While I was at HP Tech Forum 2009 as a Social Media blogger, I am also interested as Chief Technology Officer of Logikworx.
Well, the download availability of the sessions from HP Technology Forum 2009 makes it possible for me to timeshift the event, as my reading list below shows.
After the Interlocutor is published this weekend, I will be back to HP Tech Forum 2009.
Albeit virtually.
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In conjunction with two other sites, AbsoluteWindows will be giving away a brand new HP dx9000, the TouchSmart of business PCs.
What do you have to do to get this baby?
Simple: design a new business application utilizing the multi-touch functionality in the HP dx9000 TouchSmart Business PC.
Period.
In the following few days, I will reveal the extent of what exactly you need to do to win this unit.
More importantly, the winner will get an immense amount of free publicity around the new application.
Stay tuned, or follow me on Twitter.
Right off the bat, Ivy Worldwide is already garnering kudos!
The HP Circle award is an award created by HP to celebrate marketing and design excellence at the company.
Guess who won in 2009?
Ivy Worldwide, formerly known as BuzzCorps.
In a field of 411 entries from 36 countries, Ivy Worldwide emerged as the winner for the groundbreaking 31 Days of The Dragon program, of which this site, and yours truly, humbly participated in.
Unprecedented in scope and scale, the remarkable program has become oft copied by pretenders, yet never reproduced. 
Even the global nature of the program presents a daunting barrier to entry for lesser firms.
Ivy Worldwide should be thanked by all other companies for introducing this Social Media game-changer.
Consequently, their being the recipient of this august award should come as no surprise.
Put it this way: the program was such a success, it is the gift that keeps on giving.
Congratulations to Ivy Worldwide on this win, and I know I am not alone when I say I look forward to seeing their name in the lights very soon.
Props, guys and gals.
You deserve it!
Now, we find out that where Mark ‘the righteous’ Sanford was: committing adultery!
Wow!
St. Mark violated one of the Top 10?
Say it ain’t so, M!
Seriously though, what is it with (US) presidential hopefuls and adultery?
To wit:
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Ted Kennedy, Mary Jo Kopechne, and Chappaquiddick,
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Gary Hart, Donna Rice, and the Monkey Business,
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Eliot Spitzer, <insert hooker name here>, and several Washington, D.C. hotels,
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Newt Gingrich, Marianne Ginther, Callista Bisek, $480 in alimony and child support payments per month, and his slew of transgressions,
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Rudulfo Guliani, Judith Nathan, and the restraining order removing her from Gracie Mansion.
(Really though, I am not making this up!)
Now add this moron Marshall Clement Sanford, jr. to the list.
WTF, he continued after his wife found out! For three months!
Are you freaking kidding me?
IANAPsychiatrist or psychologist, but I’ll wager these dimwits do these things so that they wouldn’t run for presidential office.
Welcome to ‘Your Life As A Dog’, Sandy!
Free advice for other potential presidential aspirants: keep your crank in your pants, take regular cold showers, and love your wife and country before your basest desires.
Oh, and STOP spouting off those holier than thou platitudes.
Friggin’ losers!
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Thank you for your contribution to winning World War II, and protecting this country.
Rest in peace.
In the more than two decades that I have gone to tech events such as COMDEX/CES and the like, I have not been privy to the work that goes on behind the scenes to produce the event(s).
No longer.
At the HP Technology Forum, (HPTF), we were shown the stage prep by Dave Lawson, of Houston-based Staging Solutions, the producer of the event.
Boy, where do I start?
First off, the infrastructure required is huge!
Dual anamorphic screens (75’x25’), several monitors – all HP, I may add, a gazillion other devices dedicated to helping production.
Backstage, it was like a movie set; which, of course it is.
Dual green rooms, several projectors, real-time video and audio production.
I am impressed.
Memo to self: contact Dave to an interview later.
BTW, we have scored front seats for the event.
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We’re at the Mandalay Bay Exposition Center for the HP Tech Forum 2009.
Booths are getting their final setups, and a varied cross section of developers are represented.
