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Employees at Dell Services offices in Plano will be affected by global layoffs that parent company Dell Inc. is undergoing, but the number of pink slips the Round Rock-based tech giant will pass out in North Texas is not yet clear. Dell workers were to be notified Wednesday of layoffs across the globe, including at Dell Services offices in Plano. A statement put out by Dell confirmed the layoffs but declined to give the number of workers that the computer firm will cut. Dell has about 2,500 employees in North Texas and about 16,500 statewide.

Good morning- I need some help with a laptop (dell inspiron - windows 7)- when you turn it on all it does is beep. It was running fine last night and it was shut without hibernating or anything and when it was reopened it just started beeping so the power button was hit to shut it down. Now when you hit the power button it starts to come on and then just beeps loudly. Taking the battery out and putting it back in has not made a difference. I would greatly appreciate any help! Thanks! (Mods- if I have put...

Asking for opinions on the best budget tablet. Something big enough for me to work on -- i.e., be able to type easily and see the display without holding it six inches from my face. Not worried about communications -- as long as it's got WiFi built in (which I'm sure they all do), I can use my cellphone as a mobile hotspot to transfer/send files. This is intended to be a replacement for a working laptop/notebook. And again -- "budget" is the keyword. Thanks all!.

Curious why Michael Dell was so eager to take the company he founded private? So he could do stuff like this without attracting too much attention. According to the Channel Register, the recently LBOed company is "starting the expected huge layoff program this week, claiming numbers will be north of 15,000." Of course, with a private sponsor in charge of the recently public company, the only thing that matters now is maximizing cash flows in an environment of falling PC sales, a commoditisation of the server market and a perceived need to better serve enterprises with their ever-increasing mobile...

Dell's expected layoff programme is expected to begin this week, and over 15,000 people may lose their jobs worldwide. Insiders speaking to the Register say that the PC giant's restructuring operation has resulted in cuts in every department, "some of these have already been downsized and are now being told to cut 15 per cent more heads." The restructuring efforts of the now privately-owned PC maker are down to a falling PC market, slumping profit margins and a slow start in the mobile realm where Apple, Samsung and Google now dominate. As part of the company revamp, founder Michael Dell...

Good evening, I'm seeking your opinion/advice on these two laptops. If given the choice which would you choose and why? Our child has been given a gift: a Dell 11.6, but we may be able to exchange it for the Lenovo. I'm just wondering whether or not it would be worth the exchange. I'm inclined to think it is, but trading one for the other presents a little bit of a challenge. We must travel out of state in order to exchange the laptop. I'm wondering if it would be worth the wait and travel. Thank you, as always, for...

People who own Dell Latitude 6430u laptops are complaining that their pricey new computers are emitting a smell similar to cat urine. Some of them said on the company's online customer forums that the odor seems to be coming from the keyboard or palm rest. The Round Rock, Texas, company originally advised buyers through its forums to try cleaning their keyboards with a soft cloth or compressed air, but the smell persisted. "The machine is great, but it smells as if it was assembled near a tomcat's litter box," wrote a customer using the handle "three west" on a Dell...

Former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden began downloading documents describing the U.S. government's electronic spying programs while he was working for Dell Inc in April 2012, almost a year earlier than previously reported, according to U.S. officials and other sources familiar with the matter.

Dell Initiates Shipments of Ophelia HDMI Sticks to Testers Dell, one of the largest suppliers of personal computers in the world, has begun to ship its credit-card-sized device that can turn any screen with an HDMI input into a personal computer running Google Android operating system to beta testers. The product should cost around $100 and will eventually compete with gadgets like Google’s Chromecast device.Code-named project Ophelia, the device looks like a big USB drive, but it packs much more than just NAND flash storage. Project Ophelia functions as a multipurpose Citrix or VMware thin client, a web client for...

The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell. The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. "I...

This week, left-wing outlets, like NPR’s quiz show, Wait, Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me! and the Huffington Post, as well as the British Telegraph, expressed surprise and concern that the new national Common Core standards will destroy the love of literature. The leftist outlets focused on favorites like Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird, but couldn’t seem to connect this unconstitutional federalization of education with their favorite presidential candidate. They should also be concerned about what the recently released test questions reveal about what the feds want: happy workers for the State. The test questions,...

