Author Archive | Ed Oswald

Seagate to Fix Hard Drive Problems Soon

Posted by Ed Oswald on January 21, 2009 at 9:15 am

seagatelogoThe hard drive company, which has seen its share of troubles due to the weakening economy, has another issue to worry about: failing hard drives. Users of its Barracuda 7200.11 desktop hard drive, as well as several other models including the DiamondMax 22 and other drives in the Barracuda line have been experiencing issues.

A bug in the firmware of these drives is causing them to either fail or lock-up. While data is not getting erased, it is rendered inaccessible to the user in some cases. Estimates of a rate of failure have approached 30%, although Seagate argues that it is not anywhere near that.

Seagate will offer free data recovery services to affected users through its i365 subsidiary. It also said it should have a firmware upgrade soon for those drives affected, although it looks like it will not bring back any data lost due to the fault.

More information on the exact cause of the issues may be released later today by the company, some news sources are reporting.

If you are one of the unlucky users having problems, either contact the company through the support website, or call 1-800-SEAGATE.

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Sony’s Hirai Suffers Delusion, Thinks PS3 Leads Market

Posted by Ed Oswald on January 20, 2009 at 12:48 pm

sonylogoI think somebody’s off their rocker. In comments to the company’s official rag PlayStation Magazine, Sony Computer Entertainment Chief Kaz Hirai made the unusual claim that install base numbers are worthless: the PS3 is still the official leader in the industry.

Pay no attention to the fact that the console is in third in overall console sales, that it was outsold by the Xbox by a 2-to-1 margin over the holiday, or that it still cannot attract decent exclusives. Because Mr. Hirai says it, we shall all bow to the PS3’s power.

Of course, Hirai’s comments are peppered with jabs at its competitors: that the Xbox is aimed at short term success while the PS3 is on a ten-year plan, and that Nintendo operates “in a different world.”

Nevermind that the console is difficult to program for because Sony did that on purpose, Hirai claims. His argument is this: if the console was easy to develop for, then developers would not take full advantage of the consoles power.

Okay, that makes sense. Make life difficult for the people who sell your equipment. That should work! I bet any game developer wants to spend twice the amount of time just to develop for a console that in the end has a smaller install base than its competitors.

I think its time for Sony to start realizing that the PS3’s business model did NOT work. I sure hope when it comes around to the fourth generation the company applies what it learns, but as stubborn as Sony is, I’m betting that won’t happen.

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Comcast Back On FCC’s Naughty List

Posted by Ed Oswald on January 20, 2009 at 11:26 am

comcast_c2Okay, I could have titled this a little less PC, but hey this is a family site. Anyway, the FCC is looking into the cable provider’s practices surrounding its VoIP service. And surprise, surprise: it has to do with net neutrality once again.

The charge is that Comcast is giving preferential treatment to its own phone service at the expense of its competitors. The FCC is pointing to Comcast’s own documentation on the service, which state VoIP calls are placed over a seperate network away from the Internet and thus less prone to congestion problems.

What this means is that network management policies put into effect by the cable provider could essentially degrade service from competitors such as Vonage, while leaving its own VoIP service unaffected. This could leave VoIP calls sounding “choppy,” Comcast has admitted

If this is true rather than some marketing gobbledygook, Comcast’s phone service would then fall under a different set of telecommunications policies that are reserved for regular landline service. Essentially, it would be considered a phone company like any other and thus would also be subject to regulation and fees of the landline providers.

Free Press, which has been a frequent critic of Comcast’s network management policy, said it was pleased by the FCC’s action.

“This letter is a positive sign that the FCC’s Comcast decision was not a one-and-done action on Net Neutrality … an open Internet cannot tolerate arbitrary interference from Internet service providers. Congress and the FCC must close any legal loopholes that permit anti-competitive behavior to thrive.”

Comcast had no immediate comment on the matter, however it has until January 30 to respond to the FCC’s allegations.

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Whitehouse.gov Gets a Makeover

Posted by Ed Oswald on January 20, 2009 at 9:53 am

At 12:01pm, the official website of the White House changed hands, and with it came quite a sea change as far as the openness of the executive branch. The website has a definite Web 2.0 feel to it — from the blogs, to the dynamic headers and whatnot.

But what’s really exciting to me is the transparency. All of Obama’s executive orders and proclamations will be posted on the site for all to see. The president’s agenda is also laid out on the website, and the Administration is soliciting readers to join the mailing list to stay abreast of current government happenings.

This is really smart. Keeping the citizenry up-to-date on your actions, as well as inviting them in, will go a long way in getting what you want done. Too often lately in politics, things are done in the so-called “smoke-filled room,” with little input from the people they are supposed to represent.

Ever wanted to have the President’s ear on a specific bill? You will. Non-emergency legislation will have a seven-day comment period before Obama decides to sign it: those will also be posted on whitehouse.gov.

The Adminstration says it has more in the works, but I’m certainly excited about what I’ve seen so far.

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Google to Give “Preferred” Sites Prominence in Results

Posted by Ed Oswald on January 19, 2009 at 9:11 am

googlelogoThe Mountain View, Calif. search giant is rolling out an interesting new search feature in beta that allows users to set a list of preferred sites, from which the search algorithm will give prominence to those sites when results are returned.

Google explains the feature as such:

The preferred sites feature lets you set your Google Web Search preferences so that your search results match your unique tastes and needs. Fill in the sites you rely on the most, and results from your preferred sites will show up more often when they’re relevant to your search query.

What this sounds like is that Google is interested in making its results more relevant to the specific user. While it’s not clear yet whether this may be the start of Google attempting to use these lists to create a “trusted sites” directory to further tune its standard results as some have suggested, this is useful for those of us who may be frustrated with the amount of junk that is sometimes returned in Google results.

