January Reader Responses & Potpourri

I’ve gotten quite a few comments since I started writing for ET again, so I thought I’d take one column per month and address some of them. And I’ve also included a few potpourri items about current technology events that are interesting, but might not warrant a full column of their own.

So let’s start with some reader responses from my last few columns.

ballin_shogun writes about the “Quiet! I’m Trying to Read!” column:

“For a guy who likes things quiet your website (jimlynch.com) has a lots of garish colorfull ads. I enjoy reading your columns and I’m glad you are getting paid for your work but you can’t have it both ways.

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Cisco Introduces First Service Provider Operations Certification Track and Refreshes CCNP Certification to Reflect Evolving Network Engineering Job Roles

Expansion of Certification Program Meets Growing Global Demand for Skilled Network Professionals

Video

Cisco’s CCNP Update and New Service Provider Operations Certification Track

BARCELONA, Spain (Cisco Networkers) – Jan.

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Dell UltraSharp U2711: Quality has a Price

We haven’t had a display review since our desperately seeking quality LCDs article. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been interesting displays released during that timeframe, but the trends highlighted in that last article have continued. TN panels are everywhere and are by far the cheapest option, although they do have a bit of competition from E-IPS displays. For example, we have 1080p 23″ TN LCDs starting at under $200, compared with 1080p 23″ E-IPS LCDs for $300. However, E-IPS isn’t the highest quality implementation of IPS (in-plane switching) LCD technology; what if you want to go for the real deal?

Despite the preponderance of TN panels, it’s still possible to find some good quality IPS displays.

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AMD’s New Year Refresh: Athlon II X4 635, Phenom II X2 555, Athlon II X2 255 & Athlon II X3 440

AMD is looking a lot more competitive in 2010 than I expected just a few months ago. Intel finally unveiled Clarkdale and thanks to the high cost of Core i5 ownership AMD hasn’t really been threatened. The Core i3 530 is the biggest threat, but it only competes with one member of AMD’s lineup at $113.

Thanks to continued improvements in Global Foundries’ 45nm process, AMD is delivering slight clock bumps for its dual, triple and quad-core processors while dropping prices of others.

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Cisco Opens Entrepreneur Institute in Costa Rica

ITS InfoCom and Parque Tec will be the first training centers in Costa Rica

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, January 21, 2010 – Today Cisco® announced the creation of the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute in Costa Rica to help small and medium business entrepreneurs improve their business skills and learn how to use information and collaboration technologies.

The first training centers will be ITS InfoCom and Parque Tec, which during the first year will offer Cisco Entrepreneur Institute’s training courses to 500 Costa Rican entrepreneurs.

ITS  InfoCom is a provider of integrated IT services which creates  high tech solutions based on the convergence of information technology and telecommunications.

Asociación Incubadora Parque Tec is a non-profit organization founded in 2004. It

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