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Warcraft inspires management philosophy

The massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft has made its first real contribution to society by offering a geeky management philosophy: Leeroy Jenkins.

The term apparently dates back to 2005 or earlier, but somehow escaped my attention. World of Worldcraft lets gamers team up with other player and scavenge for virtual goodies, and I'm the first to admit that I've never played it.

In the famous episode, a team of players spends minutes cooking up a plan to enter a room full of bad guys over audio an teleconference. As some boring management type is inquiring about the cost-benefit analysis, Leeroy yells his own name, rushes into the room, alerts the bad guys and gets himself and all his team mates killed.

"Leeroy, you are just stupid as hell," one gamer complains when the ordeal is over

"At least I have chicken," responds Leeroy, who left the boring meeting to heat up some chicken in his mom's microwave.

The management philosophy in this is that you have to cut through the bull and shouldn't over-scrutinize business decisions. Some times you have to go with your gut feeling.

Let's just hope that the right people in [enter your employer's name] read this. Chicken is better than sitting in meetings where no decisions are made.

October 31, 2007 at 06:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Happy Halloween

So cute - and so embarrassed if she ever sees the pictures in 20 years :)

October 31, 2007 at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Microsoft puts SOA on the Redmond diet

What do you get if you take an architecture for creating componentized applications that works across departments, companies and infrastructure vendors, and strip it from open interfaces and force customers to buy only your components?

Microsoft claims that you get an easy to deploy service oriented architecture. But it's more like buying a car that can only drive on Microsoft's toll roads and that has to be loaded onto a flatbed truck to be transported between those closed toll roads.

Welcome to the world of the Redmond diet. Just like the perceived benefits of Atkin's and other hype-of-the-day the totally illogical is spun into offering great benefits.

The facts: Microsoft today released "Oslo" and opened the flood gates of PR spin: Oslo is an "effort [that] utilizes the company's top engineering talent to build on the model-driven and service-enabled principles of Microsoft Dynamic IT and extend the benefits of service-oriented architecture (SOA) beyond the firewall."

We could go on quoting the press release, but you would get none the wiser. The "effort" that is Oslo is limited to minor enhancements in future versions of Microsoft middleware portfolio. Companies that have been completely sucked into the Microsoft sales machine will be able to use it to share componentized applications.

Most companie today live in the 21st century and therefore will want to work with partners, do mergers and buy technology based on its merits. Those will want to build a SOA that actually delivers on the promise of being open standards based. Somebody in Redmond must have forgotten to take their reality medication.

October 31, 2007 at 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Amazon Mechanical Turk gets an evil twin

Would you perform a simple 2-second task in exchange for free porn?

Online criminals are betting that you will. In a clever variation on Amazon's Mechanical Turk, they are asking the public to enter captcha code to unlock the gates to nudie pictures (see picture below the fold), researchers at Panda Labs found.

The so-called captcha human verification codes in this instance was streamed directly from Yahoo, and allows the gang to amass tons of email addresses. But it could also be used to leave spam comments on blogs and news websites.

Amazon Mechanical Turk already has demonstrated that people will perform tasks for seemingly ridiculous sums as low as 1 cent. A certain news website once experimented with paying 2 cents for people to submit news stories to Digg.com – not to rig the system but simply to put it in there. The test resulted in a temporary ban by Digg.com.

But the point is that people will do legitimate things for 1 or 2 cents. People will download nefarious applications such as Zango because they are promised porn. One day they will help break into ecommerce stores for some freebie.

pixelation added by me

October 30, 2007 at 12:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Apple battles iPhone lock-in failure

Apple has started requiring credit card payments for iPhone purchases in an apparent bid to stop commercial unlocking operations.

About a quarter of all iPhones have been unlocked, allowing owners to use devices without the pricy AT&T subscription in and outside the US. In some countries vendors have started selling unlocked iPhones months before the official release.

You can therefore safely assume that there are professional operations that buy large numbers of iPhones, unlock the devices and resell them on the secondary market. Apple for one can't prevent the practice: removing the iPhone's SIM-lock is fully legal because the iPhone is sold without subsidy.

