PC and Components: Features

While virtualisation and blade technology have shaken up the server market, little copy has been inked about server operating systems. Yet, with Microsoft due to launch its Windows Essential Server Solution – which combines both Small Business Server (SBS) and Essential Business Server (EBS) – in early November, the server operating system market is sharply coming into focus.

Wal-Mart's super-streamlined retail supply chain fantasy is still just that, but there's good news on the RFID front. Tag technology has improved, and a number of companies now successfully use RFID to track high-value IT assets in house or on campus -- exactly where RFID makes the most sense.

Is your PC tired and sluggish? Has its get up and go got up and went? If you want a faster system, you could certainly break the bank and buy a new machine. Or you could read this article instead.

Trying to boost the IT capabilities at his digital forensics company, Brian Dykstra invested in a quad-core processor-based server. After all, he figured, more cores means a more powerful machine that can do far more work than single-core systems.

A decade ago, it was a clever novelty: a webcam pointed at an office water cooler. The first one is still online, at www.coolercam.com, broadcasting a fresh picture every 10 seconds.

If, like me, you travel regularly with your laptop between different locations, you know how annoying it can be to get even a simple document printed to the right device and in the right format. And if you forget to choose the right printer when you come into a new location? Everything disappears into the wrong queue, only to spit out in a torrent when you connect at the other location.

Shirts that light up with LED ads. Textiles with embedded temperature sensors. Athletic gear that changes color to show the intensity of an athlete's workout. Technology is not just for your desktop anymore; it has the potential to infiltrate your closet.

Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) are like your health insurance policy – you pay for one and forget about it until something drastic happens and you need a bit of support. Unlike most other areas of IT, which transform and advance at F1-speed while generating plenty of hype, UPS are slow moving beasts that rarely light up a conversation.

A group of companies that build products to ease the integration of Macs in the enterprise had been separately championing a heterogeneous IT environment where both Macs and Windows can co-exist. Combining those efforts into an umbrella organization seemed like a good idea.

On stage at DEMO: A computer algorithm that uncovers media bias, and new ways to watch television, create music, manage money, and spy on IT workers.

Projector resellers are an emotional bunch, or at least they should be if they want in on the home theatre segment. Unlike the corporate or education markets, where growth is healthy and buyers are spurned on by the Federal Government’s support for a digital education revolution, the home theatre segment often relies on the whims and fancies of users that might just opt for an LCD or plasma TV instead.