A few years ago Microsoft decided to sink a data centre and see how well it performs. The short answer is: well, the underwater server farm did just fine. This is significant because it proves that underwater data centres are feasible and, to Microsoft’s surprise can be more reliable. Data
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Wise Law Blog: Moving Your Law Firm to the Cloud with Microsoft Azure
In this episode of “In Conversation With…” Kerry Cassanova, President of Micronova Software Solutions Inc, joins Wise Law’s Garry J. Wise to discuss the ease of migrating your law practice (or small business) to the Cloud, using Microsoft Azure. Garry and Kerry discuss the Cloud migration process, enhanced data security and speed with
Continue readingThings Are Good: Prototype Parkinson’s Bracelet Stabilizes Hands
Parkinson’s negatively impacts millions of people around the world by making their muscles harder to control. Basically, in people with Parkinson’s the brain fires extra signals which can cause involuntary muscle movements like shaking. Think of it as your brain stuck in a feedback loop of excitement which it can’t
Continue readingScripturient: Microsoft killed solitaire for me
Solitaire – also known as Klondike and Patience – is a very popular game on computers. So popular, in fact that a version of this 200-year-old card game has been included by Microsoft in every version of Windows since 3.0 (1990), aside from a brief hiatus with Win 8 (which
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: We Must Be Luddites
That can be the only possible explanation for the fact that the federal government is breaking its promise to end abuses of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program so that Canadians can have the first opportunity at applying for available jobs. As reported by the CBC, The federal government has granted
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Who’s the Real Immigration Minister Chris Alexander or Jason Kenney?
Ever since he was made a minister I've made it pretty clear what I think of Chris Alexander.How he reminds of the character in The Picture of Dorian Gray.Who after selling his soul to Stephen Harper, morphed from a promising young diplomat into a ghastly Con monster… But who knew
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Sophisticated malware ‘Regin’: Western intelligence suspected source of spy tool
Symantec just recently reported on an advanced malware tool known as Regin or Backdoor.Regin that has been showing up around the globe. A post that appeared on the company’s blog on Sunday described Regin as “An advanced spying tool [that] displays a degree of technical competence rarely seen and has
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Tech on the Side: Microsoft corrects past mistakes
In a world where tech companies are forced to make difficult decisions between mutually exclusive business models, it can be hard to know whether they decided correctly. For instance, did Google make the correct choice to release Android on a less-than-free model (which has been obviously successful), or did they
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Tech on the Side: Business Models vs Capabilities
One of the most fascinating aspect of following technology is not just the speed at which the technologies themselves change. It is that the shifts are so large and so fast that business models need to get changed on the fly. Many of the biggest battles in tech are not
Continue readingcmkl: Anyone still making fax machines? I found a buyer for you
Microsoft. I don’t usually comment on technology stories but this is Onionesque. Surely if Microsoft wants to regain its position as a technology leader/force to be reckoned with/etc etc it should be looking to use its money to buy itself back into relevancy, rather than picking up the only company
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: PM Harper has set up a sophisticated program to read our email and monitor our online activities.
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger Good morning folks. I was looking to do some tidying up and editing posts on the left side under News & Opinion from Home and Abroad. These are items from across the internet that I include because of their interest and relevance. This story regarding surveillance caught my eye again and
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Windows 8 is a flop, and there is little they could have done differently
The recent release of an IDC report shines a pretty bad light on Microsoft. Windows 8 is selling very poorly with the steepest declines ever in the PC market, and in particular it has entirely failed to gain traction in tablets, with companies like Samsung even pulling their Windows RT products in
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Microsoft’s vacuous new news portal
Microsoft is undoubtedly hoping that its new news portal, to launch concurrently with Windows 8 and be heavily Metro UI based, will revolutionize our consumption of news. Or at least, that it will manage to carve out a nice chunk of the Internet news market for itself, especially given the break up
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Edmonton Journal, Calgary Herald to shed more staff as newspapers struggle to survive
Peering through the fence at the newspaper business in 2012. Canadian newspapers may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Edmonton Journal editor in chief Lucinda Chodan. The newspaper industry was officially pronounced a dead man walking on Sunday, July 8, 2012. The declaration was made by no less an authority
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Liberal Party’s Future, New Apple or Old Microsoft
Tablet computers have been around for years, but it took Steve Jobs to make them popular. Though the Liberal Party has been around longer than any tablet computer, it shares more than a few similarities with the now ubiquitous device. The Liberal Party has strong fundamentals and viable market share
Continue readingWise Law Blog: Will Microsoft’s Surface be the Tablet for Lawyers?
Though I’m a long-time Windows user, I’ve certainly done my best over the last couple of years to warm up to Apple’s clearly superior mobile and tablet products. To be sure, though, I haven’t quite succeeded. Subconsciously, I keep asking myself the same nagging question: “Why can’t I do all the
Continue readingSmartGlass, the universal app that keeps giving
SmartGlass is a new Microsoft technology that allows users of multiple devices tv, Xbox, smartphones etc. to link them together for a universal experience in entertainment. It’s a sophisticated application that allows you to use your phone or tablet as a controlling device for your TV, almost like a remote, but with tons
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Diageo: Liquor giant backs away from science-dissembling Heartland Institute
Diageo brands.jpg The London-based liquor giant Diageo has joined the companies that are criticizing or cutting off the Heartland Institute in protest over its campaigns to confuse people about climate science and to cast prominent climate activists as "murderers, tyrants and madmen." As Leo Hickman reports in the Guardian, a
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Microsoft Fail: Computer company criticizes Heartland but won’t withhold future support
Microsoft corp citizenship.png Microsoft is finally taking a clearer position denouncing the Heartland Institute's irresponsible position on climate science, but the computer megacorp still won't shut the door on providing Heartland with free software in the future. In the wake of Heartland's highly offensive advertising campaign, in which Heartland said, flatly,
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland Billboard: "the most prominent advocates of global warming aren’t scientists; they are murderers, tyrants, and madmen"
Heartland Billboard.png The Heartland Institute's current President, Joe Bast, has launched a billboard campaign denouncing science, scientists, conscientious political activists – and by association EVERYONE else who speaks with concern about climate change – as murderous, tyanical or insane. Settling on that third descriptor, it's difficult to imagine what kind of
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