56398323
submission
Kensai7 writes:
Confirming reports from earlier in the week, Sony has announced plans to sell off its VAIO computer division to a Japanese investment fund. Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) will take control of the operation for an undisclosed fee, and Sony will "cease planning, design and development of PC products." For a variety of reasons "including the drastic changes in the global PC industry," Sony says "the optimal solution is to concentrate its mobile product lineup on smartphones and tablets and to transfer its PC business to a new company."
7370610
submission
mssmss writes:
Has anyone used g-wan — a free (as in beer), supposedly fast and scalable webserver ? The downside is it supports only C scripts which the author claims is a plus since most programmers know C anyway. There is currently only a Windows release and no clear answer in their FAQs whether there would be linux/solaris releases. As an interesting aside, releasing a webserver while at the same time fighting a losing battle (PDF file) with a rather large bank over a piracy claim of $200 million (the bank is alleged to have done the piracy) is quite a task.
7367782
submission
theodp writes:
Fortune's Dear Annie takes on the case of poor Dazed and Confused, an independent webmaster who's expected to be on call for his client at all hours of the day and night, but doesn't get paid for being on call, only for the 40 hours a week that he's in the office. Surprisingly, Annie throws cold water on the contractor's dreams of paid OT, citing these pearls of wisdom from an attorney who's apparently never had the 'privilege' of being a techie on call: 'Many companies see the on-call issue as analogous to a firefighter's job. Most of the time, a firefighter is off-duty but on call, hanging around the firehouse, cooking, sleeping, or whatever. What that person really gets paid for is the relatively small, but crucial, amount of time he spends walking into a burning building with an ax. A webmaster, likewise, has slow times and busy times.' Yikes. Is this really the norm in companies these days, or are there more enlightened on-call pay policies?
7366444
submission
adeelarshad82 writes:
EBay's PayPal division reported that PayPal processed 20 percent more transactions on Black Friday compared to 2008. PayPal didn't release the total payment volume, but claimed that its Payflow Gateway system processes nearly a quarter of e-commerce, while its direct sales numbers reflect 12 percent of all e-commerce. In general, reports from a number of e-tailers and retailers indicated that consumers spent more on Black Friday than in 2008, when the United States was in the midst of a recession. However, it's still unclear whether shoppers bought more on "Black Friday," when they could expect a discount on what usually is one of the busiest days in the holiday season, or whether the pattern will continue. In 2008, shoppers stopped buying in early December, a shock that the U.S. economy felt well into 2009.
