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Getting all mixed up about open source ideals
Linux founder Linus Torvalds isn't making any friends within the hard core open source community lately. Last week he flamed the second draft of the GPL version 3 that was released earlier in the week.
To summarize, Torvards argued that he's looking for a license that promotes sharing without scaring away any potential users.
The GPL3 draft however has introduced controversial provisions about patents and DRM. And although the second draft has watered down some of the more harsh language, it's still there in spirit.
Torvalds argues that the Free Software Foundation is trying to hijack the GPL to push an agenda of patent and DRM reform. That might all be jolly great, but Torvalds isn't looking to fight that battle.
To take his argument further, everybody agrees that cancer research needs billions of dollars. But that doesn't justify a provision in the GPL to promote fund raising for such studies.
Torvalds' ideals simply don't match with those of Free Software Foundation. He's willing to live with the band aids that have been applied to the patent system and can see DRM as a necessary evil.
That is probably the best way to go for Linux to remain successful, but won't do much to solve the patent problem.
Several people within the open source movement are disappointed with Torvalds' lack of support for the GPL3.
But the dissent merely shows that "open source" means many things to many people. As it goes with revolutions, people agree on the first step to take doesn’t preclude dissent at a later stage.
Torvalds has turned out to be a pragmatist who prefers to focus on making Linux successful. The Free Software Foundation believes that the battle is far from over.
Both are right, and neither has the moral or legal right to force their views upon the other.
Revolutionaries-turned-lecturers
(Disclaimer: image intended to depict revolution and debate - in no way am suggesting that their is any link between open source and communism/socialism/leninsm.)
technorati tags: linux, gpl, gpl3, open+source, linus+torvalds, free+software+foundation, FSF
July 31, 2006 at 07:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Last Wednesday in security hell
Good news if you work for Armstrong World Industries, a manufacturer of floors, ceilings and cabinets. The company in 2005 achieved revenues of $4bn, but didn't feel the need to invest any money in a decent security policy and enforce it.
As the company reported on 25 July, this policy resulted in the loss of confidential information including social security numbers on 12,000 of its employees. The data was stored on a laptop that was stolen from company's auditor Deloitte & Touche.
Let's all say "thank you" to Armstrong World Industries and Deloitte
& Touche for emphasising the need for harsh penalties against
security ignorance.
There is also great news also for a group of up to 23,000 patients of the George Washington Hospital in Washington DC. You probably survived your treatment at the facility, but it isn't that certain that you'll survive the incompetence with InstantDx, a partner that attempted to provide electronic prescriptions.
InstantDx succeeded in exposing data including social security numbers for between 5,600 and 23,000 patients, the hospital disclosed on Wednesday. Amazingly, no medial or prescription data was leaked, only data that can really hurt consumers. George Washington Hospital wisely suspended the trial with InstantDx.
Let's all say "thank you" to InstantDx for demonstrating that security is strategic instead of merely a pesky added cost that gets in the way of your corporate greed.
To round out Wednesday's series of embarrassing security unveilings, a US subsidiary of the UK based financial services firm Old Mutual, realised that "sometime in May" a laptop was stolen. It contained data on 6,500 fund shareholders, including all the details that an identity thief would ever need.
Hopefully the financial services firm is better at investing than it is at securing its data. It's investors after all will need money to monitor their credit scores and fight claims for years to come.
Let's all say: "thank you" to Old Mutual for providing proof that unencrypted confidential data stored on a laptop really is a great way for identity thieves to strike it rich.
And let's finish off by thanking the privacyrights.org website for providing an overview of all these cases of data security incompetence.
technorati tags: securty, identity, theft, fraud, ssn, incompetence,
July 28, 2006 at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Be nice to your sysadmin for one day
Today is SysAdmin Day. Or at least so claims the League of professional systems administrators.
System Administrator Day give me visions of the movie Fight Club, which is about a lot of things, among them the notion that the vast majority of this world works seemingly irrelevant jobs that are only noticed when they messes up.
One quote from the movie to summarize it: "We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not f*%# with us. "
Sysadmins too only become visible when they mess up: your internet connection drops, corporate networks go down, etc. But they don't engineer any great new tools that allow you to work more efficiently.
They are caught between two fires. They get paid to keep the network up and running, but are pressed by end users to enable new applications and tools. Since a stable network is a network that's touched as little as possible, the sysadmin can only make enemies.
But for one day, hate your sysadmin just a little less. Next week you can go back to normal.
technorati tags: sysadmin, fightclub
July 28, 2006 at 08:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Women bloggers unite for commerce
The second Blogher conference kicked off today in San Jose. The event for female bloggers sold out its 800 seats easily.
Why there is a need for a conference for women bloggers. Do they have any needs or challenges that are different from those of their male colleagues?
Judging from the conference's topics, it doensn't look like it. Blogher will feature keynote presentations from luminaries like Arianna Huffington, one of the world's top blogs. The conference is also rich on practical information: which service blogging to use and how can you migrate from one to another?
