced its third consecutive quarter of shrinking sales and warns the PC market has yet to hit bottom, according to the Wall Street Journal, despite recent reports from executives at Cisco Systems and Intel that spending on technology seemed to be leveling off. The article cites poor demand among corporate customers as Dell tries to expand its reach into consumer markets. Notes the article, “Dell’s consumer revenue of $2.8 billion was down 16% from last year despite a 12% increase in consumer PC shipments.”
• Do we really need another search engine? Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer makes the case for Bing, telling the Wall Street Journal that Microsoft’s effort will focus on building a strong consumer brand for search. "To make our 8% [market share] grow significantly, we don’t have to capture the imagination of everybody, but we have to capture the imagination of some," he told the Journal. In a related article, Miguel Helft in the New York Times says that Microsoft will be making progress in its challenge against Google if, a year from now, you hear someone say, “Why don’t you Bing it?”
• For its part, “Google wants users to ‘Wave,’” reports the San Jose Mercury News, explaining that the free “Google Wave” tool “runs in a Web browser and combines elements of e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and photo sharing in an effort to make online communication more dynamic. Google hopes Wave simplifies the way people collaborate on projects or exchange opinions about specific topics.”
• On the Journal’s op-ed page, Ralph Nader and Robert Weissman criticize the government’s planned rescue of General Motors, writing, “Millions of people in communities across the country depend on the government getting the GM rescue right. That’s why it is startling—and mistaken—for the future of GM to rest with a small, largely unaccountable, ad hoc task force made up of a handful of Wall Street expats.”
• If the President does it, it’s legal, claim supporters of an omnipotent executive branch in the US. What if seven million people do something? The BBC reports, “Around seven million people in the UK are involved in illegal downloads, costing the economy tens of billions of pounds, government advisers say.”
• “The streaming content is there, but not enough people are watching it—yet,” reports Dan Rayburn in Salon. He takes a look at the Xbox 360, Xbox/Netflix, TiVo, Roku, VUDU, Apple TV, and Blockbuster Mediapoint Player as well as broadband-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players.
• Americans are continuing their love affair with the incandescent bulb, reports the Journal, despite the bulb’s inefficiency and the increasing availability of CFLs and LEDs. The article quotes Terry McGowan of the American Lighting Association as saying, “The only thing worse is a candle flame." As for me, I try to be an early adopter in most areas, but I’m sticking with incandescent lamps and candles.
See previous Short Circuit: Tech news Thursday focused on iPhone ups and downs, Android and digital washing machines, solar cop cars, the possibly emerging high-tech Michigan, muscle-car culture, and an admonition not to smile.
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