Over at PC World, my latest fun feature looks at some of the most important technologies you never think about.

Consider, for example, the humble battery. We all bemoan the fact that our portable devices don’t last long enough (or, occasionally, that they explode). But have you ever stopped to think how advances in battery technology have changed personal technology? Without modern lithium-ion batteries the iPod would hardly be possible, and your mobile phone would still look like a brick.

Among the other technologies given an airing are XML (it really is everywhere); managed code like Java and Microsoft .Net; and the mysterious world of digital signal processing, where incredibly complex mathematics gets packaged into chips to let you play your MP3s. Who knew?

Check it out and let know what you think.

After a few technical glitches at the outset, my new InfoWorld blog is at last online. If you’re interested in the geekier aspects of computing, drop on by and take a gander at the first-ever installment of “Fatal Exception.”

Astute observers will recall that I’ve owned fatalexception.org for some time, so the choice of titles isn’t entirely a coincidence. But it also means something, which I’ve tried to explain in the first post.  More »

As you’ve no doubt noticed, even though I’m no longer an employee at InfoWorld, I still do a fair amount of work for them. Now it looks like my role there is due to expand even further. Recently I’ve been in contact with the InfoWorld editorial staff, and they’ve extended me the opportunity to launch a new blog on the InfoWorld site.

Expect a bit of a departure from my Neil on Software blog at PC World. Instead, this one will take me back to my roots, looking at news, trends, and issues for software developers, with a particular emphasis on the new generation of “Web 2.0″ technologies (hate that term).  More »

InfoWorld is covering a bevvy of bizarre news stories today … I’m really not sure what to make of it all. First, two of my own recent stories were really unexpected. First, it turns out that Dell and Intel will be collaborating on a new project to compete with the OLPC. Then I found out that IBM is expanding its mainframe line with a new product specifically for IBM Global Services customers.

But that’s not all. A lot of other reporters have posted really unusual stories this morning. It’s so confounding that the InfoWorld editors have organized the more dubious items into a special report.

InfoWorld is running my write-up of the beta release next edition of Ubuntu this morning. I’ve covered desktop Linux distributions several times for a number of different publications, and it’s no secret the Ubuntu remains my favorite, though it is still rough around the edges in some important areas.

I’ve avoided criticizing this release too harshly, since it is still only in beta. More than anything, though, I was pleasantly surprised with how generally stable and functional it is, even in this prerelease form. The new installer is particularly interesting, as it allows you to install Ubuntu onto an existing Windows box without re-partitioning your drive. Click on over to InfoWorld to read my full account.

I’ll be trying something new, hopefully beginning in the next week or two. The good folks over at PC World’s Business Center are revamping the blogs on their site, and I’ve been tapped to helm a new blog about business software.

This will be a bit different from the hard enterprise-focused coverage I’ve done at InfoWorld in the past. Pitching more toward the PC World demographic, this new blog will aim to cover products of interest to small and midsize businesses, with maybe the occasional enterprise-focused story thrown in for good measure. Productivity applications, security, back office, collaboration and communication, storage software, and even lightweight development apps will all be grist for the mill.  More »

I contributed a few pieces to InfoWorld’s latest group effort, “Crackpot technologies that could shake up IT.” The idea on this one, which is based on a similar feature from last year, is to take an irreverent look at some of the more out-there ideas in computing today. Are you ready for computers that can read your mind, office walls that know where you are, CPUs that run on light instead of electricity, and a supercomputer in every office? If you’re not sure, you’re not alone — though some of these make for some interesting reading, even if they never actually come to pass.

Update: InfoWorld seems to be having some serious uptime problems over the weekend. I’d love to find out what that’s all about, because it seems like it has happened before…

PC World is running my latest article in its Business Center this week. In it, I survey a collection of open source applications for small businesses, with two distinctions: First, all of these applications are mature enough for anyone to download and try out, without any arcane tweaking or configuration. And second, all of them run on Windows.

Longtime readers will be aware that I’m a desktop Linux fan, and I try to use Linux for my day-to-day computing as much as possible. But the media tends to place so much emphasis on the Linux operating system that people sometimes forget that what really matter are the applications.

The truth is that you don’t have to give up your mainstream OS to use some of the best free software that’s available. If you’re friendly to open source, but aren’t yet ready to make the leap to Linux full-time, check out this piece and try out some of the great applications that the community has to offer.

We’re having some fun over at InfoWorld today. The end of the year typically sees a proliferation of stories predicting what lies ahead for the tech industry. Instead, with the New Year well underway, we’re taking a look back. Presented for your enjoyment are 25 of tech’s biggest blunders, slip-ups, disappointments, and missed opportunities — the moments that, if anyone could have seen the future, would probably have been done differently.

There’s an element of schadenfreude in this, to be sure. But it’s not just about kicking the players when they’re down. I think of it as a moment to chuckle at our own irrational exuberance and, if we’re lucky, an opportunity to learn from past mistakes.

You guys might have some other doozies that didn’t make my list. Feel free to send them my way, or post them over at InfoWorld.com. And smile, everybody! After all, what’s a few million in venture capital funding down the drain?