Fire-Wired Blog

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com Cutting corners has a rather negative connotation; if you can’t do something correctly, cut a few corners and live with the diminished result. While generally true, there exceptions to all adages and for small businesses cutting some corners can offer avenues to serious cost savings. One particularly costly expenditure for businesses is technology, particularly software. With many popular software companies transitioning from single pricey purchases to on-going software subscriptions turning one time buys into never ending cash drains. Luckily there is a small glint of hope in the expensive software barrage; an altruistic technology solutions movement called “Open Source.” Before you start screaming how you can’t give up your Mircosoft, Quicken, SalesForce, or Oracle take a deep breath and consider the word ‘free.’ Open Source only works because a swarm of programmers and engineers understand many people out there can’t afford...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com In the 1990s Microsoft was the indomitable force hovering over the tech industry. The internet had started to emerge but wouldn’t start changing the world until a couple years into the new millennium. No, Microsoft had full run of the court and no matter who tried to defend, Bill Gates’ company was going to win. This was so much the case that the U.S. government and courts in the EU held antitrust hearings, with the initial 1999 U.S. judgement being Microsoft was a monopoly. Now under appeal a federal court overturned that ruling, staving off court mandated separation. In the moment that must have seemed crazy to the tech world; I mean articles were being written about Microsoft being king of the hill for as long as it was interested. But once the 90s ended, the internet exploded, start-up tech firms reshaped the software market, and  over the course of a decade Apple released the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad. Microsoft’s...