Eric Lai

Articles By Eric Lai

5 smart ways to supercharge your netbook

5 smart ways to supercharge your netbook

The words overclocking and netbook appear in a sentence together about as often as Steve Ballmer is spotted at a Linux convention. Netbooks are all about portability over performance. Overclocking is all about

Published on: October 28th, 2009 Eric Lai
The truth about Microsoft SharePoint’s ‘explosive’ growth

The truth about Microsoft SharePoint’s ‘explosive’ growth

Guessing what eye-popping growth figures Microsoft Corp. will trumpet for SharePoint, its popular portal and collaboration app, has become an annual parlor game for fans and detractors alike. At Microsoft's first global conference

Published on: October 21st, 2009 Eric Lai
HyperBoot promises to halve Windows boot-up time

HyperBoot promises to halve Windows boot-up time

Diskeeper Corp. says its new HyperBoot app can cut the start-up time on Windows by more than half. Best known for its disk defragmentation software, Diskeeper has licensed HyperBoot to Taiwanese PC maker

Published on: October 7th, 2009 Eric Lai
eHarmony’s love formula created with four BI tools

eHarmony’s love formula created with four BI tools

While eHarmony Inc.'s goal is to get its 20 million members married or into long-term relationships, the online matchmaker is a downright commitment-phobe in its use of technology. For the business intelligence infrastructure

Published on: October 6th, 2009 Eric Lai
An intelligent way of selling jeans … for more than $200 a pop

An intelligent way of selling jeans … for more than $200 a pop

True Religion Apparel Inc. sells 4,000 styles of jeans at prices starting at $200 and running up to $350. For some of ournon-fashion-victim readers, the question may be, "Why would anyone spend that

Published on: September 17th, 2009 Eric Lai
Let a thousand touch screen PCs bloom – with Windows 7

Let a thousand touch screen PCs bloom – with Windows 7

Apple Inc. may still be coy about whether it plans to launch a touch-screen tablet computer this year, but Windows PC makers are forging right ahead. In the past three weeks, five leading

Published on: September 3rd, 2009 Eric Lai
7 ‘sins’ of Windows 7 detailed by free software group

7 ‘sins’ of Windows 7 detailed by free software group

The Free Software Foundation today launched a campaign against Microsoft Corp.'s upcoming Windows 7 operating system, calling it "treacherous computing" that stealthily takes away rights from users. At the Web site Windows7Sins.org, the

Published on: August 28th, 2009 Eric Lai
Disabled Hotmail feature stokes user frustration

Disabled Hotmail feature stokes user frustration

Windows Live Hotmail users have been venting their frustration at Microsoft for the past month since the software maker suddenly removed a popular feature because it created a security hole.The "Attach Photo" feature

Published on: August 26th, 2009 Eric Lai
Killing off products after mergers causing huge problems for users

Killing off products after mergers causing huge problems for users

Gregg Davis, CIO at Webcor Builders Inc., became concerned last fall when Oracle Corp. bought Primavera Systems Inc., because Webcor was a heavy user of Primavera's SureTrak construction scheduling software. Sure enough, once

Published on: June 17th, 2009 Eric Lai
Thrice lucky – How to create a triple-screen workstation display real cheap

Thrice lucky – How to create a triple-screen workstation display real cheap

It's too bad the late George Carlin never updated his classic '70s comedy monologue "A place for my stuff" for the Digital Age. Here's how I imagine it would've gone:That's all you need

Published on: June 16th, 2009 Eric Lai
Google guru offers free tool to supercharge your Web site, boost traffic

Google guru offers free tool to supercharge your Web site, boost traffic

Nowadays, even regular Web surfers know some of the things to do when designing a Web site for fast performance. Cut the number of requests to the Web server. Shrink JPEG sizes. Enlist

Published on: May 15th, 2009 Eric Lai
IBM, Microsoft quibble over Office 2007’s new ODF support

IBM, Microsoft quibble over Office 2007’s new ODF support

In the latest sniping in the long-running feud over document format standards, IBM this week claimed that Microsoft Corp.'s Excel 2007 corrupted formulas and data in spreadsheets created in the OpenDocument Format.Microsoft rebuffed

Published on: May 7th, 2009 Eric Lai
3,000 Microsoft employees let go, Ballmer warns more cuts possible

3,000 Microsoft employees let go, Ballmer warns more cuts possible

Microsoft Corp. has laid off 3,000 workers, the second wave of a major reduction the company announced in January. And in a memo to employees, CEO Steve Ballmer said more cuts are possible.

Published on: May 7th, 2009 Eric Lai
First Android netbook in three months at $250

First Android netbook in three months at $250

The first netbook computer running the Google Inc.-backed Android mobile operating system on a low-cost ARM chip could become available to customers within three months, the maker's co-founder said this week. The Alpha

Published on: April 30th, 2009 Eric Lai
Inappropriate pictures, videos found on many employee laptops

Inappropriate pictures, videos found on many employee laptops

Nearly three-quarters of corporate security and IT professionals in the U.S. have found "inappropriate" pictures, videos or browser cache links on employee laptops, a survey released Wednesday shows. Two-thirds of the 3,100 IT

Published on: April 20th, 2009 Eric Lai