Apple however can't be happy. The iPod maker requires AT&T to cough up a share of the subscription revenues. No activation, no dough.

Apple tried to change the rules for an established market, where users expect to pick a provider that delivers the best value – not one that squeezes them for the most money. iPhone unlockers for now have to demonstrate that they are worthy of Apple, by showing that they can continue operating by thinking different.

October 29, 2007 at 09:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

BEA's fairy tale: over and out?

BEA today told Oracle to go to hell, telling the database vendor that it would let the $17 per share acquisition offer expire.

Together with Oracle's refusal to raise its offer yesterday afternoon, investors now seem to have lost faith in on Oracle takeover. BEA  stock closed at $16.50 today. A $17 dollar price would indicate that investors expected BEA to accept the deal. If they anticipated Oracle to raise its offer, you'd expect BEA stock to trade at more than $17.

What will be left on Sunday is a wounded BEA. The company can not reliably tell its customers that it is a viable long term investment. If its shareholders don't see that, they will likely receive a wake-up call in future earnings releases.

October 26, 2007 at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

NetApp vs. Sun patent fight becomes the new SCO vs. humanity

Sun has made true on its chief executive's promise and today filed a lawsuit against storage vendor NetApp for infringing on 12 of its patents. The case is a retaliation for a legal complaint that NetApp filed against Sun in September.

In his colorful, Wednesday blog posting, Schwartz declared an all-out war against NetApp. Sun will demand that NetApp ceases sales of many of its products and demands monetary damages.

More importantly, Schwartz succeeds at positioning his company as the undisputed "good guy" by promising to donate half the proceeds to the free software movement. Secondly, the case revolves around ZFS, technology that Sun developed and then released under an open source license. NetApp isn't just suing Sun, but threatens mankind.

Sun's strategy is working. The company already has Groklaw on its side, which kept the world privy of all details small and large of the SCO case. Growlaw has already called upon the public to hunt for prior art against NetApp patents.

This juicy patent conflict started 5 years ago, when NetApp approached StorageTek with the request to purchase a patent of them. StorageTek declined, but realised that NetApp probably was violating the patent and started licensing negotiations. Sun acquired NetApp in 2005, when the licensing talks were still going on.

Sun at one point asked $37m as part of a patent cross licensing deal. Talks broke down and last September NetApp sued Sun for alleged patent infringement.

NetApp always has claimed that it is not the aggressor in this case. Sun demanded royalty payments, which NetApp took as a legal threat that warranted a pre-emptive strike. It now also argues that the Sun patents are bad and should be retracted.

NetApp clearly lacks credibility. It fired the first shot by filing its lawsuit. It coveted a patent that it now claims to be invalid. And you can never win by suing open source.

In antoher patent war, pro-patent lobbyists hired a yacht in July 2005 to call upon the European Parliament to vote for software patents. The initiative was met by canoes holding up a sign that reads: "software patents kill innovation". The image perfectly depicts that parties in the patent debate: big money vs the common man. The patent directive was turned down with near unanimous votes btw.

October 26, 2007 at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

BEA will sleep with anyone for the right price

BEA isn't against whoring itself out, it's just that it will only degrade itself for the right price.

That is, in summary, the middleware vendor's latest move in the takeover battle with Oracle. BEA has reached the conclusion that it has no future as an independent vendor. Al that is left is getting a good price. Oracle is offering $17, BEA is asking $21.

Investors clearly don't believe that BEA will get away with a 23 per cent price hike. The company's stock is currently trading around $17.5-$17.6.

Now that BEA has put out the for sale sign, the company has to sell as soon as possible. No sensible CIO can tell his boss that they are betting their SOA or integration strategy on a company that will undergo major changes soon.

