No Santa Claus rally for Wall Street today, with trading activity light and most investors taking it easy before the grind begins anew next Monday. The markets were down, slightly with the Dow off by 31 points and the NASDAQ down 19 points. Some odds and ends worth noting, however. Over at Tech... (Read More)

The Street.com is out with its 2009 tech guide and it’s a good read. You can check out the whole thing at http://www.thestreet.com/story/10454493/4/the-tech-investors-guide-to-2009.html; but here are a few highlights on what tech insiders predict will happen in 2009. Cloud clearing – 2009 will... (Read More)

It was the fourth-worst trading day in Wall Street history, with the Dow off 679 points (about 8% of the index's total value) and the Nasdaq falling almost 9%, to 1,398 for the session. There's a lot to point at here, but the main culprit seems to be the fact that a leading economic group has... (Read More)

Leave it to a Swedish postal worker to restore some credibility to the financial marketplace. Okay, Lars. G. Nordstrom isn't exactly a postal worker - just the head of the Swedish postal service. He's been at the post since July, and is paid the U.S. equivalent of $110,000 per month for the job... (Read More)

I think we can safely say that Windows Vista was a flop. The only one that doesn't seem to know it is Microsoft. Or does it? This week at WinHEC, the company introduced a series of capabilities in Windows 7 that it says will "make it easier for hardware partners to create new experiences for... (Read More)

The fact that Hewlett-Packard is taking its netbooks more seriously is to be welcomed. A while ago I was going away and my laptop broke down; armed with my existing 3G dongle and an Asus eeePC I was able to use Google Docs to keep all my work up to date, update my blog here, all sorts of stuff and... (Read More)

At the risk of being sexist, does anyone really fall for this 'computers for the ladies' hard sell? I am assuming that the answer must be yes, otherwise companies would not keep pumping out the pink gadgets and Hewlett Packard would not have come up with the special edition ladies 'clutch'... (Read More)

Last week, in the middle of the worst stock market meltdown since the 1930's, U.S. Secretary Henry Paulson called on some of the banking industry's leading lights to figure a way out of this mess. Paulsen, with Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs), John Mack (Morgan Stanley), Vikram Pandit (Citigroup),... (Read More)

The stock market is down 370 points after Monday trading and nobody is really sure where we go from here. I’ve been around Wall Street for over 20 years and I’ve never seen anxiety like this – people are scared to death and a run on investment accounts - including once staid money market... (Read More)

The second Microsoft-Seinfeld ad was released Friday. It had a few funny moments, but once again left most people shaking their heads wondering exactly what Microsoft hopes to achieve. I'm not sure they know. Although they may have a game plan, it's hard for anyone to see exactly what it is. We... (Read More)

One of the year’s biggest disappointments has to be Seagate Teachnology. The high-tech heavyweight is taking on so much water that barnacles are starting to grow on its bottom line. Hey . . . at least something is growing on Seagate’s bottom line. Before I get into Seagate’s woes, I... (Read More)

If your plan is to strong-arm customers into offering your products exclusively, you had better give them something people want to buy. With Microsoft and Windows Vista, such is not the case, and Hewlett-Packard isn't taking it lying down. HP, the world's number one PC supplier in terms of volume... (Read More)

In the words of the immortal Chris Farley . . . “Holy Shnikey’s!” That was my reaction after watching Dell’s stock tank after what pundits are billing as an “underwhelming” second quarter earnings performance. Investors seemed to agree on Thursday, as Dell stock fell 13% to under $22... (Read More)

Just getting back from Virginia and an investment conference on Monday and Tuesday. A good friend of mine who runs a five-star Morningstar market neutral fund says that, for the first time in a year, he can see the clouds breaking for the financial markets. He said that large cap stocks would rise... (Read More)

Amidst the carnage that is Wall Street this year (the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 20% since last October, classifying the stock market as being in official “bear” territory), there are glimmers of good news, and a good portion of it is coming from the tech sector. The latest... (Read More)

Tom Wolfe once wrote that “you can’t go home again.” In the computer world, at least, Wolfe has been proven wrong. Prodigal son Steve Jobs was shown the door at Apple and returned to strike gold with the PowerMaC, the iPod, and the iPhone. Now it’s Michael Dell’s turn to rule the roost... (Read More)

I can’t stand this indecision married with a lack of vision Everybody wants to rule the world ~Tears for Fears, Everybody Wants to Rule the World. There has certainly been a lot of gamesmanship going on in the computer industry these past few weeks as the industry’s biggest players try to... (Read More)

Word is that HP will debut the new Mini-Note micro-notebook PC next week, with the $500 base model shipping with a SuSe Linux OS. With an 8.9 inch display and a spill-resistant keyboard which somehow only manages to be around 8% smaller than a standard notebook device, the aluminium encased... (Read More)

According to HP an incredible 92% of top IT decision makers in Europe do not feel that their organisation is exploiting the competitive advantages offered by information management. In fact, respondents who took part in the 2008 Pressure Point Index survey were pretty dissatisfied overall with both... (Read More)

As Intel and AMD continue to war for control of the desktop microprocessor market, a recent announcement made by HP shows that a third company, VIA, is still a contender. HP has chosen VIA microprocessors for new Compaq thin-client PCs for sale in China. They're cheaper and more energy efficient... (Read More)