Skip Links

Network World

Mitchell Ashley
Will iPhone 4's FaceTime See Much Face Time?
Written on Wed, 06/09/10 - 5:11pm
In many ways the iPhone 4 launch was a tale of two cities; Apple innovating with elegant hardware improvements in size, weight, screen and antenna, and Apple playing catchup with other features lagging in the iPhone OS, such as multitasking, folders, and unified email inbox. The wild card in all...
Read More
7 Apple iTablet/iSlate/iPad Rumors That Will Live Or Die
Written on Wed, 01/27/10 - 9:55am
Wow, there's nearly as much interest in today's Apple iTablet/iSlate/iPad announcement as there was back with the original Macintosh. The amount of rumors and wild speculation, including product mockups and videos... it's simply amazing. All of this drama is leading up to some hefty expectations for...
Read More
Microsoft's Delicate Balancing Act Between Cloud and Data Center
Written on Tue, 11/10/09 - 10:04am
TechEd's focus on Exchange 2010 this week is all about the efficiency gains through improved productivity, lower power consumption (thanks to Windows Server 2008 R2) and decreased storage costs of Exchange 2010. Thank the economy for the focus on efficiency gains. Upgrades like Exchange 2010 will get...
Read More
Verizon and Google Droid Phone Take Run At iPhone
Written on Wed, 10/28/09 - 1:51pm
After the debacle called the Blackberry Storm, you have to wonder if Verizon is really ready to take another run at the iPhone. From one viewpoint the Google Android powered Droid phone must a very capable contender, given how the recent Droid video ads pick at iPhone weak points. Hard to say the Droid...
Read More
Net Neutrality - Somebody Get John McCain A VoIP Clue Phone
Written on Mon, 10/26/09 - 9:56am
Net Neutrality vs. John McCain. Consumer vs. Ignorant Politician. Party affiliations aside, anyone proposing we allow carriers to clamp down and determine what content we can run through our Internet and ISP connections probably still has their secretaries print out emails for them. Would you allow Verizon...
Read More
Podcast: Are you doing what it takes to succeed at implementing SharePoint?
Written on Fri, 09/11/09 - 2:00am
I talked with Dux Raymond Sy, author of O'Reilly's SharePoint for Project Management and Innovative-E SharePoint consultant, on this week's podcast about what we can learn from successful and failed SharePoint projects.
Read More
Virtualization Day: Virtual Machine Manager R2 RTM and Windows 7 XP Mode
Written on Mon, 08/24/09 - 2:13pm
It must be Virtualization Day at my office as right in the middle of test out XP Mode on Windows 7 with some VoIP software, Microsoft announces System Center Virtual Machine Manager R2 is RTM (released to manufacturing). We have a number of projects in the office centered around virtualization, including...
Read More
Microsoft Nokia Good Deal For SharePoint and Exchange
Written on Thu, 08/13/09 - 10:01am
Reactions to yesterday's Microsoft / Nokia are interesting, ranging from Microsoft's given up on Windows Mobile to Blackberries have much the same features today. Here are some more salient views by Gartner's Nick Jones. But the real hint of what's behind this deal are in the "collaboration and Office...
Read More
Is Open Source The Enemy Within Chipping Away at Proprietary Microsoft?
Written on Tue, 08/04/09 - 6:47am
Sam Ramji, Senior Director of Strategic Platforms at Microsoft, said some pretty unexpected things during his interview on my podcast this week. I've gone back and listened to the interview with Sam several times, each time picking up a new little tidbit, but also re-enforcing what I heard him say about...
Read More
Apple Tablet - Expensive Netbook or iTouch on Steroids?
Written on Wed, 07/29/09 - 10:27am
The rumors about the Apple $800 tablet have been circulating long enough now that everyone's starting to mentally reverse engineer what this device might be. Is the Apple Tablet a netbook? Its supposed $800 price tag would technically disqualify it as a netbook by many definitions (sub $399 devices)....
Read More
Microsoft... Coming to a New Store Near You
Written on Tue, 07/28/09 - 3:36am
Apple and Radio Shack are probably the two most successful electronics brands to have retail stores dedicated to selling their own products direct to the customer. Radio Shack of course is a much different business model, more of a commercialization of the hobby electronics store, where as Apple stores...