Not sure about this eight lark Tinman Michael Dell has said that he will continue to flog Windows 7 machines after Windows 8 hits the shops. The move is being seen as a note of caution, because some analysts are not sure how successful Windows 8 will be. Windows 7 is seen as a good stable operating system, particularly after the disaster that was Vista. Windows 7, which reached PCs in October of 2009, will be offered as an option to commercial and gaming customers. In fact Dell has said that it will offer Windows 7 as long as it...

One of the top complaints about wealth distributions holds that the vast majority of the people of the country are excluded from the vast majority of its wealth. Considering the "plight" of all of those 20-somethings at the various occupiers, one could be deluded into believing the truth of the 99% mantra. But what if that wasn't true? Considering there are many branches of the group, let's take a look at its main one, occupying near Wall Street, in New York. Seeing how the occupiers are using other people's food and bathrooms and some living in tents (with others still...

Dell giving 250 pcs to military men and women between now and Veterans' Day, also contributing $50K each to USO and Mission Serve

Well, at least they’re focusing on jobs, even if only for trial lawyers.The latest brilliant plan to get people back to work seems to focus on… wait for it… punishing potential employers by dragging them into court on a whole new class of discrimination based lawsuits. The idea, spearheaded by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and a handful of other Democrats, would identify employers who run advertisements which specifically seek to avoid hiring people who are currently unemployed and allow them to be taken to court on some form of discrimination charge. Lawyers should be allowed to win financial damages from...

As Apple celebrated record profits, and moved closer to becoming the world's most valuable company with a market capitalisation of over $360 billion, China Labor Watch (CLW), a New York-based rights group, presented its evidence about the true cost of our obsession with technology China Labor Watch sent investigators to work on the production lines of ten major Chinese electronics factories, which assemble products for Apple, Dell and HP as well as Sony, Nokia, Motorola and many others. Over an eight month period, the investigators also interviewed over 400 workers about conditions that they claim were not only unethical, but...

Slide falls into the wrong hands Tinman Michael Dell must be miffed after his top secret plans to release three Dell tablets have been revealled on the world wide wibble. Android Central has got its paws on a slide of a roadmap showing three new Dell tablets: one powered by Google's Android platform and two by Microsoft's Windows 7. It looks like Dell will ship an Android tablet, dubbed "Streak Pro," in Jun. It will have a 10-inch display (1280 x 800 resolution) along a 1.2GHz Nvidia Tegra T25 dual-core chip. Dell will install its Stage 1.5 UI on...

Closed view, high price and complexity of iPad unappealing to CIOs, Dell claimsDespite the iPad's long lead in the enterprise market, Apple's tablet PC performer will not last long according to an increasingly bullish Dell. Speaking to CIO Australia in Sydney, Dell’s global head of marketing for large enterprises and public organisations, Andy Lark, said while the first iPad had achieved one million sales just 28 days after the device first became available in the US and precipitated the explosion in tablet PCs, it would ultimately fail in the enterprise. “I couldn’t be happier that Apple has created a market...

Dear FReepers, Firstly, I offer my sincere apologies in advance due to 1) a vanity and 2) a non-political vanity, at that. A good friend of mine just texted me because earlier this morning 1) she spilled coffee into the spacebar on her laptop keyboard and 2) immediately thereafter the laptop made a loud "pop" sound and promptly shut off. Unfortunately, rather than turn the laptop upside down to dry out, i.e., to prevent further liquid penetration into the circuit boards, she instead took the whole thing apart and is currently in the process of letting it dry out (piece...

Roadmap 'till Q1 2012 In addition to the Dell smartphone roadmap, Android Central managed to get their hands on the tablet roadmap as well. The roadmap features a bunch of new models including the Gallo, Rosemount, Sterling and Opus One, Silver Oak and Peju. The Streak 10, also known as the Gallo, should be coming in April, running on Honeycomb. In addition to Gallo, Dell is apparently preparing an update for Streak 7 as well. The next one is Rosemount, a 10-inch Windows 7 tablet with a 1366x768 screen and a release date set for June. The Sterling is the...