The conference's real claim to fame seems to be the accompanying website which acts as an aggregator for women blogs. It allows advertisers to identify an online female audience that they can't reach through Google ads.
Just looking at this year's sponsors demonstrated what's going on. Last year's conference was sponsored by MSN and Yahoo!, this year booth on the convention's show floor are advertising goods from consumer brands like GM and Johnson & Johnson.
The site also is preparing to launch an online advertising network for women bloggers, which will be selling ad space on 30 handpicked blogs.
Blogher might serve a greater good of community building and experience sharing, but there's some real business vision underneat.
technorati tags: blogher, blogging, blog, web2.0, advertising, huffington
July 28, 2006 at 07:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Intel Core 2 Duo Launch demo (video)
Intel today officially launched the Intel Core Duo during a company event at its Santa Clara corporate headquarters.
The chipmaker's largest launch since the Pentium was an anti climactic event. Intel has been talking about the chips and their features for months. The official launch was like watching a cyclist cross the finish line on a downward mountain slope: crossing the summit was the real accomplishment.
What remained were some product demonstrations and repetitions of benchmarks that we've all grown tired of hearing. The Core 2 Duo on average is 40 per cent faster and uses 40 per cent less power than its predecessor.
But if you're still interested, below you can watch a video where Sean Maloney, Intel's newly appointed marketing chief and its former head of the mobile unit, demonstrates some of the new processors.
Intel chief executive Paul Otelllini
Tags: intel, core 2 duo, sean maloney
July 28, 2006 at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
It's all in a headline
Cyclist Floyd Landis has been caught using doping, his team revealed three days after the American won the Tour de France.
Certain hormone levels were too high following the 17th stage of the tour. Scientists are currently performing a second test to rule out any mistakes. If the results are the same, Landis will likely be stripped of his victory.
Here's the technology tie-in: Google News nicely shows how the news is being perceived around the world.
US publications in their headlines stop short of convicting the cyclist by merely stating the fact that his testosterone count was too high.
The foreign press however takes the extra step and claims that Landis tested positive for doping.
Technically the foreign headlines aren't correct, but they do draw the obvious conclusion rather than clouding the true impact of the high testosterone levels.
Is this mere nationalism, with the US giving their winner the benefit of the doubt while the rest of the world starts a lynch mob before the second test results are in?
July 27, 2006 at 04:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
The dot in web2.0
Sun Microsystems boss Jonathan Schwartz is playing with fire in claming that the company is the dot in Web2.0.
During the internet boom, Sun's marketing slogan claimed that the company was the dot in dotcom. The claim to fame true. The company's servers powered many start-up and dotcom wannabe.
As the bubble burst, Sun also turned out to be the hot air in the internet hype. Its stock tanked almost as fast as the Webvan empire tumbled.
To my disappointment, Schwartz in his blog posting doesn’t explain why Sun should be considered the dot in Web2.0. Instead he turns on the usual marketing spin about the company's growing sales, the success of Java and so on.
If any company could claim to be the dot in Web2.0 today, it would be Google.
Web2.0 is all about information and how you share, index and retrieve it. They tend to run on standards based open source tools such as MySQL and Linux.
Google is famously running white box servers on a tweaked version of Linux.
I haven't heard of YouTube expressing interest in Sun's project Thumper, pardon, the Sun Fire X4500. Digg.com has yet to show up on the list of Sun's reference customers.
Jonathan, we really should talk. We'll do something like a podcast or video, as long as we can slap on a web2.0 label.
Tags: sun microsystems, web2.0, jonathan schwarz
July 27, 2006 at 03:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
For once the sex industry falls behind on the internet
The online porn industry has lost its touch. After having been the driving force in monetizing the internet, online porn completely missed out on user generated content.
Youtube by now is showing over 100 million videos per day, but the site (and all its competitors) have a "no nudity" clause. So where should one post the next Paris Hilton video?
Pornotube claims to have the answer. The site offers a naughty version of all the social video services, including rating and sharing features.
But just like Youtube, it doesn't have any way to make money. That's where the service can take back the lead by showing the porn industry's ability to take mainstream technology and squeeze money out of it.
Photo: PL
Tags: porn, youtube, pornotube
July 27, 2006 at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
A nice Bill Gates memory
Bill Gates _never_ does demonstrations during his keynote presentations. Instead he walks off stage and lets some product manager do the honours.
The main reason for this is a barrage of demo crashes that have been haunting the Microsoft chairman.
At the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Gates broke with the "no demo" rule and tempted faith with disastrous results. The video below shows one of the failed demos.
It doesn’t show the most embarrassing part of the keynote however, when an Xbox demo crashes and shows the ever embarrassing blue screen of death.
In a third demo blunder, the MSN Remote service lost its internet connection.
Tags: CES, bill gates, demo gods, blunder, blue screen
July 26, 2006 at 11:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Microsoft opts to force-feed IE7 update to users
Microsoft plans to distribute its forthcoming Internet Explorer 7 browser as a "high priority" update through its auto update service.
Practically, that means that the vast majority of users will update without giving it much (if any) thought, and that's just plain bad.
