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T-shirt tossing: fun with gravity (JavaOne - videoblog)
Even the greatest geek advocate can't deny that computer geeks like their free T-shirts. Java creator James Gosling for years has taken the hunger for textile with the JavaOne audience to the next level by creating devices to toss free T-shirts into the crowd.
This year instead of building a device himself, Gosling started a competition.
Gosling picked three teams that got to show off their devices after the keynotes of the JavaOne conference. The first two teams failed at creating at a decent flight path, but today the last team showed of a medieval trebuchet that did the job, and took home the first price.
Click here to watch the movie of the winning team
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Tag: JavaOne
June 30, 2005 at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Google Earth on hold
Google has stopped offering downloads of for its new Google Earth software.
The service couldn't handle any more new users, given that it's still in beta, the company said in a statement on its website.
For those desperate to get a copy, the software can still be obtained through file sharing networks, the Inside Google blog points out.
And the company shouldn't worry about insufficient bandwidth capacity for the service. Looking at satelelite images of my home and VNU's London office grew old after about 10 minutes. I don't see any applications for the average consumer here.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin gave a demonstration of Google Earth at its company headquarters last May. Click here to watch a video
Photo credit: Google
Tags: Google
June 30, 2005 at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Building a case against Intel
About two years ago I had a private conversation with an Intel employee. We touched upon the competition and then moved on to Intel's near monopoly of the desktop market. Back then there was this notion that Intel just barely had escaped a Microsoft-like case for its dominating position in the computer industry.
Of course my conversation partner disagreed, but his reasoning was stunning.
He didn't deny the claim, but instead pointed out that Intel for years has had very strict policies about data retention and clean up. The point being: anyone filing a claim against Intel would have a hard time collecting evidence because the company had been much more careful than Microsoft had been.
He didn't mean to imply any knowledge of illegal actions, but if there were any, Intel made sure they would be hard to track.
Photo credit: Charles Toepfer
June 29, 2005 at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Peer to peer and the legality of illegal downloads
While Hollywood rejoices over the legal victory against the Grokster file sharing service, handed down by the US Supreme Court, you'd better properly read the ruling (download a PDF here) before you draw any conclusions.
The judges don't say peer-to-peer or file sharing in general is illegal – just that file sharing that is aimed at violating copyrights is. Grokster too strongly marketed itself as a service that lets users download movies and music. It doesn’t surprise me at all that the company is getting burnt for that.
The ruling doesn't reverse the Sony Betamax case (that allows disrupting technology that potentially violates copyrights as long as its sole use isn't to make illegal copies). Nor does it say that file sharing by itself is illegal.
It's up to the lower courts now to decide Grokster's fate. But the next peer to peer file sharing application will just contain a disclaimer warning users that they shouldn't violate copyrights and that might just solve the whole thin. Hollywood put back that champagne for now.
Has lady justice lost her balance?
Photo credit: Ken Duncan
June 29, 2005 at 06:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
IBM and HP's non-response to SOA
BEA is making waves with its Aqualogic SOA offering. Sun Microsystems acquires the leading provider of SOA management tools. And how do HP and IBM respond?
Both companies today sent out press releases stating that they will open "service centres" (HP) and "a detailed compilation of no cost education, workshops, software and services" (IBM).
Neither company tries very hard to cover up the fact that they have very little to offer to customers seeking a SOA solution.
"Third party software vendors and systems integrators can count on IBM best practices to help support their SOA customer engagements, and ultimately the greatest value proposition is for customers," said Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Software Group.
"HP offers the two critical elements for using SOA to run IT as a business: management software and professional consulting services," HP said understatedly in its press release.
Users should be happy with the candour with which both companies admit the gaps in their product lineups. But the timing suggests that the press releases are primarily an attempt to cover up these gaps and that they are only now starting to think about the technology.
Going nowhere
Photo credit: José A. Warletta
June 29, 2005 at 05:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Google makes it personal
When you look for a bass, you might be looking for something else than I am. And when you're looking for Microsoft, again we are probably looking for something different.
We all might use the same search queries, at the end we expect different results to pop up in the search engine. Up until now nobody did much to address that. But today Google took a beta of Google Personal live.
The service builds a database of your past searches, detects which search results you clicked on and thereby gets to know you. So when a developer looks up Microsoft he'll probably end up on MSDN while a 10 year old is lead to an MSN chat box.