Especially because a major part of BEA's business is 'keeping the preferred vendor honest'. Many clients buy BEA because want to prevent a vendor lock-in from (usually) Oracle or SAP. Oracle customers will loose their leverage, but SAP customer will loose confidence in the vendor.

open for business

October 25, 2007 at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Google maps tracks SoCal fires

As Silicon Valley is enjoying a quite nice Indian Summer, Southern California (SoCal) is getting hit by a series of wild fires. Thousands of homes have been destroyed and people have been evacuated on a massive scale.

If your geographic comprehension of SoCal doesn't go beyond Disneyland and Los Angeles, Google Maps is coming to the rescue (no pun intended).

A series of individuals as well as news organizations are maintaining maps that closely track the position of fires and evacuation zones.

All of this is possible because Google opened the Google Maps application programming interfaces. yes, previously people could create similar maps, but today they can do so without much effort, allowing stay at home consumers to create maps that are just as informative as those done by the pros.

October 24, 2007 at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Time travel with Windows start screens

Memories...

October 24, 2007 at 01:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Dell digging out from record low 58 customer satisfaction score

Could it be that Dell's customer nightmare was even worse than previously thought? The company offered Jeff Jarvis a look behind the scenes. Jarvis is a blogger who set off the 'Dell sucks' movement last year when he shared his hellish experience in getting a properly working notebook computer. The visit culminated in a story for Business Week.

Internal Dell data, the company confessed, indicated that customer satisfaction scores plummeted to 58 in 2006 – on a 1 to 100 scale. This year it jumped back to 80 with high end customers and 74 with core consumers.

External research had shown a less dramatic drop to 74 this year, down from last year's 78. Even though that is still the lowest for the PC industry.

These scores are hard to compare, but Yahoo for instance scores 79 and Google's stands at 78.

A low score does indicate that few people will return to a certain vendor, spelling doom for future revenues. The reason why Dell fell so deep will make for some of the most obvious case studies in business schools.

Dell pushed its customer service outsourcing partners to keep conversations as brief as possible. As a result, clients would be transferred on a constant basis, just to make the metrics look good. As Jarvis experienced, this strategy failed solve any real problems. It was all Dell's flawed metrics, not about the customer.

October 19, 2007 at 08:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A different take on the internet driver's licence

If you've spoken with enough security researchers, you should understand that the internet security mess won't get solved. Ever. At all.

CA, MacAfee, Microsoft, Symantec and Trend Micro will happily continue to charge upwards from $50 per year to secure you computer. They have no reason not to hold on to their cosy oligopoly. But none of these will be able to prevent phishing attacks or zero-day exploits. Anybody who claims they do, is simply lying.

How can we restore some sense of security? Some argue that education is the answer. Or to take it one step further: should internet access require a licence?

We don't allow people to get behind the wheel of a high power vehicle before they have demonstrated an understanding of the rules, risks and threats involved. If you are unable or unwilling to take the test, you're allowed to use harmless modes of transportation such as walking, cycling or public transport.

Why not require proof of internet literacy? If a user doesn't understand that he shouldn't visit websites advertised in spam email messages, block access to those corners of the web where these sites are hosted. Block all of Russia and China for all I care.

Only if you demonstrate an understanding of the internet's dos and don'ts, you're provided with access to the wider internet.

It might seem drastic, but the problem with security is that it's not a single victim crime. Users who fail to properly secure their computers, facilitate the hosting of child pornography and distribution of spam or malware.

It might not solve the entire problem, and goes against the open nature of the internet. But a walled garden for rookie internet users would hopefully prevent the most serious problems. Even licenced drivers have car accidents, but presumably not as many as when an unlicenced driver gets behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler.

October 19, 2007 at 06:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

IT industry gets an unexpected Vista Effect

In the period leading up to Windows Vista launch, Microsoft predicted that the software would send consumers on a $1.4bn spending spree, in addition to a $1.7bn that was to be spent by businesses.

The reality however is turning out less rosy than Microsoft predicted. UK retailer Dixons saw its profits drop by £20m ($40m) as a result of disappointing Vista sales. Instead of buying state of the art, high margin Vista systems, consumers opted for computers that let them surf the web and edit documents without costing an arm and a leg.

