Hewlett-Packard has announced that the company is introducing a new line of business multifunction inkjet printers called Edgeline. What makes these printers special is their efficiency: they're so thrifty with ink that HP isn't planning to sell them at all. You could rent one, though! [T]he printers use a new technology where the print head which is the entire width of the paper remains stationary as the paper moves through the printer. The print head applies a hydrophilic bonding agent to the paper before the ink is applied, resulting in near-instant drying. ... In a departure from its usual sales practices, HP will only be offering these printers under a managed HP print contract: they will not be available for direct sales to either customers or retailers.From a business standpoint, HP's refusal to sell their magic printers makes perfect sense. Where's the post-sale revenue? But once competitors jump in and begin selling (with service contracts attached) their own versions of the magic printers, I think HP will reconsider. And I say that as a burgeoning inkjet consultant/pundit. Alas, if you're looking for a magic printer for personal use, don't hold your breath. According to the Ars Technica article, HP "does not expect to bring the printers to the consumer level any time soon, at least not as long as it holds an exclusive to the new technology." I'd give you my expert take on that, but you've all gotten enough freebies for the day. You want more professional inkjet analysis, we go on the clock. Just protecting the brand.
That's 87.5 percent of major federal agencies. Just putting a "no-spin" number on it.21 of 24 major federal agencies had weak or deficient information security controls in place during the past fiscal year.
Political rhetoric, perhaps, but accurate nonetheless. A new GAO study cited a number of security flaws, including:"We don't know who's inside our networks," subcommittee chairman Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.) said. "We don't know what information has been stolen."
Among the worst of the federal agencies are the State and Commerce departments. For their "efforts" to comply with the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002, each received a grade of "F". I think Foggy Bottom can forget all about the prom this year."[F]ailing to replace well-known vendor-supplied passwords on systems to not encrypting sensitive information to not creating adequate audit logs to track activity on their systems" (as CNET News reports).
Hidden good news in the above Bullet Point o' Trouble ("good" being used loosely here): It's the first time ever that Homeland didn't get an "F"! Thank you, Sylvan Learning Center! All kidding aside, it boggles the mind that our federal agencies continue to expand the definition of incompetence when it comes to protecting sensitive information on their networks. Let's hope a new Congress can force positive change.The Department of Homeland Security earned a "D" in information security.
Datacap was offering a free bike, a nice racing bike, which was on display at the front of the booth. All the madcap Datacap employees were dressed in tight, yellow-and-black racing shirts. A male employee was also pedaling furiously at the back of the booth, on a mounted version of the prize bike. I wanted to ask about it but feared being sucked into another vendor tractor beam. The mini theater on the corner of the booth - a staple of all self-respecting trade shows - was again popular at the AIIM Expo. And what mini theater would be complete without the accompanying booth babes trolling the insanely bright red carpet, looking for dazed conventioneers who really needed to know more about the latest in content management (but didn't realize it)? Microsoft had one of the biggest booths (duh), and they went with a tasteful beachwood look for the high booth walls. The mini theatre (dubbed the Microsoft Solutions Theater) was adorned with little white backless love seats, while the hyper PR woman with the Britney Spears ear-to-cheek microphone prowled the little stage, talking way too vigorously about & Im not sure what. Something to do with software. One of the more surreal aspects of the show are these really loud, major-league printing fortresses on display. There are many right by the press room, and several times today I could swear baseball-ball sized hail was hammering the roof of the cavernous Boston Convention Center. But it was really just the latest in high-end, souped-up digital printing.Documents captured in high-volumes daily. Content served with your preferred interface. A la carte functionality suited to your ECM appetite!
"My boss, David Callaway, MarketWatch's editor-in-chief, gave me his blessing, with certain ground rules, many months ago. Dave allowed me to stay at MarketWatch while incubating Vator.tv in my spare time. The understanding had always been that if it got to a point at which I could not proceed without conflicts of interest, then I would leave MarketWatch to focus on Vator.tv. So I have decided to run Vator.tv full-time, and I believe in the company. With much regret, I'm leaving MarketWatch, my employer for eight years, as a full-time columnist and correspondent, though I hope to maintain ties."If she deliberately crossed the ethical line, that's too bad, considering she was one of my favorite columnists. I liked her for her insightful coverage of one of my former San Francisco employers, CNET Networks, in addition to her solid reporting on other topics. Plus, how many tech columnists are named Bambi?
...was the ridicule heaped on it by talk show comedians and comic strips (most notably "Doonesbury"), which focused on the supposed inaccuracy of the handwriting recognition.Now that they mention it, I seem to remember Andrew Dice Clay doing a bit about Jack and Jill going up a hill with an Apple Newton -- and it wouldn't work! Whoa! The Paperless Office. Yeah, right. Fun fact:
A book published by MIT Press in 2002 called The Myth of the Paperless Office found that e-mail caused a 40% increase in paper use in many organizations.Push Technology. One of my favorites. Back in the day, many a venture capitalist patiently explained to me, the dunce journalist, how "push technology" would transform the Internet. Unfortunately, it worked better in theory than practice:
Those who did take the technology for a spin found themselves inundated with news, weather, sports and more; it wasn't easy to filter what specific information was received.That was my experience. I think I disabled my push feed in about a half-day. Of course, as Computerworld points out, push lives on in mobile e-mail, RSS feeds and other forms, but with better filters and controls than a decade ago. Anyway, it's a good read.
Because of an agreement in March between MusicNotes, an online music publisher, and the Harry Fox Agency, which represents 31,000 music publishers, guitar tablature -- a popular system for teaching and learning guitar -- will enter the legitimate business realm for the first time. Last year popular sites like Olga.net, MxTabs.net and others -- where users post tablature, usually called "guitar tabs," for rock songs -- suspended operations after the music publishing industry threatened them with copyright infringement lawsuits. Under the new initiative, MxTabs, which is owned by MusicNotes, will share an undisclosed portion of advertising revenue with music publishers, who in turn will give a portion to artists.I'm not terribly surprised that the legal struggle lasted so long, but I'm downright amazed that most of those tablature sites stayed up as long as they did. They were facing litigation back in 1996, yet many -- maybe most -- remained in operation until last year. And even until now, finding tabs online has remained relatively easy. What's behind the agreement? The music publishers finally sobered up and realized 1) they'd never be able to prevent chords, tablature, etc. from being posted online, and 2) they were staring a revenue opportunity -- sharing advertising dollars with the tab-posting sites they've previously been trying to shut down -- in the face. According to the Times article, many details must be worked out. But it sounds as if they're heading toward a win-win.
