Computerworld Input Output: What the Vista launch means for early adopters; PDA shopping guide

In this week's episode of the podcast: This week is the official launch of Microsoft Vista, and Computerworld's Vista guru talks about what early adopters can expect from the new OS. Also, Computerworld's gadget guru gives the rundown on some high-end PDAs and accessories for your holiday shopping list.Podcast duration: 12 minutesRelated content:Windows Vista A to Z

Computerworld Input Output: What the Vista launch means for early adopters; PDA shopping guide

In this week's episode of the podcast: This week is the official launch of Microsoft Vista, and Computerworld's Vista guru talks about what early adopters can expect from the new OS. Also, Computerworld's gadget guru gives the rundown on some high-end PDAs and accessories for your holiday shopping list.Podcast duration: 12 minutesRelated content:Windows Vista A to Z

Squeezing the last drops of performance from the T1000

I've just spent 45 minutes on the phone with an expert from Sun talking about how I can squeeze even more performance out of the T1000 after my report, T1000 web performance results initial thoughts. It was one of those conversations that was littered with more TLAs (three letter abbreviations) and expressions that would have sounded like Martian to the general populace. It was, despite this, phenomenally useful. It also shows just how complex the optimization process can be; there are so many things to think about, from the performance of the network hardware, the driver that supports it, the OS stack that provides this interface on to the application, and of course the application itself. With so many things to consider, it's no wonder that it can take months to get the best out of a system.

Squeezing the last drops of performance from the T1000

I've just spent 45 minutes on the phone with an expert from Sun talking about how I can squeeze even more performance out of the T1000 after my report, T1000 web performance results initial thoughts. It was one of those conversations that was littered with more TLAs (three letter abbreviations) and expressions that would have sounded like Martian to the general populace. It was, despite this, phenomenally useful. It also shows just how complex the optimization process can be; there are so many things to think about, from the performance of the network hardware, the driver that supports it, the OS stack that provides this interface on to the application, and of course the application itself. With so many things to consider, it's no wonder that it can take months to get the best out of a system.

Real world 1, Vista 0

My husband, aka "IT Guy," downloaded Vista's final client pretty much the moment it became available. (Corporate users with an MSDN account were allowed to download the business version of the Vista client last week even though it officially goes on sale today. The consumer version is still on track for the end of January.)Vista was supposed to be a stand-in for the Mac that IT Guy really wants, but it didn't turn out that way.Yes, the interface is beautiful, and it did wind up helping our real-time video client. (For some reason, channel 5 never worked before Vista.) But it turns out that some key drivers, at least for our home use, are still missing (among them a tablet device used for creating digital art and a painter application). The printer driver wasn't really happy, either.

Real world 1, Vista 0

My husband, aka "IT Guy," downloaded Vista's final client pretty much the moment it became available. (Corporate users with an MSDN account were allowed to download the business version of the Vista client last week even though it officially goes on sale today. The consumer version is still on track for the end of January.)Vista was supposed to be a stand-in for the Mac that IT Guy really wants, but it didn't turn out that way.Yes, the interface is beautiful, and it did wind up helping our real-time video client. (For some reason, channel 5 never worked before Vista.) But it turns out that some key drivers, at least for our home use, are still missing (among them a tablet device used for creating digital art and a painter application). The printer driver wasn't really happy, either.

Real world 1, Vista 0

My husband, aka "IT Guy," downloaded Vista's final client pretty much the moment it became available. (Corporate users with an MSDN account were allowed to download the business version of the Vista client last week even though it officially goes on sale today. The consumer version is still on track for the end of January.)Vista was supposed to be a stand-in for the Mac that IT Guy really wants, but it didn't turn out that way.Yes, the interface is beautiful, and it did wind up helping our real-time video client. (For some reason, channel 5 never worked before Vista.) But it turns out that some key drivers, at least for our home use, are still missing (among them a tablet device used for creating digital art and a painter application). The printer driver wasn't really happy, either.