The new service isn't a big surprise given that Google unveiled My Search history about two months ago. The feature builds that database of past searches that is needed for Google to create your personal profile.
And while it might be too early to see if this really works, the first question that comes to mind is: what took you so long?
Customisation is good
Photo credit: Jesse Moen
Tags: Google
June 29, 2005 at 02:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
How Mac rumours get out of hand
AppleInsider went ghost hunting but caught nothing but thin air. In a posting the website seeded a rumour that Apple is preparing to do a major launch on 7 July. One French media outlet received an invitation to attend an event.
The blog puts the event together with the "high profile" launch of iTunes 4.9 (that has since been launched without much noice), and based on "industry sources" that remain unnamed it draws the conclusion that a next generation iPod Shuffle and/or iPod mini awaits us.
This is what you get when a company is being highly secretive about forthcoming products.
One call to Apple and I learnt that the event aims show off some iPod accessories for the French media. Boooring. And nothing to be secretive about.
At the same time you’d have to doubt the authority of the "sources" that these rumours are attributed to – if they exist at all.
Steve Jobs at the unveiling of the iPod shuffle last January at Macworld San Francisco
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June 28, 2005 at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Oops Sun does it again (JavaOne)
Sun Microsystems never ceases to amaze the world. After a fairly disappointing first day at JavaOne, the company on Tuesday spiced things up when it announced the acquisition of SeeBeyond.
Monday saw Sun announcing an open source application server and kick off development of an enterprise service bus (ESB). The news lead senior analyst Ron Schmeltzer, with Zapthink to say that "Sun just doesn’t innovate anymore," calling the products part of a "me too" strategy.
The company also revealed that IBM has renewed its Java licence– that's good news for developers because it guarantees stability within the Java platform, but isn't very exiting news.
The SeeBeyond acquisition, which was rumoured to take place for a long time, however pushed Sun to the forefront of enterprise integration and puts it at direct odds with BEA's Aqualogic.
"SeeBeyond has a good mature integration product. Sun can hit the ground running," principal analyst Shawn Willett with Current Analysis told vnunet.com.
Sun CEO Scott McNealy just spent another $387m
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June 28, 2005 at 07:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Silicon Valley Sleuth embraces Creative Commons
With Microsoft throwing its weight behind the Creative Commons licence in its extensions to the RSS standard, we couldn't wait any longer.
In the spirit of sharing, we've decided to make all our photos on this blog available under a Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Follow the link if you want the legal version, but in a human readable format: you can use and alter the pictures in posts that are marked with the commons disclaimer, on the condition that you attribute the photo to www.siliconvalleysleuth.com and stick to this licence for any artwork that you base on these pictures
If you find this image in a post, all the photos in that post are copyright Silicon Valley Sleuth and are available under the Creative Commons License.
Enjoy.
(PS – Not all the images on this blog are copyright Silicon Valley Sleuth. Please look for the disclaimer before using any images. Also, I'm too lazy to go back into the old posts and add the disclaimer there. Old pictures too are available under the CC license. When in doubt, please leave a comment with the post in question asking for permission to publish them and I'll get back to you (please include an email address).
June 28, 2005 at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sun plays the platform game (JavaOne)
Sun Microsystems has ended a feud with year another partner and competitor. In the opening keynote this morning at JavaOne in San Francisco, Sun's president and chief operating offericer told delegates that the company has signed an agreement with long time rival IBM to licence Java for the next 10 years.
The deal seems like a no-brainer. If IBM wouldn't renew its Java licence, WebSphere becomes a fairly worthless product: it would fork away from Java over time would either fall behind or create another legal nightmare.
Still, knowing for sure that IBM will put its force behind Java for another ten years is good news for Sun.
Especially because as part of the deal IBM has promised to make Websphere, DB2, Tivoli and Rational available for Solaris on x86 servers. IBM was one of the last companies to hold out on supporting its software on the platform.
There aren't any company's left that Sun is fighting with, Sun's chief executive Scott McNealy said jokingly during a press conference. With a bunch of interoperability and support deals in place, Sun is broadening its portfolio. Making sure that is has an offering for any application.
With the technological hurdles out of the way, it can start competing for real.
Sun chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz
Robert LeBlanc, general manager for IBM's Websphere software (left) and John Loiacono, executive vice president for Sun's software group.
Java creator James Gosling must have the largest collection of Duke themed clothing in the world
Sun chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz and chief executive Scott McNealy rejoice over the lack of enemies.
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June 28, 2005 at 01:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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