I was, uh, wrong: Chromecast does what Google claims

FallonChromeA couple weeks ago when Google introduced its Chromecast HDMI dongle I wrote a column wondering whether it was really such a good product or simply good demoware? Now that I have my own Chromecast and have been playing with it for a few days I have to admit I was wrong. Chromecast appears to be every bit as good as Google claims. That’s not to say it’s perfect (more below) but pretty darned good.

What I really doubted was Google’s claim that the Chromecast could turn on your HDTV, switch the HDMI input, and throw content onto the big screen all in one seamless succession of events. It wasn’t that any […]

By |August 28th, 2013|2013, Business, Internet, Media, Movies, Phones, Reviews, Software, Television|79 Comments
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Georgia Tech’s $7000 polyester masters in computer science

Productivity is good but wage stagnation is not. This trend will only be exacerbated by the trashing of U.S. education standards.

In case you missed it, the Rambling Wrecks of Georgia Tech will next year begin offering an online masters degree in computer science for a total price of just under $7000 — about 80 percent less than the current in-state tuition for an equivalent campus-based program. The degree program, offered in cooperation with AT&T and courseware company Udacity, will cost the same no matter where the students live, though two thirds are expected to live and work outside the USA. Time to complete the degree will vary but Georgia Tech thinks most students […]

By |July 10th, 2013|2013, Business, Economy, Education, Outsourcing, Software, Technology|114 Comments
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IBM to customers: Your hand is staining my window

Ginni_RomettyA month ago I began hearing about impending layoffs at IBM, but what could I say beyond “layoffs are coming?” This time my first clues came not from American IBMers but from those working for Big Blue abroad. Big layoffs were coming, they feared, following an earnings shortfall that caused panic in Armonk with the prospect that IBM might after all miss its long-stated earnings target for 2015. Well the layoffs began hitting a couple weeks ago just before I went into an involuntary technical shutdown trying to move this rag from one host to another. So I, who like to be the first to break these stories, have to in this case write the […]

By |June 20th, 2013|2013, Business, Companies, Computing, Software|351 Comments
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Cole Cringely on his ninth birthday

coletiedye

I am Cole Cringely

I am an ambitious boy who likes to code Java.

I wonder how to code Mojang applications.

I hear water splashing on the seashore.

I see happiness in the air.

I want superpowers.

I am an ambitious boy who likes to code Java.

I pretend I am flying on the swing.

I feel scared of bridges.

I touch the center of the Earth.

I worry about earthquakes.

I cry when I get insulted.

I am an ambitious boy who likes to code Java.

I understand the meaning of life.

By |May 13th, 2013|2013, Family, Software|38 Comments
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The Decline & Fall of IBM

That’s a pretty dramatic headline, don’t you think? It’s also the title of an eBook about IBM I will put on sale here about six weeks from now. IBM is in trouble, you see, serious trouble caused primarily by executive corrosion from within. Not only did Big Blue miss its earnings target last quarter for the first time in years, if the rumors I am hearing are correct the company’s primary response will be to screw U.S. employees even more than they have already.

The rumor I’ve heard is that IBM, which not long ago changed its 401K contribution policy to push what had been a biweekly payment into an annual one right at the end of the year, may have […]

By |April 22nd, 2013|2013, Breaking News, Companies, Computing, Software|135 Comments
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