Opinion

It’s official: We all speak geek now

Geek domination steams along, as 'phablet,' 'srsly,' and 'selfie' land in Oxford Dictionaries Online's list of new words for 2013

SOFTWARE PATENTS BANNED in New Zealand — Worldwide HACKATHON hits NYTIMES — WIN8 apps may not run with Win8.1 — BRAIN CONTROL over the Internet

Windows Azure Pack: Cloud app convenience meets in-house hosting

The pack lets developers write once and deploy them locally in Windows Server 2012 R2, as well as in Microsoft's cloud

In case of IT emergency, break out the chocolate

On good days in tech support, users' kind words can sustain you. On the bad days, you need a different kind of boost

Modernizing the storage stack

As technologies like replication and RAID trickle down storage tiers, storage professionals gain broader options and greater control

Microsoft Surface naming debacle about to get worse

If rumors about 'Surface 2' and 'Surface Pro 2' are true, Microsoft better prepare to write off another $900 million

Windows 8.1 RTMs — but developers won’t get it until October

Microsoft sends 'final' Windows 8.1 to hardware manufacturers, but eager MSDN and TechNet subscribers won't get same bits

WIN 8.1 RTMs — ANDREESSEN-GELSINGER brawl at VMWORLD — FTC investigating GOOGLE-Waze tie-up — NSA hits corporate bottom line — THE ONION’s Miley Cyrus linkbait primer

Finally, mobile management both IT and users can get behind

MobileIron's new Anyware shows a smarter way to enable mobile users, especially in companies with Salesforce.com

3 tips for Microsoft’s next CEO: How to handle Windows Azure

With Ballmer gone, Microsoft could go boom or bust in the cloud. To succeed, the next CEO must consider these points

Understanding the software-defined data center

Fast becoming a buzzword, 'software defined' may not actually mean what you think it means

Has Apache lost its way?

Are the best days of the Apache Software Foundation behind it?

In defense of Apache

Apache is an open source giant, but does it live up to its community ideals?

Ballmer 2.0: We can rebuild him

Did Ballmer jump? Or was he pushed? Regardless, Cringely the career counselor is happy to point Microsoft's departing leader toward his next gig

VMworld 2013: Networking and storage take center stage

VMware kicks off its annual user conference with unveilings of VMware NSX, Virtual SAN, and vSphere 5.5

BALLMER FALLOUT: Pushed? Nadella next? — CHINA’s largest DOS attack — NOSQL insecurity — New GOOGLE dev policy changes billing, Play security — MARISSA MAYER bio

Zombie scripts can attack at any time

Make no mistake, abandoned scripts and other IT zombies can make for spirited problem solving

Why Steve Ballmer is headed for the exit

If you helped build an American icon, would you want the misery of tearing it down in order to fix it?

CommVault announces VM Archiving to eliminate VM sprawl

Solution integrates into Simpana platform, reclaiming VMware vSphere resources and boosting virtual platform utilization

In defense of Apache

Apache is great for many things, not so for others. Its proponents misunderstand its weaknesses, and its detractors misunderstand its strengths

10gen CEO: NoSQL has come far, but still needs better security, management

Better security and management are missing ingredients for NoSQL to become more mainstream

10gen CEO: NoSQL has come far, but still needs better security, management

Improvements in those two areas will help NoSQL continue to pick up steam, says Max Schireson

TWO GUYS MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED BALLMER — Ballmer decided to retire on Wednesday — His departure comes at the right time for the company — BHis legacy: bad decisions — He may have jumped before board could push

TWO GUYS MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED BALLMER — Ballmer decided to retire on Wednesday — His departure comes at the right time for the company — BHis legacy: bad decisions — He may have jumped before board could push

See you, Steve: 5 could-be, would-be Ballmers to consider

It finally happened: Steve Ballmer is stepping down as Microsoft CEO. Who will succeed him? Cringely has a few ideas

The two guys most likely to succeed Steve Ballmer

Steve Ballmer's spent many of the past few years nudging or kicking potential successors out of the company. Push has come to shove. Who will step up?