Real world 1, Vista 0

My husband, aka "IT Guy," downloaded Vista's final commercial client pretty much the moment it became available. (For corporate users with an MSDN account, availability of the consumer edition was last week; the corporate version is still waiting for January and the consumer Vista officially goes on sale today, November 30.)<br> Vista was supposed to be a stand-in for the Mac that IT Guy really wants, but it didn't turn out that way.<br>Yes, the interface is beautiful, and it did wind up helping our real-time video client. (For some reason, channel 5 never worked before Vista.) But it turns out that some key drivers, at least for our home use, are still missing (among them a tablet device used for creating digital art and a painter application). The printer driver wasn't really happy, either.<br>

Real world 1, Vista 0

My husband, aka "IT Guy," downloaded Vista's final client pretty much the moment it became available. (Corporate users with an MSDN account were allowed to download the business version of the Vista client last week even though it officially goes on sale today. The consumer version is still on track for the end of January.)Vista was supposed to be a stand-in for the Mac that IT Guy really wants, but it didn't turn out that way.Yes, the interface is beautiful, and it did wind up helping our real-time video client. (For some reason, channel 5 never worked before Vista.) But it turns out that some key drivers, at least for our home use, are still missing (among them a tablet device used for creating digital art and a painter application). The printer driver wasn't really happy, either.

Shark Tank: Typhoid Larry

This pilot fish is the only IT person at a university field station run by the marine studies department. Part of his job: managing a computer lab for the students to use.

Shark Tank: Typhoid Larry

This pilot fish is the only IT person at a university field station run by the marine studies department. Part of his job: managing a computer lab for the students to use.

Shark Tank: Typhoid Larry

This pilot fish is the only IT person at a university field station run by the marine studies department. Part of his job: managing a computer lab for the students to use.

Hello, Vista; have some malware

Security researchers at Sophos have identified three viruses already in circulation that can potentially affect computer's running Vista -- a less-than-auspicious discovery for the operating system's official launch.

Q&A: Richard Lawson on Oracle, SAP and being customer-oriented

Richard Lawson, the co-founder of Lawson Software, talked about why SAP is the No. 1 ERP software vendor instead of his company, what his firm is doing now and why Oracle's buying spree presents "a huge opportunity."

Vista: It's heeeeere (for business customers, at least)

Microsoft celebrated its Vista and Office 2007 business launch across the globe today, including a major event in New York.

Piracy ring hits Symantec, slows Veritas license rollout

A piracy ring that has cost Symantec tens of millions of dollars in revenue is one reason the company is pushing all of its customers to sign up for a new online licensing program to verify the authenticity of their software.

Piracy ring hits Symantec, slows Veritas license rollout

A piracy ring that has cost Symantec tens of millions of dollars in revenue is one reason the company is pushing all of its customers to sign up for a new online licensing program to verify the authenticity of their software.

French government groks desktop Linux (and spammer hell)

Zut alors! C'est le IT Blogwatch, in which la belle France cozies up avec les pingouins. Not to mention a special place in hell for spammers... David Garrett a dit bonjour: The French parliament has said au revoir to Microsoft. Starting in June of next year, French deputies will use desktops and servers running Linux, Mozilla's Firefox Web browser, and OpenOffice.org, a free open-source alternative to Microsoft's Office software. For day-to-day documents, French members of parliament and their staff will use OpenOffice.org, currently in version 2.0.4 and designed to compete directly with Microsoft's Office System.

French government groks desktop Linux (and spammer hell)

Zut alors! C'est le IT Blogwatch, in which la belle France cozies up avec les pingouins. Not to mention a special place in hell for spammers... David Garrett a dit bonjour:The French parliament has said au revoir to Microsoft. Starting in June of next year, French deputies will use desktops and servers running Linux, Mozilla's Firefox Web browser, and OpenOffice.org, a free open-source alternative to Microsoft's Office software. For day-to-day documents, French members of parliament and their staff will use OpenOffice.org, currently in version 2.0.4 and designed to compete directly with Microsoft's Office System.

French government groks desktop Linux (and spammer hell)

Zut alors! C'est le IT Blogwatch, in which la belle France cozies up avec les pingouins. Not to mention a special place in hell for spammers... David Garrett a dit bonjour:The French parliament has said au revoir to Microsoft. Starting in June of next year, French deputies will use desktops and servers running Linux, Mozilla's Firefox Web browser, and OpenOffice.org, a free open-source alternative to Microsoft's Office software. For day-to-day documents, French members of parliament and their staff will use OpenOffice.org, currently in version 2.0.4 and designed to compete directly with Microsoft's Office System.