Hardware

Let's face it, most backup administrators are typically under paid, under appreciated, and only become important in the eyes of upper management when things go wrong.

This pilot fish has watched his IT shop grow from a single IBM minicomputer to dozens of servers connected to hundreds of PCs over the past 20 years, and these days he only occasionally sits in on a department meeting. But sometimes, that's a good thing.

An effort to manage cable clutter and save energy goes horribly wrong.

It seems the only way to learn the number of platters inside a hard drive is to ask the company.

Looks like Android 2.0 is shaping up to be an attractive proposition. And Motorola has new hardware to match. Yes, Motorola: who knew? In IT Blogwatch, bloggers type the words "killer" and "iPhone" (not necessarily in that order). Not to mention pumpkin cannon...
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Mark Shuttleworth, founder and CEO of Canonical, which makes Ubuntu, the popular version of Linux, recently said that he is "delighted" with the release of Windows 7, calling it an "excellent release." But don't expect that to stop many of the Linux faithful from badmouthing Windows.

Now that Windows 7 and Snow Leopard are both out and Ubuntu 9.10 is all but out, it's time to revisit which one is the easiest to upgrade.

Defensively buying a hard drive means taking into consideration the number of platters -- the fewer the better. But, you have to sleuth around in the specs to find the drives with the fewest platters.

In today's podcast: Microsoft revenue and earnings drop; Icahn quits Yahoo board; Some Windows 7 upgrades crash.

User calls support pilot fish with an improbable story: She says she dropped her mouse and her PC shut down.

In today's podcast: Toshiba launches DMFC charger; Ballmer kicks off Windows 7 launch; and McCain looks to block net neutrality.

Not sure about Windows 7? Here are five of the best, not to mention free, Linux desktop alternatives.

This IT pilot fish's job is as a support tech, so naturally he also ends up providing tech support for his friends and family. And when a friend calls with a printer problem, he knows just what to do.

Barnes & Noble has finally launched its much rumored e-book reader device: the curiously named Nook. As e-readers go, it adds some interesting features over its main competition. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers make the obvious comparisons to Amazon's Kindle. Not to mention stupid ER antics...
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The companies say that this new business Linux desktop will offer a 50% savings over Windows 7 while running on existing hardware.