BREAKING: BALLMER OUT — NASDAQ down, out — GOOGLE’s $258 million UBER tab — NGINX’s first commercial server — AMAZON tests wireless network — D.C. overtakes Valley for highest income

Nginx takes the slippery road away from open source

The popular upstart Web server released a proprietary Plus version this week. What could possibly go wrong?

Good advice: Bad code happens, so be prepared

Developer of Storm computation system offers words of wisdom and experience on dealing with imperfections in code

If IBM cloud-washed its earnings results, it’s likely not alone

SEC is investigating claims that IBM misled investors with use of 'cloud' term, but its fuzzy nature, well, clouds the issue

Go free chat! Disruptive services outrun Big Brother

When autocrats try to control a new communications medium, you know that medium is good for society

DECLASSIFIED docs nail NSA domestic spying — HP way down, Donatelli out, VEGHTE in — YAHOO passes Google — UBUNTU Edge tanks — WINDOWS PHONE sweeps Latin America

Siri vs. Android: Watch the speech recognition showdown

Talking trumps typing as the preferred method of using a smartphone — so which mobile OS is better at voice commands?

6 technologies you should learn this year

There's a saying in tech: March or die — so stop slacking and study up. Your cube mate is already on No. 4

NoSQL’s real-time analytics, database consolidation entice enterprises

At NoSQL Now conference, industry officials predict where the data management technology is going

We must destroy data to protect it, aka the MI5 way

James Bond today: Licensed to kill, pulverize hard drives, shred memory chips, and intimidate partners, all for the war on terror

GOOGLE huddles with NFL for TV rights — BITCOIN boom in China — TWITTER shops IPO — ANDROID eats APPLE in China in Q2 — STEVE JOBS schools open in Netherlands

Microsoft needs your help to fix botched patch KB 2859537

The company is actively seeking users affected by one of last week's six problematic patches that freezes some Windows 7 and Vista machines

Watch out, rogue users — the data detective is on the case

When users won't log off the system despite repeated warnings, a sys admin turns data sleuth to locate the miscreants

zAgile CEO: Why you should consider model-driven integration

We're only beginning to address the problem of cloud integration. CEO Sanjiva Nath describes a unique solution derived from the semantic Web

Windows Server 2012 R2 kicks Hyper-V up another notch

Microsoft continues to improve its enterprise virtualization offering

‘Islamist’ hacker hits TWITTER — Feds attempt deeper BITCOIN control — GROKLAW shuts self down — OUTLOOK.COM (nee Hotmail) & Skype integration — 20% of U.S. off Internet grid

Internet Explorer takes the lead — as most error-prone browser

On the bright side, Sauce Labs finds Microsoft's browser is improving with each new release

ProcessMaker 2.5: Open source workflow made faster, simpler

Latest rev of Colosa's Web-based BPM offering has something for developers, admins, and users

The Apple Newton MessagePad revisited: Warts, wins, and all

The 20-year-old device shows both how much change has passed — and the consistency of mobile's underlying principles

Lessons from NASA: How to solve problems quickly under pressure

Make sure you have the right tools in place to determine the source of unexpected events quickly — they do in fact exist

Google’s cloud encryption is good for PR — and users, too

Google's addition of default encryption in its cloud storage plays on NSA-induced fears, but it's not a bad strategy

Hacker: I pwned Zuckerberg; at least give me a stupid T-shirt

When Facebook fails to pay $500 bug bounty, hacker goes public — by hacking Zuckerberg's Facebook account

‘Almost finished’ build of Windows 8.1 still a mess

Now that Windows 8.1 Build 9471 is widely available, it's time to take another look at the painful changes in Windows 8 'Blue'

New TWEETS-per-second record — GOOGLE downtime — OUTLOOK down three days — HADOOP sits on Oracle, Teradata — Upheld: Changing IP address unlawful in Swartz case — ‘JOBS’ loses

The Steve Jobs story you should see isn’t told in ‘Jobs’

'Jobs' the movie is worth seeing, but falls short with omission of Steve Jobs's real transformation or later, greater achievements