Author Archives: Neil McAllister

More bloggery to come

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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... » →

Updated LibraryLookup for the SFPL

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My GreaseMonkey script that links Amazon.com search results with the San Francisco Public Library catalog seems to have broken recently. I’ve now published an updated version with a couple of additional improvements. It now returns search results for all of the branches of the library, rather than just the first few; and the output is now a little nicer looking.

If you want to know more about this script and its history, you can check my earlier post on the subject.

If you just want to dive in and start searching for library books via Amazon, you can download the latest script here. (Note that you must have the GreaseMonkey extension for Firefox installed for this to work.)

A strange news day at InfoWorld

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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.

A peek at Ubuntu 8.04

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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.

Review: “Kirby: King of Comics”

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I’m thrilled with this book. Mark Evanier, onetime assistant to comics legend Jack Kirby, has written the definitive biography of the creator of such iconic characters as the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, and the New Gods.

More than the text, however, the real treat of Kirby: King of Comics is the lavish presentation of Kirby’s art. Never before have I seen comic book art reproduced so faithfully (and if anyone deserves such treatment it surely is Kirby). In fact, when I first peeked inside the book’s covers, I literally gasped. » More... » →

PC World blog now live

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The good people at PC World Business Center have flipped the switch on my new blog there, so we are officially rolling. You can see a little RSS widget with the current headlines along the right-hand side of this page.

It should be interesting to see how this pans out over the coming weeks. I’ll be looking for feedback on how I’m doing, so feel free to leave comments on the site (or here, if you prefer). It’s a work-in-progress at the moment, but my goal is to steer it in the direction that best serves PC World’s readers.

And, if you’ve got any interesting news in the area of business software, send them to my “tech” address as usual, which you can find on my contact page.

Coming soon: A new PC World blog

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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... » →

“Crackpot tech” revisited

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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…