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Comment: "BYOL" IT? (Score 1) 600

by dmarti (#34306620) Attached to: Best IT-infrastructure For a Small Company?

The final decision on this is probably above the OP's pay grade, but consider putting employees on the "Bring your Own Laptop" plan. One of your biggest expenses at a company this size (unless you have very expensive vertical market software) is desktop hardware. Company-owned machines take a lot of hard use, and somehow people's own property lasts longer.

Cellphones

Why Overheard Cell Phone Chats Are Annoying 344

Posted by timothy
from the they-drown-out-the-bark-of-my-gun dept.
__roo writes "American researchers think they have found the answer to the question of why overhearing cell phone chats are annoying. According to scientists at Cornell University, when only half of the conversation is overheard, it drains more attention and concentration than when overhearing two people talking. According to one researcher, 'We have less control to move away our attention from half a conversation (or halfalogue) than when listening to a dialogue. Since halfalogues really are more distracting and you can't tune them out, this could explain why people are irritated.' Their study will be published in the journal Psychological Science."
Handhelds

Apple Reverses iPad "No Cash Purchase" Policy 377

Posted by timothy
from the so-it's-free-now dept.
ZipK writes "After a few days of bad publicity, Apple has reversed its no cash purchase policy, explaining that the policy was originally implemented to limit the number of iPads an individual could buy during the introductory period of short supply. Now that supply has caught up with demand — and the story has hit front pages and gained national attention — Apple has reversed its policy, and taken the opportunity to put a bow on the story by giving the formerly scorned Diane Campbell a free iPad."

Comment: Is Google turning into AltaVista? (Score 1) 145

by dmarti (#32195154) Attached to: Google To Answer Your Questions Directly

Before Google, "search engine optimization" was basically choosing a good page title, then stuffing the page with keywords.

Then Google came along, and PageRank saved the web from crap keyword-stuffed pages. All of a sudden, placement was based on whether or not a page could attract inbound links. Life was good.

Now, Google is tracking click-throughs using JavaScript, resulting in putting less and less weight on PageRank, and more and more weight on...keyword stuffing. Yes, you're using Google Math to weed out the auto-generated crap and duplicate pages, but keyword stuffing is back in a big way. (If I were wrong about this, Demand Media and other "content farms" of crap pages would not exist.)

I'm not worried about Google making us "stoopid" but are we making Google stoopid?

One good turn asketh another. -- John Heywood