Festive thoughts; VMware Player follow-up

* Backspin: Festive thoughts * Gearhead: VMware Player follow-up * The past 7 days on Gibbsblog

Backspin: Festive thoughts

With the Christmas season upon us how could I not be festive? I’m thinking festive thoughts, enthusiastically bidding complete strangers festive greetings (my court case comes up on Tuesday), and I’m drinking lots of festive Cabernet.

To read this week’s Backspin in full, please go to:

http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2005/121905backspin.html?nl

Gearhead: VMware Player follow-up

Following our Gearhead column on the VMware Player , a free virtual-machine runtime utility from VMware, long-time reader Phil Daley wrote: “I can take this home and install it on my home system? Then I can create VMs at work and bring them home (assuming they fit on my 1GB flash drive) and run them? This sounds really great.”

To read this week’s Gearhead in full, please go to:

http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2005/121905gearhead.html?nl

The past 7 days on Gibbsblog:

Global marketing intermediaries

According to Jakob Nielsen’s on-line column on Web usability, Alertbox: The Internet is growing at an annualized rate of 18% and now has one billion users. A second billion users will follow in the next ten years, bringing a dramatic change in worldwide usability needs.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/3956

‘Tis the season

Reactions to my ode to Christmas – or anything else on your mind.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/3921

MTV doesn’t care about 15% of their market

In the never ending quest to garner eyeballs you’d think that consumer-oriented companies would do whatever it takes to get the greatest number of page hits possible and build a loyal audience. That’s what you’d think …

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/3922

A blog to check out

Long time Backspin and Gearhead reader Keith Krebs (who describes himself as “Just some guy” and caretaker of the Multiverse’s largest EPSON printer User Community) has a blog called “Diogenes’ Hot Tub”.

I recommend it to you if you want to get enraged about politics — he’s really quite good at rabble rousing …

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/3891

Caller Eye Deer

This cracked me up: “I work in an office of several cubicles. Often someone is on the other side of the room, and a phone rings. Who’s phone is it? All the phones sound the same, and the cubicle walls block line-of-sight to the indicator light on the phone. That is, unless it’s remotely located in a picture of a deer, up where I can see it. Now, with Caller Eye Deer, I know whether or not to run across the room.”

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/3890

Torvalds: “Please, just tell people to use KDE.” 

I personally just encourage people to switch to KDE.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/3889

Dell to offer 30in widescreen LCD 

According to the UK publication Trusted Reviews, Dell is planning to launch a 30 inch widescreen display with …

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/3888

One standard to bind their cell phone accessories …

If there is one thing that is downright aggravating it is the multiplicity of connectors, cables, wall warts and headphones that make up the gear you need to use cell phones. Surprisingly South Korea’s cellular operators get it where our carriers (bless their little customer hostile ways) do not …

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/3887