Tech roundup - August 20
A roundup and discussion of the week in the technology arena for Friday, August 20.
Paul Muckleston (right) replaced Kevin Ackhurst as the boss of Microsoft New Zealand and has pledged to rebuild ties with the New Zealand Government.
A deal to supply Microsoft software to the Government fell over last year, which led to frustration and a cooling of relations between the two.
Mr Muckleston said he wasn't part of those negotiations, and was now looking forwards - to the 2012 negotiations.
Here's a tip for the New Zealand Government - investigate open source. Subsidised is good, but there's potential for taxpayer money to be saved with completely free software. Open Office is Microsoft's worst nightmare.
There were also indications that Microsoft will focus more on the consumer portion of the market, instead of just business, which will be interested when it comes to products like the coming Windows 7 phone.
Magictalk promises free Internet calls in US
The Magictalk service was unveiled this week, offering free calls via the Internet to US and Canadian landlines and mobiles.
The Magicjack device is about the size of a matchbox and connects to a computer via USB. You then plug a home phone into it and make calls via the Internet.
Similar services already exist, like Google voice, but Magictalk eliminates fees and time limits while adding PC-to-mobile and PC-to-landline capabilities.
We can only hope such a service hits the shores of Aotearoa in the near future, as the company has not announced any plans for expansion so far.
It does, however, send an interesting (and for the call providers, scary) message: this is possible.
Spain joins those eyeing Google suspiciously
Following in the steps of a host of other countries, a Spanish court has now subpoenaed Google over its StreetView cars, which collected unsecured wireless networks' payload data.
Google has admitted to collecting the data in more than 30 countries, but so far only Germany, the United States, Australia and now Spain have investigated the practice.
Though it has discontinued the practice, Google has never said it would delete all of the data.
Last week, Google ignored the first deadline set by Germany's government ordering it to hand over the data it collected. Google says it is working towards a "solution".
Public outrage on this issue has tarnished Google's image, especially highlighting its ethical boundaries and bringing into question its unofficial "don't be evil" mantra.
Hewlett Packard criticised over short life expectancy
It giant HP was in hot water this week after a manager responded to a complaint about the expected life of a netbook range.
Mr Gill Brown told a customer that netbooks in the low end range weren't expected to last longer than "12-24 months".
HP said their desktop and notebook computers would last 3-5 years with proper care, but stopped short of commenting on the expected life of their netbooks.
Many companies have been accused of creating "designed-to-fail" electronics - a practice which encourages users to buy new versions.
Low end or not, a year or two isn't a lot of use to get out of a brand new netbook. Putting more dead motherboards into the environment in the name of profits isn't exactly responsible, either.
Wikileaks battles Pentagon and gains new ally
Whistleblower website Wikileaks continued its battle for Internet freedom, finding a likely ally in the Swedish Pirate Party.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange (right) accepted an offer of free hosting and bandwidth from the Pirate Party, further strengthening Wikileaks' network against take-downs and loss of data.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has reportedly shown interest in helping to review the remaining Afghanistan War Diary files, which are being checked for information that could lead to the harm of innocent people, including Afghan informants.
Wikileaks has stated that it plans to have the rest of the files released within "two weeks to a month".
Which tech stories caught your eye this week? What are your thoughts on these stories?
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cm, I agree and diagree with you. I agree that OpenOffice can do 99% of what MS Office can but the problems come about with the support aspect. Open sources open community of developers are an amazing group but to get corporate level support for a govt. organisation is very difficult. Hopefully this is something that can be remidied quickly so I can finally get my agency on to open source.
Hmm open source for government - not generally a good idea. Having worked in a number (5) different government departments I can guarantee that it would not be something which would be appropriate for all agencies. For example some of the agencies I worked for had to use MS simply because the only software which dealt with the specific role (and I'm thinking Hazardous Substances) was MS only compliantl. Stuff like open office is fine - but what "desktop" applications are used has little baring on what is finally needed. It's all about what format the specialised software is on - and 99.9% of the time it's on (unfortunatley) MS.
Open office is rubbish compared to MS Office and MS own online solution. Try editing a 1000 page document with graphs and images. Suddenly the money you saved appears to have dissapeared with the 100's of extra hours reformating or trying to make the software do what it cant. Free does not always equal cheaper. I wonder if the people singing the praises of open office actually do anything beyond the odd leter to mum or school homework. There is a place for it of course but government and business is not that place.
Everything I do at work using MS Rubbish I can do quicker and easier at home in Open Office. I don't do anything terribly complicated but it would still be more than 90% of the staff do. Should be dead easy to give open source progs to all those that don't need complicated things, and provide the secretaries and personal assistants with the full packages. If I had a 1000 page complicated document to do (heaven forbid!) I can guarantee I wouldn't be doing any work on it myself.
I have suggested open source before, but its fallen on deaf ears. The problem is the (generally older) managers who get to make the decisions have no experience with open source themselves. The standard excuse - we need to buy MS Word so we can get support for it. Honestly...when did anyone EVER get support from Microsoft for the likes of Word or anything in Office?
Having compared Open Office with various versions of MS Office, i can tell you now that Open Office is MORE compatible with the various versions of MS Office, than they are with each other. Beating on the format-loss drum sounds very hollow to me.
Wouldn't it be a damn sight cheaper to employ the IT support staff to look after open source apps, than to pay the ridiculous MS licensing fees? The French police did it, and saved s**tloads. http://apcmag.com/french-police-switch-from-windows-to-linux.htm
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Yup Open source is the way to go for pretty much everything except gaming (I am told). I don't game so that does not bother me. Government agencies should not be gaming so they should be able to do everything with open source.
OpenOffice can do 99% of what Office can do. The only difference is really in some of the most off-the-track word macros and some of the fancier animation etc features in PowerPoint etc. None of these are really required.
Since pretty much all government desktops are limited to word processing etc or are now web based, it is really hard to see where Windows or Office has any benefit.
MS stock has been pretty much dead since 2001 or so. The only changes are due to industry wide NASDAQ changes. They're just a corpse bobbing on the tide.
Pity: a company with such resources and talent could have been so much better.