Many online application and websites don't work properly in the new browser. Microsoft effectively is telling web developers to update or face the consequences.
Vnunet (the publisher of this blog) for instance uses a (very nice) online content management system. It's a cutting edge Ajax tool based on open source technology that has take years to develop. It currently doesn't work on IE7 and I haven't heard anything about make IE7 compatibility a priority.
Enterprises will be able to block the update, but our enterprise IT guys have never even touched my laptop. And there are tons of small businesses that lack the IT staff to pro-actively think about blocking the update.
The decision is even more wrong on another level. Any product update provides a window of opportunity to switch to a different vendor (Firefox, anyone?). This way of pushing the IE update smells of plain abuse of Microsoft's desktop monopoly.
Don't take this the wrong way: I applaud the work that Microsoft has put into IE7 and especially the security aspects. But since the company can't guarantee compatibility for all online applications, the update should be 100 pct optional.
Tags: microsoft, IE7, windows, windows vista, internet explorer
July 26, 2006 at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
It's Google rumour time
Google on Thursday will unveil a new service for the open source community, Greg Stein said in a blog posting
Stein is chairman of the Apache foundation and an engineering manager in the open-source group at Google.
Stein didn't give out any information other than the location and time of the announcement (the Open source conference (OSSCON) in Portland, Oregon). That's exactly what's needed to create a proper hype, especially since this one score two hits on the geeky bingo scale*.
Some are suggesting (more wishful thinking) that Google is planning to launch a Sourceforge-like product.
I disagree. When it comes to non-revenue generating, community projects, Google prefers not to reinvent the wheel. Instead the company prefers to solve new problems.
My money is on some kind of software
product for developers that solves a problem that Google has been
struggling with internally. I admit that doesn't make for any good speculation, but it will have to do.
* In high tech reporting, anything concerning Apple, open source, Microsoft or Google will get more attention than market revenues justify.
Greg Stein
Tags: google, oscon, open source
July 26, 2006 at 01:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Mercury Interactive finds a new home within HP
HP spent a hefty $4.5bn to buy Mercury Interactive, a maker of application testing and network management software.
The printer giant pays a premium of more than 30 per cent over Mercury's current stock price. That's too expensive if you consider that Mercury's image is tainted after its former chief executive was caught back-dating his stock options in an effort to make himself a few more bucks.
Stock market scandals aren't just bad for the corporate image, it will also result in an exodus of talent. Allow that to go on long enough and all that's left is a empty skeleton.
HP chief executive Mark Hurd however stressed that he's confident that there are no more skeletons hidden in Mercury's closet.
The acquisition furthermore could signal the end of the old "Compaq vs. HP" stories. Nothing helps forge a team like a common new enemy.
HP engaging in its first multi billion dollar acquisition since 2001 signals a willingness to move on. Time will tell if the company is ready to do so.
Mark Hurd goes on a buying spree
Tags: HP, mercury interactive, compaq
July 26, 2006 at 12:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
$100 laptop reaches first order milestone
The government of Nigeria has paid the One Laptop per Child project for a first batch of 1m notebook computers.
The order is a key step in the getting the laptops produced, as manufacturing won't start until 5 to 10 million units have been ordered and paid.
The momentum for this project just keeps building, despite fierce opposition from Intel and Microsoft. It just happens that the OLPC uses AMD processors and runs Linux, but that can't have anything to do with the two vendors OLPC disgust – after all they are all about creating the best solutions.
The real proof will be in millions of students becoming proficient in using Linux computers and starting to innovate on top of a truly open platform.
But the OLPC project in the mean time seems to be making all the right moves to work towards that goal.
Tags: OLPC, negroponte, $100 laptop, nigeria
July 25, 2006 at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
ATI and AMD get engaged
AMD today said that it was shelling out $5.4bn to by chipset and graphics chip manufacturer ATI.
AMD needs the ATI business to accelerate its growth, maintain its stock price and secure buyers for its bonds and stock.
The combined companies are believed to save $75m, so you can safely bet that "business synergy" isn't the foundation for this corporate marriage.
Technology-wise however, AMD could profit big time from ATI's expertise.
AMD said that it plans to create an integrated graphics and general purpose CPU chip for notebook computers and consumer electronics devices.
Intel for years has been bundling basic graphics processors on its chipsets for notebooks and desktop computers, while AMD allowed others to feast on this market. Selling a chipset in addition to a processor might not make for cutting edge business, but it's certainly nice to have the added revenues.
Also, don't forget the rise of mobile devices and wireless data services. As mobile phones become more powerful, a market for mobile graphics processors is developing.
ATI chief Dave Orton (left) and AMD's CEO Hector Ruiz
Tags: AMD, ATI, acquisition
July 25, 2006 at 01:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Data hijackers up the stakes
If you're a bored student leveraging the work of real worm authors to install adware on computers of unsuspecting victims, perhaps you should start looking to expand to ransomware.
Ransomware is like the idiot who choose to lock his bike to mine at a local railway station the other day. They might not directly profit from it, but prevent me from using my two-wheeler. (Btw… a car jack provided an effective resolution).