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Ballmer Met With Yahoo Exec This Week

Posted by Ed Oswald on January 17, 2009 at 1:06 pm

yahoologoSo Steve, tell us again that you aren’t interested in Yahoo (although lately yes you have been singing a different tune)? Microsoft’s chief executive has reportedly met with Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock, according to a report in the New York Times. This would be the second contact by Ballmer to Yahoo’s higher-ups: he also apparently had an informal conversation with incoming CEO Carol Bartz also this week.

This seems to confirm the reporting from Tuesday which indicated that Microsoft has proposals ready to present to the Yahoo board any time now. The speed at which this seems to be happening also leads me to believe Yahoo is truly attempting to have something ready to go by the time it announces its earnings less than two weeks from now.

What exactly has been said nobody knows, but it probably involves the two companies merging their search assets. Bartz is apparently a little reluctant to give up complete control of the search business, so whatever happens Yahoo will likely still have a hand in the final product.

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Tech Layoffs Are Picking Up Speed

Posted by Ed Oswald on January 16, 2009 at 9:12 pm

Folks, I have to say the rate at which these layoffs are coming lately is beginning to seriously worry me a little. While we focus here on technology, forgive me a moment while I stray a bit. Across the economy layoffs — as pointed out by this CNBC article — have increased dramatically after the New Year.

The reasoning? After a holiday season that was more about denial of our economic situation rather than facing reality, companies are looking at their balance sheets and realizing what bad shape the US economy is in.  So the first reaction is to cut costs, and that nearly always means layoffs.

You have probably already read David’s reporting on AMD’s latest round of cuts, and Harry’s take on the end of Circuit City. But it goes beyond this.

Motorola? They’ll be cutting another 4,000 jobs due to weak handset sales. Autodesk’s balance sheet is deteriorating, so it has decided to cut its workforce by 10 percent, which leaves about 750 without a job.

Seagate is set to lay off 2,950, which would be 6 percent of its workforce. Worse yet, some employees will see their salaries cut by as much as a quarter. Oracle and Lexmark are both cutting 250 apiece, and I’m sure we’ve only just begun. Sad to think we’re only 15 days into 2009, and its already this bad.

What’s more worrisome is that when stuff like this happens, spending on advertising also drops. Take for example Federated Media, Technologizer’s ad partner. The company announced that it’s laying off staffers who were focused on traditional display advertising in order to focus on more “conversational” social-media marketing initiatives. The weak market for display ads inevitably means less ads on at least some of the tech sites that are dependent on them for revenue.

What does that mean for those publications? Obviously, they’ll start letting go of writers. It’s just like dominoes.

This recession is by no means over: we aren’t even to the worst part yet. President-elect Obama is going to inherit one hell of a mess, that’s for sure.

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Sprint to Undercut Itself With $50 Boost Unlimited Plan

Posted by Ed Oswald on January 16, 2009 at 10:59 am

I don’t know but this seems just a bit odd to me. Sprint Nextel owned prepay company Boost Mobile is set to offer a $50 monthly plan which would give its users unlimited voice, text, data, and “chirp” (walkie-talkie for us less hip) beginning on January 22.

Unlike other prepay companies, who offer unlimited plans on a regional basis, Boost’s will be nationwide wherever the company offers service. Indeed, its promotional material highlights this important distinction.

There’s kind of a problem here though. Sprint has its own unlimited plan, which costs $99 per month. That gives the user unlimited data, text, and voice calling, but no walkie-talkie. So really, Sprint’s just taken the unusual step of competing with itself for whatever reason — and we all know they’re not exactly raking in the profits right now.

Indeed, the company is marketing as a way to directly compete with the bigger cellular companies, where offering these unlimited plans has become the in vogue thing to do. It also markets it as a way to get away from all the fees that our celluar providers are so fond of charging.

While I am thrilled to see Boost offering what is a really exceptional deal, I’m a little confused as to why they’d undercut themselves so much. I do have an hunch however that this might just be followed by an announcement by Sprint that they’re lowering the price of their unlimited plans as well.

Let the price wars begin. God knows we all need to save some money in this economy…

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Legislation Introduced to Push Back DTV Transition

Posted by Ed Oswald on January 16, 2009 at 8:45 am

Obama’s transition team has asked for it. FCC chairman Kevin Martin has spoke out publicly against it. Now, West Virginia Democratic Sen. John Rockefeller is attempting to get Congress to act on the digital TV deadline. Saying more time is needed, Rockefeller on Thursday introduced legislation to push back the date until June 12. It really isn’t clear if it will pass — telecoms such as AT&T and Verizon who have purchased the soon-to-be-vacated spectrum are opposed to any change. However,  there is some momentum in Congress to give people more time in light of the problems with the set-top box coupon program, it appears.

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MySpace Developing Free E-Mail Service

Posted by Ed Oswald on January 16, 2009 at 7:07 am

Rumors are swirling about social networking giant MySpace’s next possible move: a free e-mail service for its users. TechCrunch reported Thursday that sources told it the company has such a service in development, and at its launch it would already be the third largest e-mail provider without having to lift a finger.

Essentially, your MySpace ID would become your email@myspace.com. It’s not far-fetched to expect MySpace to integrate the e-mail functionality right in to the current messaging product, although I’d venture to guess they’d have to rejigger it a bit to make it work for non MySpace messages a bit better.

Is this smart for the social networking giant? You bet your bottom it is. MySpace is already trying hard to keep users on its pages longer, and nothing would do that more than e-mail. People check their e-mail several times a day — some several times an hour — and each time there is the opportunity to sell another ad impression.

MySpace is neither confirming nor denying the reports.

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