Two major announcements by dutch telco incumbent KPN underline the need for strategic change in telco land, as margins on traditional services are eroded. In a deal with its supplier ATOS Origin, KPN takes over three data centers, and expands its workplace services to small and medium enterprises. In a more significant announcement, KPN states […]
Vista is Microsoft’s newest version of Windows, yet I have not seen wide enthusiasm for it. As I was walking through the rain this morning I pondered this question, and why this version of Windows is less of a breakthrough than other versions. Typically, people don’t move to new technology because they want its features, […]
A while ago I expressed my positive experiences with the online backup service Mozy. For you Macintosh users, the good news is that there is now a version for that platform. If you feel your Mac is not yet safely backed up, surf to Mozynow and give it a try.
How reliable is e-mail? Read this revealing article by Bob Cringely. Apparently Gmail is good, and some ISPs have a 80% failure rate because their servers are overloaded. The article continues with some more observations on service level agreements in a networked world. I wrote a magazine article about these issues a while ago (in […]
In the region where I live, last year the electrical power was down on the average for 36 minutes, up from 29 minutes the year before. That constitutes an uptime of 99.996 %. Research I have been involved in indicates that the best banking websites have a hard time getting 99.967 % uptime, equivalent to […]
Last night, somebody broke into my house and took my mobile phone, wallet (with bankcards and credit cards), and some other valuable stuff (but little of emotional value). Curiously, a laptop and passports where untouched. It awoke me again to the risks that are part of our highly IT dependent life. Although the laptop was […]
Does it matter much how digital music is coded and compressed? Theoretically, more bandwidth leads to more expression and better sound quality. Of all songs, I could only hear a difference between the CD version of a song and the mp3 version in Bach’s cantata “Wachet Auf” (BMV 140), in the part where the orchestra […]
Last week the Dutch consumer rights organization ‘Consumentenbond’ proposed to make computer companies and internet service providers responsible for the security of home computers. The majority of home computer users has had security incidents in the past 12 months, and is not capable of accurately describing the most important computer security threats. See also my […]
Yesterday I met with a company in Paris to progress a business opportunity, on which I will report later. They are deploying a computing device in customer homes, which connects by wifi to the Internet. Some people call this ‘ambient intelligence‘. The connectivity is absolutely essential to the operation of the device. However, it turns […]
After having lunch in the spanish town of La Jonquera, I noticed a lack of standardised electronic payment infrastructure at the restaurant’s cashier. In the picture, four separate devices for handling card transactions can be seen. Apparently, the spanish banks have not yet been able to agree on a shared digital infrastructure.