In the online version of this scam, an attackers encrypts the data on your hard drive, promising to unlock the encryption after a ransom has been paid.
Early versions of the malware only used weak encryption keys, but online scammers are up 660-bit keys by now. Meanwhile your browser still uses only 128-bit keys to encrypt your online banking and other confidential information.
If online criminals go any further, security companies won't be able to pick the online locks (or use a carjack), security vendors are warning.
And since there already is a lively malware marketplace, it's only a matter of time before programmers will launch commercial malware applications (if they don't exist already).
Lock picking 101. It's even more fun if the lock you're picking isn't yours
Tags: malware, ransomware, security
July 25, 2006 at 12:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Million dollar homepage? Make that "body"
Following the succes of the million dollar homepage, a Stockholm copycat is offering advertisers to have their logo tatoed onto his body.
The million dollar homepage sold pixels at a rate of $1 each. The 21-year-old Swede plans on charging $1000 per square centimeter with a minimum purchase of 4 sq.cm.
So far no advertisers have taken the bait. But if you have some disposable income and are keen on embarrasing money hungrey people, this is your opportunity to do so.
Personally I'd go for the forehead. But there are a gazillion ways to better spend your money.
Tags: million dollar homepage, advertising
July 24, 2006 at 06:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (17) | TrackBack
Time for Microsoft to rethink online search
Microsoft's ambitious plans for the online search arena aren't paying off. The company in February 2005 launched its search technology in a boastful attempt to dethrone Google.
But the company didn't get any further than boasting. June's search engine market share data from Nielsen Net Ratings indicated that MSN Search is stuck with an embarrassing 10.3 per cent slice of the overall search market.
Google continues to rule unchallenged, handling 49.4 per cent of all the US's search queries while Yahoo! claims a 23 per cent market share.
Ask.com was the real champion, growing its search business by 66 per cent year-over-year. MSN demonstrated a laughable 4 per cent growth.
Ask.com was acquired by IAC/InteractiveCorp in March, and the service has since been added as the default search engine for IAC services such as Match.com and Evite.com.
There is a sole bright spot for Microsoft. The company last April lured away Ask chief executive Steve Berkowitz to head up MSN Search. Hopefully he can repeat his Ask magic at his new employer.
Tags: microsoft, msn, google, yahoo, search
July 24, 2006 at 04:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
HP slaps an "updated" label on its adaptive enterprise vision
HP in 2003 unfolded its adaptive enterprise strategy, and today found it necessary to update the Silicon Valley press corps on its progress.
The adaptive enterprise some day will allow enterprises to enter a number of security, uptime and cost parameters, after which the system will automatically provision a new system. No knowledge about processors, operating systems or middleware required. Companies finally will be able to fire their IT staff.
The meeting took place at the company's headquarters in the former board room, next to the historic offices of co-founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard that have been vacant ever since they left.
Had the misters H. or P been there, they would have been appalled about the lack of progress.
Recently unveiled products such as the c-Class blade system and not so recent announcements such as the Tycoon research project were dusted off and covered in an "adaptive enterprise" sauce. And of course no enterprise IT product can exist these days without throwing in virtualization – a field where HP is relying on partners.
Big servers taking up little space are an essential part of a consolidated IT play, as is virtualization. The Tycoon technology will then allow companies to invoice departments for the resources they used.
There's nothing wrong with the bigger vision of the adaptive enterprise (for all we care you call it On Demand (IBM), N1 or Grid (Sun Microsystems). There is also no doubt that today's technologies get us closer to the big vision.
But HP didn't get beyond such generic statements. The printer market kept emphasising that it will be able to manage heterogeneous environments, but none of the reference customers that paraded in front of us actually had non-HP products in their (somewhat) adaptive enterprises.
HP today will sell you a flexible IT infrastructure that is more or less adaptive, as long as you are willing to buy a whole slew of HP servers and limit yourself to HP-approved partners and software.
Perhaps HP could become a little more adaptive itself.
Tags: HP, sun, ibm, adaptive enterprise, n1, on demand
July 22, 2006 at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Get hacked on the fly (video)
If you aren't paranoid about your security online you, you'd better watch this video. If you are, it will only further confirm your fears.
Shot at the McAfee Avert Labs Day, it shows a so-called fly-by malware infection: a system gets hacked by merely visiting a specially crafted website. The attacker then installs malware and a rootkit that attempts to hide the attack from the system and security software.
The user never gets to see any warnings or prompts. If it wouldn't be for new registry entries and processes showing up in the task manager, there wouldn't have been any indication that this was going on.
This particular case was recorded late last year. It exploited a Javascript flaw in Windows XP and Internet Explorer that has since been repaired.
And don't say that this can't happen with Firefox. There are known cases of fly-by malware infections using flaws in the open source browser too, McAfee said.
Tags: mcafee, fly-by hacking, hacking, security, windows, malware
July 21, 2006 at 04:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Why we need a "digital Enron" (video)
The current state of computer insecurity obviously isn't enough of a problem.
