John Taschek

Ricohs RDC-i700 is perhaps the most powerful digital camera on the market. In other words, its overkill for snapshot-shooting consumers. Fortunately for Ricoh, it is targeting the corporate market with the i700 and, for the most part, hits the bulls-eye. On the surface, the $1,300 i700 looks like an ordinary high-end digital camera. Beneath the […]

Studies show that people relate to and remember positive reviews more than negative ones. These hypotheses usually focus on movies and cars, but I suppose they should apply to the computer industry. Now Im wondering what it says about me when everyone I know dwells on whats wrong with this industry and how things dont […]

Toshiba takes a new approach to web server appliances with the Magnia SG10. take a cheap Intel Celeron-based system, have it run Linux, put a couple of IBM Travelstar drives in it, dress it up and make it totally usable from the get-go. Then sell Web-based services around it to keep it running flawlessly with […]

One of the most overlooked segments in computing is embedded systems, which by nature could be bigger—in terms of units shipped—than the server and desktop PC markets combined. Unfortunately, the embedded market is so full of flagrantly arrogant poseurs that confusion will abound for years. The bonus is that Im going to have many field […]

For about 3 seconds last year, I thought that there were only three sustainable Internet companies: Commerce One, Ariba and i2, not necessarily in that order. That was a foolish 3 seconds. At the time, I was convinced that integration was the key to building the Internet economy. No matter how many fads came and […]

One positive thing to emerge from the dot-com disasters is that there is much less traffic congestion along the San Francisco peninsula. My commute may get even easier. A new report by Rosen Consulting, a real estate research company, shows that 80 percent of the dot-coms in the San Francisco area may implode within the […]

Like a streaming-media rendition of a multimillion-dollar imax setup, Be Heres 360° Video lets content providers create amazing videos with a complete 360-degree perspective. Be Heres chief technology resides in the lens, which optically captures the image data, which Be Here then transfers to an ordinary analog or digital video camera. The result is something […]

Microsofts hailstorm: you may love it, hate it or stir up litigation over it, but do you know exactly what it is? Im not sure even Microsoft knows. But one thing is clear: Choosing an interesting, overly aggressive code name will get a company in trouble, even if that code name sounds more like an […]

Now that the economy has encouraged computer technologists to re-enter reality, its time to take a look at how open source will weather the downturn. A prolonged bad economy will be bad for everyone, including open-source programmers. It will be especially bad for those who work at companies whose business models are based on Linux. […]

Napster-like companies may come and go, but P2P is here to stay. At least thats what peer-to-peer companies say. Why these companies think they can eke out a business plan inspired by a company that made only its lawyers rich and ultimately collapsed is another question. This doesnt mean that there arent interesting companies in […]

Take this with a grain of salt. Im by no means a usability expert. When it comes to computer interfaces, Im not looking for the easiest way of getting something done. Im looking for the fastest way. And yet, Im writing about the usability of Windows XP, with Microsoft saying XP refers to the “experience.” […]

Magically, it appears that nearly every company has become an infrastructure company. This is odd because it seems that it was only yesterday that having infrastructure in your business plan got you booted out of the venture capitalists offices. “Scat!” theyd say. “Youre too technical for our money.” There are still noninfrastructure companies around, and […]