Columns

It has become an end-of-year tradition for me to devote this column to a look back at the year just past to recap some of the noteworthy happenings in the world of Information Technology.  2014 failed to record any seismic events equaling the magnitude of last year’s revelations of government eavesdropping, yet there were a few stories that made headlines on those tech news sites followed by so many techies like me in the IT industry.

While more than 90 percent of the world’s personal computers run on Microsoft Windows Operating Systems, Mac computers have more than doubled in popularity over the last decade.

A quote often attributed to John Ruskin says, “There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply.  The person who buys on price alone is this man’s lawful prey.”  It astounds me to realize this far-sighted 19th century English author, poet, art and social critic knew so much about the 21st century computer industry.

I really do love some of the questions thrown at me by friends, clients, and readers of this column.  A good one I recently fielded is “Where is the Internet actually located?”  Some people might be inclined to respond to that with a religious analogy, because it seems like the internet is everywhere at once; but that answer really does not work for me.  The internet is a physical reality made up of computer hardware in our world.

This is the week Mexico celebrates Day of the Dead, that most colorful of all holidays.  And every year about this time I always seem to notice some news article reported on the computer/technical news sites I follow that is at least tangentially related to death and dying. This year will be no exception.

My Aunt Rose, no longer an octogenarian because she proudly points out as of this summer she is a nonagenarian, asks this week’s question as she familiarizes herself with her new laptop and its newer version of Windows.  “On the computer, what is the difference between hibernate and sleep?” she emails me to ask.