Otherwise companies wouldn't leave laptops with confidential information behind in taxis, they wouldn't fail to encrypt confidential data when it's transmitted over the internet.
Governments in certain rice eating or vodka drinking countries wouldn't tolerate organised cyber crime rings to operate, and western governments would realise that police has a tough time battling crimes that are committed in mere seconds if it takes weeks to obtain a search warrant.
A "digital Enron" (a high profile crime that makes lots of victims) however could change all that, argued FBI special agent Shéna Boswell-Crowe at a McAfee event.
Below you can view excerpts of her presentation.
Apologies for the poor audio – it required some severe volume editing to save whatever could be saved.
Tags: FBI, cyber crime, enron, cybercrime, hacking
July 21, 2006 at 05:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Net neutrality explained The Daily Show way
The Daily Show yesterday took on the issue of net neutrality.
It explains fairly well that the current structure of the web is "almost too fair. It is as though the richer companies get no advantage at all."
You can watch the video below.
By the way, in case you're wondering why John Stewart goes to great lengths to make John Hodgman say "I'm a PC", have a look at this.
Tags: net neutrality, daily show, john stewart, john hodgman
July 21, 2006 at 03:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Vonage shows its malware colours
We can add major spyware funder to the list of Vonage's mischief.
The company already suffered a major blow to its image when its stock tanked following its IPO, and degraded itself by VoIP spamming its own subscribers in an effort to offload its stock prior to the IPO. And don't forget the fact that its founder and previous CEO had to step down because of his history of fraudulent stock transactions.
Earlier this week spyware researcher Ben Edeleman zoomed in on Vonage's efforts to push its brand using spyware and adware.
Vonage, it turns out, is using the entire arsenal of frowned upon and plainly illegal advertising techniques. It's ads show up through adware pop-ups and are injected into other websites (creating the appearance that it's a Google ad where it really isn't).
In addition to the ethical issues of a public company resorting to spyware and adware, Vonage is actively contributing to the state of computer in security. It's no secret that these online pests are poorly programmed and tend to degrade system performance.
But Vonage doesn't seem to care.
Tags: vonage, spyware, malware, ben edelman
July 20, 2006 at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Internship position available with vnunet.com in San Francisco
Vnunet.com has a job opening for a paid intern in our San Francisco office this fall. The candidate will research and write news stories and create multi media items including podcasts and video.
Proven writing skills and an interest in the field of high tech are required. Experience with blogs is considered a pro.
Interested? Send an email with a cover letter and resume to: tom_sanders AT vnu.co.uk.
Tags: vnunet, internship, job opening
July 20, 2006 at 01:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
World Cup makes additional high tech victims
Computer sales are down, and those pesky football watching Europeans are to blame, said analyst firm IDC.
The analyst form originally had projected PC sales to grow by 12 per cent. But in the end the market only showed a 7 per cent increase beacuse of the sports event and excess inventory from the first quarter.
The report singles out a second victim of the World Cup, after Secure Computing last week claimed that it missed its earnings projections because it missed a $2.6m sales because staff in Europe was out watching the games.
Economists like to point out the economic benefits of major sports events, prompting people to eat more peanuts, drink more beer, buy silly T-shirts and invest in new television sets.
But few studies mention that the events can bring economies to a temporary standstill. We need more studies. Because for weeks it must have been impossible to hold phone surveys too.
Who said that nothing bad come from sports?
July 20, 2006 at 01:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Apple stays quiet on Mac sales record
Apple sales in the most recent quarter set a new record of 1.3m units. But the company is staying surprisingly quiet about the figure. Even more amazing, laptop sales skyrocketed and showed a sales increase of 61 per cent.
Laptops have outsold desktop systems three times before, but never by such a large margin: for every two desktop systems, Apple sold three laptops.
Apple in its earnings press release however staid numb on the new records. Instead the obligatory Steve Jobs quote boasted that "over 75 percent of the Macs sold during the quarter used Intel processors."
It's simply too early to start cheering. Apple in January started shipping the first Mac Book Pros (formerly Powerbook) and the iBook followed in May. The record laptop sales are most likely "catch up sales" for consumers who have delayed purchasing their new Apple system as they were waiting for the Intel powered systems to come out.
Secondly, there was nothing to cheer about in the desktop segment. Sales of iMacs, Mac Minis and PowerMacs dropped 23 per cent year-over-year to 529,000.
That leaves the iPod as the only true bright spot with a 32 growth in unit sales. But that's just what we've come to expect by now.
(data source: SEC filings)
Tags: apple, desktop, laptop, earnings
July 20, 2006 at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Intel juggles Itanium stats and forces a smile
It must have been a long quest, but Intel succeeded in finding some positive market share figures to lighten up the launch of the Montecito, the next generation Itanium processor.
Itanium, it turns out, is growing by more than 100 per cent in markets like China and Russia. And even in the "essentially flat" market that the chip targets, Intel is outgrowing its competitors from Sun Microsystems and IBM.