For Dixons, Vista's Wow has yet to start. Most people who did make the switch are scratching their heads, wondering what great Vista innovations took 5 years to develop.

Vista may be the most secure Windows version. But if security was a serious purchase consideration, Windows never would have reached its 90 per cent market share in the first place.

 

October 19, 2007 at 01:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Microsoft still convinced about its search dominance

Microsoft's failure to grow its market share in the online search market isn't discouraging chief executive Steve Ballmer the slightest bit.

During an appearance at the Web2.0 Summit today, the executive had one of his trademark tantrums when he was asked whether Microsoft Search should be considered a child should be smacked on the back of its head for not doing any better.

Visibly annoyed, Ballmer replied:

"I would say, 'Hey, you know, you're just three years old and we've got you in there playing basketball with the 12 year-olds."

"You're going to dunk, you're going to dunk over the other guy some day Johnny!"

It took Microsoft until 2005 before it deployed its own search algorithm. Before then it licensed Yahoo's engine. But the continuing fall of Microsoft search market share has never stopped Ballmer from ridiculing the competition. The chief consistently denounces Google as a one-trick-pony, relying entirely advertising revenues. Never mind that Microsoft doing only slightly better with its complete dependency on Windows and Office sales.

October 19, 2007 at 12:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Former Linsipre executive admits: Ubuntu rules

Kevin Carmony left the chief executive position at Linspire 3.5 months ago, and already seems to have lost all faith in the company. Carmony (pictured below) on Wednesday admitted that Ubuntu has become his new love, he admitted on an Ubuntu mailing list.

"Now that I'm no longer the CEO of Linspire, or under any obligation to use that particular distribution, I thought I should take some time and look around at all the distributions and decide which one was right for me and my PC. In addition to already being quite familiar with Linspire and Freespire, I also looked at Novell/Suse, Red Hat/Fedora, PC Linux, Ubuntu, and Kubuntu.

Well, after all my research, I have to tell you, it was an easy choice. Ubuntu! I'm excited for the new release in a few days, which I will use to replace the many Linux desktop and laptop PCs I own (five).

Canonical and Ubuntu have done so many things right. I was very proud of many of the things I was able to accomplish at Linspire, but it's no longer the distro for me."

Evidence is piling up that Linspire is doomed. The company was founded by Michael Robertson, who cashed a cool $103m when mp3.com was acquired by Vivendi Universal. Robertson left shortly after Linspire failed to go public.

Linspire never was a viable Linux vendor, but merely an attempt to cash out on the Linux hype. Robertson struck gold with mp3.com, but has yet to repeat this success with any of his other companies.

hat tip: desktop Linux

October 18, 2007 at 10:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

"Best ever" book on Silicon Valley ships

The book Geek Silicon Valley has started shipping.

The normally very modest writer Ashlee Vance claims: "My book is the best such work on Silicon Valley to date. I mean that". You might know Vance as the US editor for The Register.

I haven't had a chance to read the book – squeezing a freebie out of a journalist tends to be as effective as sucking peanut butter through an intravenous tube. Please leave a comment if this blatant endorsement made you purchase a copy, so at least I can squeeze a kick-back out of him.

October 18, 2007 at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Google don't lie

Egypt, India and Turkey are the most inquisitive about sex. Hangovers spark the most interest in, Ireland the UK and US. Terrorism is doing great in Pakistan, Philippines and  Australia.

Welcome to the world of Google Trends, the service that tells you which queries are popular with certain cities or nations. Just don't make the mistake of drawing broad sweeping conclusions from this data.

October 18, 2007 at 02:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Harnessing web2.0

Analyst firm Forrester research last week issued its Groundswell awards for "effective social applications".

Dell scored the top price in the "Company Transformation" category. The firm is a personal favorite as an example of embracing new media to turn the economic tide.

Dell was your typical hierarchal company where everything had to be run past the top brass before anything would get done. Just think of the poor response that it had to the photos of a Dell notebook bursting into flames in the summer of 2006.

