 Chris Goh's "On the Net"
I doubt there is a single word left unsaid in trying to encompass the enormity of the loss and grief so many friends, parents, children, the City of New York, a nation and a globe have felt in the last week.
It's been a month since my last article - I took a holiday. In that time there have been some enormous changes in IT. I've been fortunate enough to get the inside scoop from my visit to the US. I was astounded by the developments.
Next week I'll look at the new digital cameras coming our way. In the US, I road-tested at a Fry's electronic store (a US chain with stores bigger than a Hardware House) the latest 6-Megapixel cameras with Nikon interchangeable lenses (just like a real SLR). And Pioneer has released DVD writers under $2000. Stay tuned.
Hotnews
Hewlett Packard's $25 billion move to take over Compaq feels like deja vu.
It was only five years ago that Compaq made history by buying up Digital/DEC in the biggest corporate takeover for a long time.
But what's worrying this time around is that HP is not in a good shape itself, after the company's market strength weakened and led to a declining profit. Compaq, with diverse competencies, should have weathered this cyclical business downturn.
If HP takes them over, then something is seriously awry. Compaq has a clear market dominance in the mid-server market. While it's lost some ground to Dell in the notebook market, Compaq's new IPAQ drew the mobile market away from Palm. The company sold off DEC's old but advanced Alpha Chip design to Intel for cash flow, and concentrated on diversifying in business solutions. Among other things, Compaq is a major Microsoft partner. HP on the other end, has been severely battered in its traditional printer market. The desktop sales are worse. Only time will tell whether this take-over will work. But then the last company to attempt something like this was Air New Zealand taking on the much bigger Ansett...
Microsoft will not be broken up even though it has blatantly monopolised the market place and is continuing to diversify. It looks as if that the umpire has called a foul, but let them make a home run (to give things an American flavour). Yet some good does come of making all that money. Microsoft is one of a number of leading companies which has donated $10 million towards disaster in New York.
Intel has reached a new benchmark speed of 2 GigaHertz for its Pentium processors. Intel has also announced the end of the development for the PIII, which means in about six months, it should be a good time for PC purchases again. Intel has also announced that it will drop support for the troubled but powerful RAMBUS technology in its new 845 chipset, nicknamed the Brookdale. It will introduce a replacement BUS for PCI within 2 years, as an extended PCI.
You think that by now people would learn that hatred leads to great ills in society. In the wake of the American disaster, there's a cyber-anger appearing in the form of derogatory websites aimed at Muslims. If there is anything we should ask in the wake of this disaster is how did the world perpetuate such hatred, which led to such cruelty.
In Antarctica, Australian scientists are about to begin the construction of wind turbines which they hope will eliminate or substantially decrease the need to ship diesel fuel to the area.
Hotsites
www.tomshardware.com
I have it on good authority that even Intel engineers visit here first to see what roadmaps they will be following. Toms Hardware is well recognised as a leading source of road maps for large IT companies.
www.worldnews.com
If you want a diverse range of news from around the globe this site is the place to go. You can choose your news on the search engine by country, subject, date and language - and there's a radio site off the portal.
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