The last time that we looked at the essentially flat market, it was growing at a rate of about 4 per cent. Secondly, if you sell one chip this year and two then next one, you are growing by 100 per cent. And yes, neither Sun or IBM will copy that feat.
And let's not forget that the Itanium market is dominated by HP, which sells at least 8 out of every ten Itanium systems today. It's a big mystery why other systems vendors actually bother continuing to invest in the chip. Itanium and its constant delays after all has played a significant role in SGI's getting forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
But nothing but happy faces at the launch today. Itanium is outgrowing Sparc and Power chips, and that's all that matters.
Intel's Pat Gelsinger poses with a wafer full of Itanium Montecito chips
In front of refrigerator sized servers that are powered by the new chip
Tags: intel, montecito, itanium
July 19, 2006 at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Intel does an Itanium dance
Intel today officially unveiled its Montecito processor, the next generation Itanium.
Itanium has been haunted by poor adoption rates and slow sales, at least if you compare the actual sales to the stellar figures that analysts projected when the chip was first launched.
But that didn't stop Intel's Pat Gelsinger, general manager for the digital enterprise group, from hyping the chip.
You can watch a video of Gelsinger pitching the chip below.
Tags: pat gelsinger, intel, itanium, montecito
July 18, 2006 at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Intel takes back the lead in AMD race
Intel has for the first time this year has reclaimed the position of largest CPU manufacturer in the US retail segment, according to data from Current Analysis.
Intel should drop on its knees and thank Toshiba for this feat. The laptop maker has an exclusive partnership with Intel, and happens to be hunting for market share in the retail laptop market – at the cost of HP, Gateway and Sony. Half of all laptops that were sold in US retail stores in June actually came from Toshiba.
AMD meanwhile still rules in the desktop market. The company took over Intel's lead last September and now commands between 70 and 80 per cent of the market.
The question remains if Intel will be able to enjoy its lead very long. Toshiba's competitors are sure to respond, and neither Gateway or HP have exclusive Intel deals.
Graphic courtesy of Current Analysis.
Tags: intel, AMD, market share, current analysis
July 18, 2006 at 01:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
HP's screws up with new "screw RFID" technology
HP has unveiled a "revolutionary" new wireless chip. It holds up to 4 Mb of data that can be read by holding a device closely over the chip.
From the press release:
"Some of the potential applications include storing medical records on a hospital patient’s wristband; providing audio-visual supplements to postcards and photos; helping fight counterfeiting in the pharmaceutical industry; adding security to identity cards and passports; and supplying additional information for printed documents."
But don't start laughing just yet because HP is trying to tell you that they re-invented RFID technology.
The HP-chip takes another two years before its ready for volume production and is based on proprietary HP technology. The company will be kind enough to provide a license to anyone willing to pay a fee. In plain English: HP is challenging a standards based technology with a proprietary one that is slated for release at some undetermined time in the future.
The
propeller heads at HP Labs seem to know that they are selling magic
beans. In the press release announcing the "breakthrough", they avoid
using the letters RFID like the plague, although RFID is able to
perform most of the "exciting new applications" that are assigned to
HP's breakthrough.
There's nothing "revolutionary" about HP's Memory Spot technology, it's just a bigger, better, faster and more expensive alternative to RFID. By the time it comes to market, RFID will rule the world and nobody will even pay attention to Memory Spot.
Tags: HP, RFID, memory spot
July 17, 2006 at 05:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Microsoft kills "private folders" within 10 days
Microsoft has pulled the "private folders" feature that would allow users to encrypt the contents of certain hard drive directories.
The feature was introduced as a free download on 6 July but late last week was removed from the Microsoft website.
It turns out that Microsoft hadn't given any thought to the application's regulatory and IT management implications. Enterprises weren't overly excited about the idea of having encrypted data sitting on their computers – they would be unable to access the data and would have to face pass word reset requests from users.
Regulators too probably would have a thing or two to say about the feature violating data retention legislation.
There must have been some interesting conversations with Microsoft between the companys lawyers and developers.
When the Microsoft lawyers were done talking with the developers, the feature was killed. And a significant amount of egg was left on the company's face.
Tags: Microsoft, private folders, encryption
July 17, 2006 at 04:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Judge declares: to be Googled is no constitutional right
A California judge has ruled against the Kinderstart online portal. The site had charged that Google had violated a slew of laws when it lowered the site's pagerank, the score that determines a site's rank in the search results.
Google's actions, the site alleged, lead to a drop in its site traffic and advertising revenues. The site owner continued to explain that his right to make money was equal to the Freedom of Speech that is guaranteed in the US constitution.
Secondly, the site claims that the pagerank drop was an act of retaliation after Kinderstart cut back its advertising spending on Google's search page. The latter is evidenced by the far higher ranking that the site receives with MSN and Yahoo!, it argued.
In a classical "shoot yourself in the foot" response, the site's lawyers then continued to argue that Google is acting like an illegal monopoly. Yes, Yahoo and MSN suddenly don't matter anymore, even though they were relevant to show that they provide a higher page ranking.