Brad Mays of HP’s ‘Blade SWAT Team’ is here setting up, among other things, a BladeSystem Matrix.
There are PODs, sever storage units, beautiful racks already populated with delectable servers.
Becca Taylor has the task of making sure we stay on track.
Elizabeth Gillan is going to show us some more stuff.
More, more, more to come!
In this article in the Technologizer, Harry McCracken states that Google should not be afraid of Microsoft’s Bing.
I disagree, and these are my reasons why.
As Harry correctly points out, this IS Microsoft's best thought out production yet.
Furthermore, Microsoft as a company, sees advertising as a profit center going forward, and the entrenched competitor there is Google. Fortunately for Google, they had advance warning, through the hiring of Schmidt at CEO, of Microsoft's modus operandi.
Consequently, they have been able to throw roadblocks in Microsoft's path through several vaporware product announcements, perpetual betas, whisper campaigns, subdulous contact with antitrust authorities, and threats of litigation.
And Microsoft fell for the distractions. It has taken Redmond up to now to realize that.
All that done to obfuscate the obvious: they are essentially still a one-trick pony! Take away search, for which their margins must keep Ballmer awake every night, and Google is nothing.
If Microsoft can make Bing effective, and present relevant results, Google, for the first time, will have a fight with a determined and well-funded opponent.
We also have to note that antitrust authorities are also looking at Google in certain countries, with an intent to bringing action against the company.
Which, of course, would be pure Schadenfreude.
For Microsoft!
Gotta give these yobs props for this.
In one of the online fishwraps, I just read the OpenSauce World (yeah, intentional misspelling; then again that’s what I think of them,), the event formerly known as LinuxWorld, is going, well, the open source way, by giving away entry to the event for free to ‘qualified’ professionals.
I’ll wait until the real world IT pros stop laughing.
Now, all those inhabitants of grannies’ basements will be able to attend. Assuming they can thumb lifts from their hovels to the ‘event’.
Continuing on, really this is just too funny. I swear, I so do NOT make this stuff up!
Really though, when is it going to dawn on these yum-yums that open source is great. For students at lesser universities, hobbyists, and what not, that is.
Anything for a crowd, eh?
If you have a product you cannot sell, or a message that is not resonating, isn’t it time to, ahem, take that bad boy out back, and end its misery?
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Prior to the start of MedikLabs, my only interaction with scanners were of the personal desktop kind, since I left all the heavy lifting to the pros at FedEx Kinko’s or their peers.
However, the healthcare industry, as constituted in these United States in the year of our Lord 2009, has NEVER heard of conservation. Resultantly, that entire industry generates a ton of paper. Worst of all, the crazy amount of paper create d is only reduced by a smidgen if an electronic medical records software suite, or EMR, is used!
Due to HIPPA laws, and the rightful requirement for an audit trail in order to secure the integrity of a patient’s record while using an EMR, several non-electronic items of a specific patient’s medical record must be scanned, and inserted into the patient’s electronic chart.
For which you need a high-speed scanner.
Unboxing
The ScanJet 7000 came in a relatively small box befitting its dimensions.
The requisite software, USB cable, power cord, user manuals, and a quick-install manual completed the package.
Really though, could someone send out a memo to other OEMs about the necessity of adding a USB cable in device packaging? Especially since USB cables can be purchased in bulk for about fifty cents or thereabouts!
The HP ScanJet 7000 Scanner
I have split this review into two parts: a review of the ScanJet 7000 using Windows Vista, and a forthcoming review of the product using Windows 7 RC, which I transitioned all the client systems at MedikLabs to during the review regimen.
I installed the scanner at MedikLabs, and connected it directly to the deskside PC of the scanner operator.
Where I got my first peeve: the install process, for all of the included software, did not have a unified install suite, making it interactive. That I do not like!
That said, the list of software included with the ScanJet 7000 is impressive: HP ScanJet drivers and tools, EMC ISIS/TWAIN drivers, Kofax Virtual ReScan v4.2, I.R.I.S. Readiris Pro 11, and ScanSoft PaperPort 11.