Read More
Context-Aware Applications - The Future Is Ready To Happen
Written on Fri, 07/03/09 - 2:55pm
I'm really glad Beth Schultz wrote this article for ComputerWorld about context-aware applications. It's actually one aspect of some product R&D I've been engaged in over the past year, and I was beginning to consider what things to write about on the topic. We often think of context-aware applications...
Read More
Twitter and LinkedIn - Valuable Social Media Tools For Contracting and Locating Jobs
Written on Mon, 06/22/09 - 12:46pm
We all often wonder how our employers could do something as devistating as lay someone off from their job. Despite any social obligations to the community or altruistic wishes we may have for our employers, companies ultimately have to cut expenses when their business suffers a downturn, especially during...
Read More
Conficker & Our "Cold War" View of Malware
Written on Wed, 04/01/09 - 2:28am
Conficker. How and why has it spread so successfully? If there's any kind of IT security threat service providers and businesses are prepared for, it's the mass infection worm or virus that overloads networks, mail servers and desktop computers with malicious consequences.
Read More
CS Degree? Constant Learners and Self-SysAdmins Are Required
Written on Tue, 03/31/09 - 10:22am
I enjoy the conversation sparked by the Network World article Does A Computer Science Degree Matter Anymore? I've hired lots of software developers and IT professionals and whether they have a degree or not isn't usually a top factor. When you can, developing a technical screening questionnaire...
Read More
Reach Out And Touch Windows 7
Written on Thu, 03/26/09 - 2:50am
Something you haven't heard a great deal about in Windows 7 is the added support for touch user interfaces. The touch interface was demonstrated at the 2008 PDC conference but the presenters didn't go into any detail about how apps would be designed for touch, they showed some apps that benefit...
Read More
iPhone OS 3.0: Microsoft Gets p00ned Again
Written on Wed, 03/18/09 - 11:02am
Apple’s not resting on their laurels after reportedly selling 30 million iPhone devices. They’re not making thinks in the mobile space any easier for Microsoft and Google, nor should they. The announcements about the iPhone OS 3.0 beta were both broad and sweeping. The upgrade to the iPhone’s...
Read More
OCS 2007 R2 - Time To eBay The PBX
Written on Wed, 02/04/09 - 2:57am
Is it here? Has convergence finally arrived? You know... replacing those arcane devices we call PBX's with an all software VoIP solution. Well, I don't know if I'd put the PBX on eBay quite yet, but we may actually be at a nexus point where this is possible. Two key features in Microsoft...
Read More
Top 8 Microsoft Research projects to improve our lives
Written on Wed, 01/07/09 - 10:42am
I'm always fascinated by the ideas folks come up with for research projects when it comes to how we use computers and technologies in our daily lives. Microsoft Research has a Web site covering its socio-digital systems research projects. Much of the work is about unlocking the personal photos and...
Read More
Microsoft Get Busy & Don't Listen To The Analysts
Written on Tue, 12/30/08 - 3:00pm
Redmond, you've got too much to do so don't be listening to Wall Street's calls to start laying off people. No disrespect to the analysts, but a big round of layoffs is that last thing Microsoft needs distracting it from the work at hand. Plus, telling 10% of your workforce sayonara so...
Read More
About Converging on Microsoft
Mitchell Ashley has a diverse background in software development, network engineering, information security, mobility, collaborative technologies, and IT management and operations. An early adopter of social media in business, he began blogging about security and information technologies in 2006 at theconvergingnetwork.com. Mitchell is VP of Information Technology at CableLabs in Louisville, CO, and previously held positions as CIO, CTO and VP Engineering at prior companies.
 

Most Discussed Posts

Blog Roll
Personal blog
http://www.theconvergingnetwork.com
Personal podcast
http://ashimmy.podomatic.com