Kinderstart must be looking for attention in a last ditch effort to collect links to its URL from media and bloggers writing about the case. The links would boost the site's page rank -- and that's why you won't find any links in this blog.
The case itself was hopeless from the get go.
It's all about advertising money
Tags: google, pagerank, kinderstart
July 15, 2006 at 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wi-Fi kicks some serious iPod butt
The Wi-Fi alliance has invested some more of its contributor's money in a public Wi-Fi cheering session. They hired a research firm that surveyed 551 Americans, asking them about their perceptions of the wireless networking technology.
The surveyors came armed with intelligent questions: "So, Sir, if you would have to give up your Wi-Fi network or your iPod, which one would you rather loose?"
"Eight out of ten surveyed readily volunteered that they would give up their iPod any day over their home wireless network (80 percent vs. 21 percent)," the press release cheered.
Fair enough. There are probably far more consumers with wireless networks than there are iPods. Personally, I wouldn't mind giving up the iPod that I don't own.
Round two: Would you dump your home phone before you got rid of your home network?
"79 percent responded that they would rather live without a home phone. Only 21 percent said they would part with their home Wi-Fi connection. Surprisingly, suburban residents – who normally may be considered to have more “homebody” tendencies than their urban counterparts – were even more likely to trade in their home phones for their wireless networks than those who live in urban areas (83 percent vs. 74 percent)."
Yawn! Even more surprisingly, every single soul in the US owns a mobile phone. Giving up your home phone is a minor inconvenience if you have a cellular backup.
Why didn't the Wi-Fi alliance spin doctors ask any relevant questions? Was it that pitching mobile phones against wireless networks didn't give the desire cheerable results?
If you ask the wrong questions, you'll always get the answers that you're looking for.
Would you give up your soul for a diamond encrusted iPod headphone?
Tags: wi-fi, wi-fi alliance, ipod
July 14, 2006 at 05:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ah... youtube
Without Youtube or Google Video I doubt that I ever would have seen this amusing (IMHO) video.
After some digging, it turns out that this video is part of the Pat and Stanley animation series by French artist Pierre Coffin.
(Yes, this video is old, but it's pretty much what's getting me through this hot (87 degrees) day.)
Tags: youtube, video, pat & stanley
July 14, 2006 at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Google Talk fails to find an audience
Google Talk last May claimed a paltry 3.4m subscribers worldwide, according to data from comScore Media Metrics.
The data is based on actual traffic from client computers to the service, so users who subscribed in the past but never logged during the month of May weren't counted.
Google's instant messaging service ranks at the bottom of the overall ranking, which is dominated by MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger (204m subscribers), Yahoo! Messenger (78m), AIM (34m) and ICQ (33.9m).
ICQ actually grew by more than 10 per cent year-over-year, the data indicated. The network is owned by AOL and is considered the first mainstream instant messaging application.
Another interesting factoid from the data is that E-buddy (formerly known as E-messenger) rules the unified messenger category ahead of Trillian, claiming 3.9m vs. 1.3m unique visitors.
E-buddy offers on online unified messenger for MSN, AOL and Yahoo – no installation required. The great benefit is that it allows users on bolted down corporate networks to connect to instant messaging services without any intervention from the IT department.
comScore pointed out that: "Please note that AIM.com/AIM App refers to the combined usage of the stand-alone AIM application, plus visitation to the AIM.com website. AOL Instant Message refers to the IM service available to AOL subscribers. These numbers cannot be combined, since users of both applications would be double-counted."
Tags: IM, google talk, instant messaging, MSN, yahoo, trillian, e-messenger, e-buddy
July 13, 2006 at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Dell drops mail-in rebates to make customers happy
Dell's focus on customer satisfaction is finally starting to bear fruit.
The computer maker today said that it would "simplify pricing" and "reduce mail-in rebate offers"in the US.
"Through direct relationships and more than a million interactions with customers every day, it became increasingly clear that a simple pricing and sales structure would make it easier for customers," said Dell's consumer and small business boss Ro Parra in a press release.
The company in other words is starting to understand that customers prefer a transparent pricing scheme over a jungle of temporary price cuts and artificial low prices through the use of mail in rebates.
For my non-US readers: a company offering a mail in rebate promises to send you a check for a certain sum on the condition that you send your receipt and some other proof of purchase (typically a UPC code that's printed on the box). Rebates on computers can easily exceed $200. But sending in the information is a pain in the behind and it typically takes two months to get your rebate processed.
Companies however like mail in rebates. They are a nice gimmick
to cook the books because items are still sold at full price. A certain
percentage of the buyers also forgets to mail them in or fails to
include all the required materials. And since consumers pay the full
price in the store, the company gets free working capital during the
months that they are stalling processing the payment.
Slashing the rebates is a start, but every customer who's ever had an issue with Dell knows that it's not the real problem. Dell is choosing to tackle the little issues before it chooses to deal with the big ones.
Tags: dell, customer service, rebate
July 13, 2006 at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Yahoo lectures Hitwise on the art of site traffic measurement
Yahoo! is crying foul over the hyperbolic way in which site traffic measuring firm Hitwise is selling its finding that MySpace has surpassed Yahoo! as the US' most popular online destination.
