P. J. Connolly

Having refreshed the MacBook Pro line in February, and the iMac lineup at the beginning of May, Apple gave its low-end hardware got some love today, with new versions of the Mac mini and MacBook Air, a new display featuring the Thunderbolt interface technology, and the release of the latest version of the company’s flagship […]

It takes more than a bigger package and new artwork to turn a collection of programs into a suite. It’s even more work to take a collection of professional design tools and turn them into a purpose-driven suite. Autodesk has accomplished the latter, with its Factory Design Suite, a surprisingly affordable package that doesn’t sacrifice […]

Although the U.S. International Trade Commission’s preliminary finding that HTC has violated two of Apple’s patents is serious stuff , it may be that all Android vendors will be affected by the ITC’s final ruling. That’s because the infringed patents cover functions that are said to be at the heart of the mobile operating system; […]

The week after an exploit that takes advantage of the way that iOS devices handle PDF files was announced, Apple has released a patch designed to fix the problem. The patch is included in iOS 4.3.4 for iPads and later-generation GSM iPhones and iPod touch devices; CDMA iPhone 4 users can install iOS 4.2.9. In […]

Adobe took the wraps off of the beta version of Flash Player 11 yesterday, and there’s a little bit of good news in there for anyone wondering when and if the player would ever support 64-bit operation. The beta version now comes in a 64-bit version for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows, although the […]

It appears that Microsoft really wants to enhance its brick-and-mortar retail presence, but I can’t figure out why. According to Neowin, the company wants to go from 11 stores to 75 in the next two to three years. [WP_IMAGE] As far as I can recall, I have never been inside a Microsoft retail store that […]

I’m getting set for the release of Mac OS X Lion; but it seems that my first task will be to notify the copy desk that Apple’s begun to refer to its desktop and server operating system as “OS X,” dropping the label of “Mac” that’s identified the company’s desktop and server operating systems since […]

Although 100 Gigabit Ethernet is passing interoperability tests left and right – the latest tests having been organized by Japanese internet exchange provider Internet Multifeed, which expects to be deploying the technology in Internet Exchange Point environments by the end of the year – it’s far too early for the overwhelming majority of IT executives […]

Although many organizations have a standard template for naming servers, it wasn’t always that way. One of the few perks of being admin was getting to choose a naming convention. In my years in IT, I’ve seen schemes that used everything from Looney Tunes characters to stars and planets as the basis for naming network […]

Data loss prevention isn’t a new idea, but it’s a concept that’s become increasingly important to IT as organizations recognize the threat to their operations from leaks by disgruntled insiders or intrusions by hostile outsiders. At least, that’s the pitch DLP (data-loss-prevention) vendors use. But in most cases, notes Securosis analyst and CEO Rich Mogull, […]

I want to get caught up on a couple of topics I’ve discussed recently; it’s been a busy week here at Chez Peej, despite (or because of) the recent Independence Day holiday. First is the forthcoming release of Mac OS X Lion, where my greatest complaint was Apple’s decision to make the operating system available […]

So, if Cisco’s research is correct, maybe the floodtide of spam has finally broken. I kind of doubt it, but as squishy as the numbers are, I know that I’m not getting anywhere the amount of spam that I was a year ago. The company says that the worldwide volume of spam has been cut […]