The Review
In this day and age, where conservation is our burden, MedikLabs was designed to be paperless, utilizing a Windows Vista-based EMR (electronic medical records) suite from Day 1.
However, it is easier said than done. Resultantly, enter the high-speed scanner.
This scanner is fast.
In my initial tests, using a combination of text, fully graphic, and mixed documents, I was able to get nearly rated speed.
What makes the ScanJet 7000 more impressive is that same software suite that I panned earlier in this review. Earlier this year, I reviewed another scanner rated at 40 ppm in both black-and-white and color. Well, while the ScanJet 70 is only rated at 35 ppm in color, it makes up for that with incredibly fast post-scan processing.
Indeed, the ScanJet 7000 processes pages so fast that it returns control to the user within seconds even on a relatively slow system. Moving the ScanJet 7000 to my personal desktop unit at MedikLabs, it smoked even further. 
For the past several weeks, the ScanJet 7000 has been working extra hard, scanning a backload of documents, x-rays film, and other documents into patient charts.
The ScanJet 7000 worked extremely well, over a range of computer systems, without snags, and mis-feeds.
The clerical staff at MedikLabs are enamored with it, and will be very upset when it has to go back home. In fact, we are looking to acquire one for use at MedikLabs.
Conclusions
I am pleased with this scanner.
It is fast, compact, and priced just right. This compact, sheet-feed scanner is a workhorse.
As a result, we are awarding it the SmallBizWindows Business Ready Superstar Award.
I hope to get a series of these scanners here at MedikLabs in the near future for a scan-off.
Meanwhile, enjoy the ScanJet 7000 while we bring you the Windows 7 review of this product shortly.
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Sanity reigns supreme in technology distribution!
This Computerworld article will have those freaks all a twitter.
While the writer rightfully points out that a quarter of netbooks sold worldwide last year were shipped with Linux, he didn’t furnish us with numbers for the US market.
While Tech Data, the technology distributor in question, has seen netbook shipments up in triple-digit percentiles from a year ago, the company has seen “almost no” demand for Linux netbooks.
Money quote: "we're not even sourcing any Linux-based netbooks anymore"
Further signs that it is a Windows, Windows World?
We are down to the final days of the Ivy Worldwide Logo Design Contest.
The prize?
$2500 USD.
Details at www.ivyworldwide.com
Kind of late, but…..
“You will not be able to download any distro, freetard.
You will not be able to use plug-n-play, just turn on the system, and get it to work.
You will not be able to lose yourself in movies streamed from Netflix, and skip,
Skip out for Jolt, or any other energy drink during downloading from torrents.
Because the Linux revolution will not be televised”
With the greatest respect to Gil Scott-Heron*.
Sometimes, it is hard to be humble!
In the nascent days of this market, spurred on by the research and development by Nicky and his crew at the OLPC, this subcategory of the laptop space in PCs was seen by the savior by the freetards.
I said no, nein, oti, nyet, hay-yay, non, ah-oh! No, in every language I could think of in my blog, The Linux Flameout: 7 Reasons.
Did smarter heads heed my calls for forgetting Linux on netbooks as a flight of fancy?
No.
When Wal-Mart dipped its toes in that water, and got burned, Linuxheads wrote it off as mega-mart not knowing to sell Linux products to the masses.
What did I do then?
I reiterated my assertion that there wouldn’t be any Linux revolution.
When netbook OEMs revealed earlier this year that 80% of Linux netbooks were returned by retail customers, the Linux cognoscenti decried the numbers as a figment of the OEMs’ collective imagination.
As if these guys, operating on razor-thin margins were dying to pay tribute to Redmond.
As if!
Me? I had the most laughs, probably as belly-full as the laughs I had when Dell revealed it had created an echo chamber to determine the need for shipping Linux boxes.
I wonder how that experiment worked for Dell?
However, I digress.
My news alerts just brought this nugget to me, actually a dualie: some freetard droid for ZDNet is currently at Computex searching for Linux life in that universe.
What does he find?
“It’s a Windows World after all, it’s a Windows World after all…..” to paraphrase that wonderful song from Disneyland.