In its eagerness to get media exposure, Hitwise compared mail.yahoo.com traffic to people visiting MySpace.com. All the Yahoo! services combined still rule the web, the online portal stresses.
Citing data from a ComScore, Yahoo! claims that it reaches 129m unique visitors in North America per month – 74 per cent of the overall online population. MySpace reaches a mere 52m mortals each month (30 per cent reach).
What have we learnt? Social websites are big. But not front page material big.
Tags: yahoo, myspace, hitwise, comscore
July 12, 2006 at 05:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Microsoft plays it dumb on anti trust
Microsoft today received an €280.5m invoice from the European Union because the software firm failed to comply with an earlier anti trust ruling.
The ruling dates back to 2004, but now Microsoft cries that there has been a "lack of clarity" about the EU's expectations.
Does anybody buy Microsoft's argument? Did the company in two years of talks with EU brass fail to ever ask how to the ruling should be implemented?
Microsoft last year had net income of $12.3bn – $33.6m each day. It takes the firm a whopping 11 days to earn back today's fine. Shareholders might not like it, but for a company of Microsoft's magnitude, this fine is a mere inconvenience and a negotiations tactic in the battle with European regulators.
If Europe really wants to hit Microsoft where it hurts, the region should make an aggressive push for open standards and open source applications in the software that it uses internally.
European Commissioner for Competition Policy Neelie
Kroes: the Microsoft slayer
Tags: microsoft, anti trust, EU
July 12, 2006 at 05:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Security vendor sees stock drop by 40 pct because staff was too busy watching World Cup
Security vendor Secure Computing on Tuesday issued an earnings alert prompting its stock to fall by nearly 40 per cent and whipping out $283m in market capitalization.
The company said that it will miss revenue expectations by more than 10 per cent.
Chief executive Jon McNulty fingered two culprits: a $1.3m and $2.55m sale that didn't happen in the quarter. In the first case the person who had to approve the deal left the customer. The second one was all to blame on that silly thing called the World Cup.
As Secure Computing hoped to close the deal on the last day of the quarter, staff for one of its partners decided to take the afternoon off and watch the game. When the customer called with a pressing question, only one of the five responsible people could be reached.
The customer wisely decided to wait a few weeks until everybody was back from vacation. But that was too late for Secure Computing.
The company's chief executive went to great lengths to apologize for the "embarrassing and disappointing" quarter. He then went on to unveil that he had just spent $273.6m to acquire Ciphertrust.
Investors responded by sending a clear signal: clean up your sales and partner organisation before you think of spending any more money.
World Cup: shattering dreams everywhere
Tags: world cup, secure computing, earnings
July 12, 2006 at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Dell tries blogging to clean up its image
Dell yesterday (Monday) has officially launched its One-2-one blog.
But the company is still showing that a great supply chain doesn't guarantee a vision on how to talk with instead of lecture customers.
Lending a page from Microsoft's Channel 9, Dell has put up several videos. But instead of informing the public and conducting the interviews form the customer's point of view, Dell tried to hijack the medium in an attempt to push its corporate PR message.
This video about the DellConnect support service for instance has "scripted" written all over it. To the extend that the support agent Kim Vogelman constantly talks about customers as if they are some kind of aliens (or could that attitude be genuine?) and twice recites his closing line boasting how great the service is.
The blog claims that it isn't "streamlined", but has the PR trademark all over it.
If Dell is really serious about engaging in a conversation with its customers and users, it should fire every marketing person working on the blog. Find true evangelists who really care about Dell and who listen to the community rather than push the corporate agenda.
Blogging isn't that hard. You just have to be honest.
July 12, 2006 at 12:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Judge denies request to stop Google airplane soap
A California judge has declined to issue a ruling against airplane interior designer Leslie Jennings that sought to make him shut up about a failed project for Google executive Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
Details about the deal started surfacing last week, after Jennings spoke to a reporter with the Wall Street Journal. The Google founders were quick to point him to a confidentiality clause in his contract.
Jennings however claims that such clauses are intended to prevent suppliers from adding a celebrity mark-up to their prices - not to lock up details about the Google boy's desire to have hammocks and California king sized beds.
As always, it's just one big misunderstanding that can - even now - be cleared up if Jennings on gets 20 minutes of Google chief Eric Schmidt's time.
But the Google brass is letting its lawyers speak, making sure that every spicy detail of their party plane gets out in the open.
The Google founders last year purchased a Boeing 767-200 like this one that previously served for Qantas.
Tags: google, sergey brin, lary page, boeing
July 11, 2006 at 08:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sun Microsystems new storage server demo (video)
Sun Microsystems on Tuesday will unveil three new servers including the Sun Fire X4500: a 4-way AMD Opteron system with up to 24 terabytes of storage. The system's chief architect Andy Bechtolsheim provided us with a sneak preview ahead of Tuesday's event.
Tags: sun, sun microsystems, andy bechtolsheim, Sun Fire X4500
July 11, 2006 at 03:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Track