Small Business IT Weekly

Windows 7 Laptop Battery Mystery Deepens

Microsoft is reporting its latest findings into a possible link between Windows 7 and failing laptop batteries.

And the latest findings are.....

that there are no findings! (Thank you, Microsoft!)

The blame game is officially afoot, however.

"Unidentified sources" within Microsoft have started their whisper campaign with reporters claiming that there is no way Windows 7 could interact with the BIOS in such a way to interfere with battery life.

The most obvious culprit would be a faulty driver not working properly to charge the battery.

PC makers point out the drivers are Microsoft-supplied.

The "whisperers" point out Microsoft has sold 60 million copies of Windows 7. If the problem is with the operating system, then why so few problems relative to the number of copies in circulation?

Stay tuned.

Facebook Gets A New Face Lift

Facebook is doing a partial roll-out of its new redesign this weekend.

I say "partial"; partial being 80 million people!

That sounds like a lot of guinea pigs until you consider that Facebook actually hit 400 million users this week.

The new design primarily focuses on rearranging tools; locating them to hopefully more intuitive locations.

Notifications and chat are moving from the bottom right-hand side of the screen to the upper left.

I haven't played with it myself. However, word is the photo uploader has been completely rebuilt from scratch. That sounds promising to me, since the old one was, well, ca-ca.

You can bet by Monday on two things:

1) There'll be a new Facebook group called "I want the old Facebook back".

2) Membership will be in the six digits.

2010 Development Trends

A new TechRepublic post lists the following as trends that will emerge or continue in 2010:

• The release of .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010

• More developers will use cloud computing

• Ruby, Scala, Groovy, Python, and other programming
  languages make more of an impact

• The JVM’s renaissance continues

• The economy continues to impact IT workers

I can feel the economy for IT coming back. Sales increased in Q4 and I see them continuing
to do so this quarter. So I'm not sure about that last item.

Curt works for Journyx, which has solutions to help improve business execution.

Google Toys With Store View 360 Feature

Okay, think about Google's street view feature for a moment. You know; the ability to zoom in via Google Earth and get a 360 degree street level view of a neighborhood with an archived sweep of a camera.

Apparantly, Google camera crews are poised to do the same at the store level. The web site, Search Engline Land, is the first to report this rumor. It's based on a tip they got from a Manhattan store called "Oh Nuts" that claims Google used their store as a guinea pig for the new project.

The ramifications are staggering when you think about it.

Imagine what it would do for online retailers to be able to offer a virtual tour of their store shelves and displays.

Imagine the pressure it will put on online retailers who have no bricks and mortar storefront. Would those discount Manolo Blahnik shoes seem as appealing if you saw the moldy storage shed it originated from?

I see a new cottage industry cropping up if this comes to pass; stock footage of retail stores!

Google Toys With Store View 360 Feature

Okay, think about Google's street view feature for a moment. You know; the ability to zoom in via Google Earth and get a 360 degree street level view of a neighborhood with an archived sweep of a camera.

Apparantly, Google camera crews are poised to do the same at the store level. The web site, Search Engline Land, is the first to report this rumor. It's based on a tip they got from a Manhattan store called "Oh Nuts" that claims Google used their store as a guinea pig for the new project.

The ramifications are staggering when you think about it.

Imagine what it would do for online retailers to be able to offer a virtual tour of their store shelves and displays.

Imagine the pressure it will put on online retailers who have no bricks and mortar storefront. Would those discount Manolo Blahnik shoes seem as appealing if you saw the moldy storage shed it originated from?

I see a new cottage industry cropping up if this comes to pass; stock footage of retail stores!

Google Toys With Store View 360 Feature

Okay, think about Google's street view feature for a moment. You know; the ability to zoom in via Google Earth and get a 360 degree street level view of a neighborhood with an archived sweep of a camera.

Apparantly, Google camera crews are poised to do the same at the store level. The web site, Search Engline Land, is the first to report this rumor. It's based on a tip they got from a Manhattan store called "Oh Nuts" that claims Google used their store as a guinea pig for the new project.

The ramifications are staggering when you think about it.

Imagine what it would do for online retailers to be able to offer a virtual tour of their store shelves and displays.

Imagine the pressure it will put on online retailers who have no bricks and mortar storefront. Would those discount Manolo Blahnik shoes seem as appealing if you saw the moldy storage shed it originated from?

I see a new cottage industry cropping up if this comes to pass; stock footage of retail stores!

Google Toys With Store View 360 Feature

Okay, think about Google's street view feature for a moment. You know; the ability to zoom in via Google Earth and get a 360 degree street level view of a neighborhood with an archived sweep of a camera.

Apparantly, Google camera crews are poised to do the same at the store level. The web site, Search Engline Land, is the first to report this rumor. It's based on a tip they got from a Manhattan store called "Oh Nuts" that claims Google used their store as a guinea pig for the new project.

The ramifications are staggering when you think about it.

Imagine what it would do for online retailers to be able to offer a virtual tour of their store shelves and displays.

Imagine the pressure it will put on online retailers who have no bricks and mortar storefront. Would those discount Manolo Blahnik shoes seem as appealing if you saw the moldy storage shed it originated from?

I see a new cottage industry cropping up if this comes to pass; stock footage of retail stores!

8 Types of Geeks

InfoWorld has published a funny article on the different types of 'geeks' that predominate in IT, including:

*The Empty Suit *(Hobbies include picking up chicks, most
resembles Steve Carrell in “The Office.”

*The Scary Sys Admin* (Greatest accomplishment is holding the
network hostage by refusing to release passwords to the Empty Suit.)

*The Human Roadblock *(Hobbies include complaining; role model is
Eeyore.)

*The Angry Support Drone *(Role model is Michael Douglas in
“Falling Down.”)

*The Ubergeek *(Identifying marks include sometimes confusing real
life with Second Life and unconscious “air typing.”)

*The OS Fanboy *(Greatest accomplishment is sticking with Windows
Vista.)

*The Promiser *(Identifying marks include a used car salesman smile.)

*The Shadow *(Greatest accomplishment is taking a month-long
vacation without the boss noticing.)

Curt Finch writes for a project management blog as well.