Everywhere he goes, it is Windows he sees.
To compound it all, his dream of Linux netbooks is shattered as every OEM seems to be in the pocket of Microsoft, and Intel.
To the ostrich though, the very evident truth is not so evident: compatibility, utility, and reliability matters.
The opportunity cost of using Linux is totally negated by the fact the without Windows applications, you have just purchased a piece of furniture!
There is no other way to spin it, or to manage buyer’s expectations, when they bring the piece of crap back to mega-mart or wherever it was purchased from, and say, “It does not run Windows, or any of my applications”!
How do you spin that?
It’s a Windows, Windows World, folks.
Sit back and enjoy it.
Am I wrong? Flame me here if you disagree.
*He says the word, this diddy is removed! Gil Scott-Heron is a premier civil rights activist, poet, and musical artist; one of the best of the past several decades. He IS that important!
A certain store chain* specializing in boudoir outfits hit is on the nail with their customer-forward thinking when you hit the unsubscribe key: ask if you want to unsubscribe completely, or reduce their spam to one spam piece per week.
While not optimal, it serves to reduce one’s anger, yet allow a site’s reprieve.
Contrast it to sites such as newsfactor, which require you to enter your email address again after following an ‘unsubscribe me’ link.
*Victoria Secret
Will this nonsense ever stop?
Now you have some dimwits proclaiming the ascent of Android….over the iPhone!
Wha???
For goodness sakes, it would NEVER happen!
Even if you look past the desirability of the iPhone*, how do you get past the Linux underpinnings of Android?
Never going to happen, okay?
*Right now, I am at my wit’s end with respect to WinMo.
However, for compatibility and loyalty, I am waiting until the release of both the next iPhone and WinMo 6.5 to make a decision on where I, personally, and we, as solution providers, would go as far as mobiles are concerned.
Wifey will be getting an iPhone regardless, for use with the Exchange Server-based messaging here at the Orbiting O’Odua, and at MedikLabs.
BuzzCorps is changing to Ivy Worldwide, reflecting an expanded mission, and new capabilities to be added to their offerings.
However, to start, Ivy Worldwide needs a new logo.
To get your creative juices flowing, the pot is primed with $2500 for the winner of the logo competition.
The second place finisher gets a choice of a loaded HP Mini MIe or an HP Photosmart printer – both with a $500 value.
The third place finisher gets a Wacom tablet.
To enter, please visit www.ivyworldwide.com for details.
Damn, I wish I had some creative talent!
Today, Microsoft unveiled Bing, it’s new search service.
I am looking forward to testing the service against Google and other search engines for relevance.
Sometimes, you gotta wonder!
Over this past weekend, the blogosphere has been all a-twitter, pun intended, about a leaked* Microsoft document limiting the sizes of systems shipping with Windows 7.
All of a sudden, a specious, at best, connection is made between that sound business decision, and netbooks.
Are you freakin’ kidding’ me?
Recently-declared monopoly, Intel, and previously declared monopoly, Microsoft, are now identified as participants in a scheme to drive VIA out of the market for netbooks!
Again, are you freakin’ kiddin’ me?
Where do these supposedly intelligent, tin-foil hatted trolls dwell, and what do illegal drugs do they consume?
Fact: limiting the sizes of netbooks by Microsoft is a sound decision. For that OS category is a low margin business. If there are no barriers erected, what is stopping someone from calling a system as hardware-impressive as the HDX dragon a netbook? And paying a mere pittance for the OS?
If you do not like the decision, step! Then go the freetard way, and load up on the (supposedly) free Linux distro of your choice.
Then wait for a 90% return rate!
The decision to limit netbook sizes by Microsoft?
Move along, there is no story here!
*Why are Microsoft’s partners the most leaky on Earth?
In what is IMHO, the best pick yet by this administration, President Obama picked retired US Marine Corps General and 4-mission Shuttle astronaut, Charles F. Bolden, Jr. to lead NASA.
This is very, very cool!