Today, Ideastorm has lead to the introduction of computers running Ubuntu Linux, as well as the reintroduction of Windows XP systems when it turned out that Windows Vista was a massive failure (at least to some).

This blog posting highlights the other 7 winners. Check it out. There are some really appealing examples of how social media helped companies make more money.

October 17, 2007 at 12:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Oracle to put BEA out of its misery

Oracle has put in a bid to purchase BEA for $6.7bn. BEA promptly turned down the offer, claiming that the firm was worth much more. But BEA president turn down the offer either.

Shareholders apparently see a bidding war around the corner. News of the bid caused a nearly 40 per cent jump in BEA stock. The firm is now valued at $7.4bn.

BEA hasn't been going anywhere for a while. It's application server is been reduced to a best of breed product that is operating in the shadow of IBM's Webshpere. BEA also has failed to formulate an answer to the rise of open source application servers, most notably Jboss.

BEA has done some cutting edge work in the Service Oriented Architecture space, but the market never really seemed to care.

In essence, BEA is a great technology company with poor marketing and sales organization. That should make for a perfect match with Oracle, which compensates whatever it is lacking in technology vision with strong sales and marketing.

BEA founder Alfred Chuang can start looking for a new job

 

October 12, 2007 at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wikipedia bows to the power of Silicon Valley

The Wikimedia Foundation, the parent organization of the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia, is moving its headquarters from Florida to Silicon Valley.

The organization cited San Francisco's broad offerings of "best-in-breed online talent, top-tier universities, world-class support services and major media" as reasons for the move. The area also is closer to Asia, which will bring "closer ties with volunteers and potential partners in that part of the world".

Talent, educations and support happen to some of the traditional strong points of Silicon Valley. Access to venture capital and one of the world's most desirable climates happens to be another one.

Well, and the fact that Wikipedia wants to be closer to the Silicon Valley Sleuth blog… let's just say that we've been going on a natural high for several hours.

;-)

October 11, 2007 at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Carly Fiorina goes from corporate raider to journalist

Carly Fiorina has joined the forthcoming Fox Business Network as a "contributor". The  TV station will start broadcasting on 15 October.

Fiorina of course is the former HP chief executive who failed at turning around the HP culture, spent $25bn on buying Compaq and sent the firm's stock price down the gutter. She essentially paved the way for Mark Hurd to come in and revive the company with a few strokes of cost cutting.

 

Fiorina already got her revenge by publishing a book about her experiences that made all her former nemesis look like incompetent goons.

She no doubt will be well compensated, as people will want to hear whatever she has to say.

But will Fiorina use her power of the tube to further avenge her former foes? Apparently not: "I lost my job in the most public way possible, and the press had a field day with it all over the world. And guess what? I'm still here. I am at peace and my soul is intact," she noted in her first public appearance on 12 May, shortly after her ouster as HP chief.

At least Fiorina is already used to being in the spotlight.

October 11, 2007 at 09:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Creating a Second Life standard

Why can't your Second Life avatar walk around in some other online 3D community or Microsoft Virtual Earth (pictured)? Because the world is lacking the standards that would enable such a level of interoperability.

That, however, will not be the case for much longer if its up to IBM and Linden Labs. Today the two companies signed a partnership that will seek to create open standards for not only interoperability, but also secure transactions and increased platform stability.

The partnership points out that 3D worlds still have a long way to go before they approach the ubiquity of the browser-based internet. Second Life may not have any aspirations to create the 3D internet, but it could certainly benefit from the standards that the IBM partnership seeks to create.

A Second Life avatar wanders around the (new) vnunet San Francisco office in San Francisco. Office image generated by Microsoft Virtual Earth.

October 11, 2007 at 01:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Microsoft launches another FUD attack on Linux

The fallout from Monday's vnunet story about Microsoft's latest threat against Red Hat Linux users was quite predictable. Most dismissed it as just another FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) attack. Rightfully so, it seems.

