Andy Patrizio

For the first half of 2008, we kept hearing rumors of recession, but quarterly sales figures constantly belied that threat. Then in the final three months of 2008 those fears came true, and then some. Month after month, IT spending projections were revised down, from double digits to single digits to flatline. The timing is […]

The Planet’s custom cabinets Source: The Planet Forget its search algorithms; Google guards its datacenter layout and cooling strategies like KFC protects its secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices. The steps it takes to maximize efficiency are among its closest secrets. Contrast that with The Planet, a giant hosting provider based in Dallas, Texas, […]

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program has suffered the occasional bumps in the road due to squabbling here in the U.S., but now that it’s finally out and being deployed, the program is seeing success in the most remote parts of the world. Usually, the OLPC XO laptop requires a power outlet, but the […]

The MobiRack Source: Rackable Rackable Systems has announced a portable datacenter that can be easily moved around and plugged into a regular wall outlet, but still is fully contained with all the hardware needed for a mini-datacenter. The MobiRack server, released yesterday, can hold from five to 16U worth of hardware. Rackable’s rack mounted computers […]

Conventional wisdom would have an industry with few competitors and commodity products to be rather dull, but 2008 was anything but dull for the major players in computing hardware. We’ve seen big names toppled, others fall from grace, and some reborn as others wither or stumble. Even in sectors with just two competitors, competition remains […]

nVidia has launched its GeForce 9400M “Ion” graphics chipset for Netbooks and small desktop designs, putting the same graphics chip used in the current generation of Apple MacBooks into the fast-growing netbook market. Netbooks are known for being low-cost, low power and not exactly cutting edge. Most use the Intel Atom processor, a derivative of […]

The Inside Facebook blog posted some astounding growth statistics this week for the social networking site. For one thing, Facebook is growing faster than the population in China. Through it all, the company has managed to keep its systems up and running and not suffer any growing pains outages that have often plagued fast growth […]

Western Digital today announced that second fiscal quarter sales ending on December 26, 2008 will be well below its original target of between $2.025 billion to $2.150 billion, a prediction made just in October. WD now expects revenue to be in the range of $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion, with a corresponding hit down the […]

GMail has been in beta for five years. Chrome went “gold” after four months. Is it ready? It’s not too often Google shocks people these days, but declaring its Chrome browser a finished, 1.0 product after only four months was sure one of those moments. Google, the land of the perpetual beta (five years and […]

Research firm IDC sees double digit growth in the future of worldwide Bluetooth semiconductor revenue. The firm is predicting an annual compound rate of 14.5 percent between now and 2012, with revenue going from $1.7 billion in 2007 to $3.3 billion by 2012. It won’t happen immediately. Due to the economic slowdown, IDC expects 2009 […]

Rackable Systems today announced a leasing program to provide customers with more options to finance IT equipment purchases. The program is similar to the ones offered by major vendors like IBM, HP and Dell. The economic crisis in the U.S. has led to a severe contraction in available credit to firms looking to make capital […]

There is a growing number of ways to deal with a lost laptop, the most common of which is to send a kill signal as soon as it connects to the Internet, But one inherent flaw in that mechanism is the thief might not sign on. “Most security today has the weakness of being software-based […]