I believe it is an excellent choice since General Bolden would be able to meld the science mission of NASA with it’s extremely important place in this nation’s military readiness.
We do not need a science peacenik who would deprecate US military space capabilities in favor of pure science.
This is what I think we should do always with NASA going forward.
Props, Mr. President.
Good luck to you, General Bolden.
On Neowin.net, Simon Andrews gives an unbiased review of Windows 7.
What’s the big deal, you ask?
Simon is a Mac user.
In his review, he informs us of the process he went by as he formed his opinion.
For me, it is most amazing that a Mac user could be so lucid, and analytic, proving that there is hope for some of them.
Seriously though, it is the little things that seem to be resonating the most about Windows 7.
Original link from Steven Parker on Facebook.
Even I cannot make this stuff up!
For all the braying of the Linuxhead sheep about the advent of Linux, comes this report that even companies that ‘love’ Linux, only deploy the OS to 20% of their workforce.
20%?
That’s it?
Eh, riddle me this: isn’t real love supposed to get past 100%
Funny that the proselytizers cannot even move the needle past go.
Coincidentally, that bellwether of big iron, IBM, is teaming with Canonical to deliver a ‘Microsoft-free’ desktop package.
:::Getting a feeling of déjà vu, John guffaws extra loudly, and wakes up the baby:::
Open Software Foundation’s OSF/1, PC jr., Lotus Office, Lotus Notes, whatever…
Doesn’t IBM ever get tired of the floggings by Microsoft? Now, they have moved to public self-flagellation as a way of remaining relevant on the desktop?
What is wrong with these people and their love for, an at best, niche operating system?
There is no ‘Linux Revolution’, okay?
It is NOT the OS for the rest of us!
Initial story here.
Live in Australia, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, or Singapore?
Then this contest is for you!
The prizes:
- HP TouchSmart PC
- HP Mini 1000
- HP iPAQ Travel Companion Portable GPS
Four winners will get a package of all three products.
There are also consolation prizes:
3 Voters with the best answers will win an HP Mini 1000 each!
Original link from Mauricio Freitas of GeekZone, who is one of the judges.
Details here.
One of the unheralded items in the fallout from the IMO illegal EU hobbling of Microsoft, is the requirement that Microsoft publicly release, for a mere pittance, communications and other protocols to, ostensibly the world, but to EU companies in particular.
These are codes that were developed for untold billions at shareholder expense!
Think about it: that witch compelled Microsoft to give away IP that had been developed at great cost, just so the dodos that couldn’t compete could have a leg up.
Something that wasn’t even part of the original lawsuit in the first place!
However, during all this, some icons of American might and technology fastened themselves to the EU’s coattails as a result of their trouncing in the marketplace by Microsoft.
I called the companies the NOISE coalition: Novell, Oracle, IBM, Sun, and Everyone else.
If you look at that list, everyone of those companies has been given a flogging by Microsoft at some time: Novell – network operating systems, Oracle – server and small-scale SQL databases, IBM – operating systems, collaboration software, desktop productivity applications, etc., Sun – Java, and most everyone else by executing perfectly.
Worst of all, Microsoft surpassed them in mindshare, and largely made them irrelevant, many shortly after their 15 minutes were up.
While the membership of NOISE has changed and is fluid, the goals have not changed.
In an article on my old blog at NetworkWorld.com, entitled Mr. Google Goes to Washington, I tried to talk about schadenfruede, that most delicious of situations. If you are not suffering it, that is.
So much for that.
Last week, the dimwits at the EU Directorate of US IP Theft snagged another victim: Intel.
I screamed at the top of my lungs, and let my feeling be know in a series of tweets.
However, I blame Intel for this situation. They should have prevented it!
In blog posts over the years, I have warned about the EU trying to undermine the technological readiness of the US by these stupid antitrust investigations and bureaucratic edits.
American firms didn’t listen, and did not rally round Microsoft.
Even now, Google is trying to involve itself in yet another moronic EU investigation of Microsoft, this time into browsers!!!
Right now, the intentions of the EU should be obvious to all.
More on this in a follow-on post.
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