How to Use Windows

Even as the economy picks up, it’s a touch tech market out there, especially as company’s look to trim staff and their IT budgets. What’s a geek to do? Learn Drupal . Drupal, as you’re probably aware, is a free and open source content management system (CMS) that has been gaining traction in the last few years. According to CNET, Drupal has been downloaded more than 2 million times and is now found powering sites for some heavy hitters, including the White House, Warner Brothers, and right here at Maximum PC

For the full story, go to Maximum PC

Never mind complaints about high prices for low capacities, some early stuttering problems, questions about life expectancy, and other concerns–the SSD market grew by 14 percent in 2009, shipping over 11 million units, according to IDC. And that’s just the beginning. You can expect to see solid growth in 2010, and by 2013, SSD’s compound growth rate (CAGR) over 2008-2013 will reach 54 percent.

For the full story, go to Maximum PC

IBM this week reported fourth-quarter 2009 diluted earnings of $3.59 per share compared with diluted earnings of $3.37 per share in the same quarter one year ago. That represents a 10 percent jump, and the first time IBM has seen revenues increase in more than a year. “We concluded a strong year with a solid performance in the fourth quarter in which we again delivered growth in margins, profit and earnings,” said Samuel J.

For the full story, go to Maximum PC

Rather than raise its entire userbase’s maintenance fees, SAP has decided to take a different approach and announced a new tiered pricing model on Thursday. “The idea that customers can choose a support offering better tailored to their individual needs is a plus for enterprises in this economy and leading in the business software space,” said Pierre Boucher, vice president, Systems and Operations, Peerless Clothing, Inc. “We find that SAP Enterprise Support is providing our business with benefits that demonstrate its long-term business value.” Both new and existing customers can now choose the level of global IT support they receive from SAP.

For the full story, go to Maximum PC

Market researcher Gartner is making the call: the six-year decline in PC prices will come to an end later this year, so get ready to pay more . The culprit: a shortage of components. Manufacturers are facing two problems. Problem one: with prices falling (and the economy crashing), manufacturers have been scaling back on production, resulting in a shortage.

For the full story, go to Maximum PC

IT managers have had plenty to complain about ever since the economy took a nosedive and companies starting make cuts, and according to Symantec’s “State of the Data Center” report, half of all IT execs surveyed say their data centers are under manned . “We recently actually lost 25 percent of our departments in cutbacks,” one network manager in New York told researchers. “I’m now doing a number of different jobs.

For the full story, go to Maximum PC

Adobe this week reported financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended November 27, 2009. According to the report, the company recorded fourth quarter revenue of $757.3 million, down from $915.3 million for the fourth quarter in 2008, but up from $697.5 million in the third quarter of this year. “We experienced an improvement in customer demand for our products in Q4,” said Shantanu Narayen, president and CEO of Adobe. “We believe the investments we have made in the past year, and the new products we will deliver in the coming year, will drive top line growth as the economy improves.” Adobe also pointed out that the results take into account the company’s acquisition of Omniture, a deal that was valued at approximately $1.8 billion back in September.

For the full story, go to Maximum PC

According to a recent survey by Accenture on IT investments, information technology will play a key role in the global economic recovery. Accenture noted that about 72 percent of business and IT execs say their “organizations place greater value on the IT function today than they did before the economic crisis,” and believe that IT will prove integral to getting the economy back on track. “The results of the survey show that firms recognize the need to invest in technology to defend and accelerate their competitive position, even in difficult times, which has not always been the case in the past,” said Keith Haviland , Accenture’s Global Managing Director for Systems Integration Consulting. “The turmoil over the last 18 months has underscored the need for further flexibility and scalability to stay ahead in business and drive agile business change.” Many execs said they expect technology spending to increase in their organization either selectively (47 percent) or across the board (10 percent) in the next year

For the full story, go to Maximum PC

If you haven’t seen it already, Richard Gale’s fake trailer for The Horribly Slow Murderer With The Extremely Inefficient Weapon is wonderful and hilarious. The trailer is also a pretty good illustration of what the Government’s doing to our internet freedoms, so you might want to watch it before you read the rest of this. Done that? Good.

The full story can be found on Tech Radar

LinkedIn is highly likely to go public at some point in the future, according to co-founder Reid Hoffman, but not in the near future. Hoffman, talking to Reuters, confirmed the general belief that LinkedIn was a candidate for an initial public offering, or IPO. The social network, which allows professionals to form links and host their accomplishment and details online, has 53 million members, and is amongst a group that includes the like of Facebook that is expected to go public when the economy picks up “Probably at some point a balance will occur when that’s the right thing. That will not occur in the near term,” Hoffman said at a London event to celebrate the network’s reaching 3 million users in Britain. Financially sound The last time that LinkedIn went through financing in 2008 it raised huge amounts of money, and it has not splashed that cash yet

The full story can be found on Tech Radar