11 posts and columns on utilities

Deleting Your Facebook Profile

in Mossberg’s Mailbox on October 13, 2010 at 3:35 pm PT

Walt answers readers’ questions on deleting Facebook profiles, recording TV shows and converting music files.

Siemens Halts Computer Virus as Threat Spurs Effort Against Attacks

in News on August 13, 2010 at 1:31 pm PT

Siemens AG said a computer virus designed to attack the industrial control systems it makes to help monitor power grids and other key infrastructure has been largely suppressed, but the threat has stepped up government and private-sector efforts to ward off future attacks.

The Summer to Go on a Power Diet

in The Digital Solution on June 15, 2010 at 3:40 pm PT

Katie runs down ways to keep your energy bills down this summer.

Morgan Stanley: “IPad on Pace to Become One of the Most Popular Mobile Devices in History”

in Mobile on June 8, 2010 at 10:01 am PT

Apple’s iPad may prove to be the fastest-ramping mobile Internet device ever and if not that, then the second fastest, after the netbook. This according to Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, who in an adulatory research note this morning says the iPad is on track to become one of the most popular mobile devices in history.
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Did You Forget to Pay the Google Bill? We Got Another Disconnection Notice.

in News on January 8, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

Google has a long and storied history of insisting it has no plans whatsoever to do something that it ultimately ends up doing. So the company’s claims this week that it doesn’t plan to enter the speculative energy trading business even though it has established a new Google Energy LLC subsidiary that would allow it to do just that, are certainly an eyebrow raiser.
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Exodus: Apple Leaves Chamber of Commerce Over Climate Spat

in News on October 6, 2009 at 1:00 am PT

And then there were five–defections from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its climate-change policy, that is. Apple today resigned its membership in the Chamber “effective immediately.” That’s a harsher tone than the other departures–three utilities said they’d let their membership lapse at the end of the year, and Nike simply quite the Chamber’s board of directors.

LotusLive iNotes: Like Gmail, but Without the Outages

in News on October 2, 2009 at 5:01 am PT

As launch dates go, the timing could not be better. Less than a week after Google’s Gmail suffered its fourth service disruption this year, IBM announced a competing Web mail service intended to undercut it. Called LotusLive iNotes, it’s an email, calendaring, and contact management system aimed squarely at the enterprise space Google has been so diligently courting.
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Solar: Should Utility Customers Subsidize Solar Homes?

in News on July 6, 2009 at 1:55 pm PT

Here’s a tricky question: should the average electric utility customer pay higher rates so that people who install solar systems can sell power back to the grid? That question is at the heart of a story today in the L.A. Times about whether to expand a program under which California utilities buy back power from customers with solar panels.

Cisco Diversifies Again as Chambers Discusses Rivals

in News on May 19, 2009 at 4:49 am PT

Cisco on Monday announced an initiative to sell high-tech gear to utilities, a market the company says could be a $20 billion-a-year market by 2014. Political junkies may have heard the term “smart grid,” which is one of the areas that the Obama administration has targeted with its stimulus package. The government is committing billions to facilitate building a next-generation electrical grid that’s more energy efficient.

Health Care: For Oracle, an Acquiring Taste

in News on March 23, 2009 at 1:30 pm PT

Oracle’s ongoing pursuit of vertical markets has served it well, particularly in these recessionary times–as its latest earnings prove. No surprise then to see the company bolstering its presence in the health care market with yet another acquisition–its 50th since 2005.