At a UK event last week, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer stated that:

"People who use Red Hat, at least with respect to our intellectual property, in a sense have an obligation to compensate us. There are plenty of other people who have also intellectual property. Every time an Eolas comes to Microsoft and says: 'Pay us,' I expect they eventually would like to go to the open source world. Getting an intellectual property interoperability framework between the two worlds I think is important."

The talking points aren't new, but Ballmer this time made the capital mistake of making a concrete threat against Red Hat. Previously he would targeted Linux or open source in general.

There are some fundamental problems with Microsoft stance, however.

1. Ballmer consistently uses the term intellectual property. That by itself is confusing, because it has no legal merit. It is generally used to indicate both patents and copyrights. Which one is Ballmer referring to?
As Harvard professor Mike Scherer argues in a new paper on the patent issue, the term is used for propaganda because it has more of an emotional value. "What right thinking person could be against property?" comments Scherer.

2. Microsoft has yet to proof that Linux and open source violate any of its patents. Ballmer once has said that Microsoft had identified 235 patent infringements by various open source projects. It has refused to disclose those patents, allegedly because it wouldn't want to offer developers an opportunity to change their software and circumvent the patents.
Open Source Risk Management in 2005 also said that the Linux kernel infringed on 283 patents. But then again, the firm used that scare tactic to sell patent insurance.

3. I'd really like to know if Microsoft at any point crossed a legal line. A carpenter can't just go stand outside a competitor's store holding up a sign claiming that its products are infected by termites if there is no factual basis for those claims. Microsoft is accusing Red Hat of infringing its patents or stealing its copyrights without producing any factual evidence. Isn't there any defamation going on there?

October 10, 2007 at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Google accused of lacking blinkered nationalism

Google shouldn't commemorate scientific breakthroughs that weren't achieved by good-old apple pie eating American scientists. Especially Google's commemoration of the launch of the first satellite (the Sputnik) by the Soviet Union 50 years ago is a slap in the face of… well, of who exactly?

Conservative bloggers are offended by Google's endorsement of the Soviet scientific breakthrough. The Soviets are the enemy, socialism is evil. And – as the general undertone goes – the Sputnik is not American.

Just like their extreme liberal counterparts, extreme conservatives have plenty to get upset about. Google's employees are predominantly democrats. Google also sponsors initiatives such as global health and the study of climate change, both of which are obvious liberal conspiracies to end the American way of life by preventing the melting of the polar ice caps and making people in Africa live longer.

Google also is assisting the communist regime of China in censoring the internet. Because how dare the company withhold information from its users – except of course when that information commemorates a world event that makes the US look bad - like the launch of the Sputnik.

Instead Google should commemorate the fallen US soldiers and veterans. I'm all for honoring the servicemen who protect our freedom. And then of course we shouldn't discriminate against individuals who fought illegal wars - the ones where the US invaded sovereign nations and toppled regimes without provocation. But if we stick to that rule, will the armchair pundits also sit back respectfully when Google honors Russia's Victory Day on 9 May, and April 30, the day that Vietnam celebrates it victory over the US?

Perhaps now you understand why Google is staying out of these potentially prickly situations and focuses on commemorating non-political events. It is impossible to navigate the world with blinkers on. But if Google wants, we happily submit the logo on the right for national hypocrisy day.

October 9, 2007 at 07:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Help catch a pervert

Have you seen the man below? If so, Interpol is asking that you give your local authorities a call. The man is a pervert who has sexually abused 12 young boys in Vietnam and Cambodia in 2002 and 2003.

He was so proud of himself that he posted photos of his actions on the web, but only after digitally altering the images.

German authorities have now succeeded to unswirl the images, showing the true face of evil. I'd volunteer my basement to lock him up and throw away the key, if I had a basement. Hell, I'd purchase a basement if that’s what it took.

October 9, 2007 at 07:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Intel takes a break from email

Intel last week held its first "No Email Day". A group of 150 engineers was encouraged to talk in person or over the phone instead of resorting to email messages.

Email is great for getting concrete answers to very concrete questions. But it's a horrible collaboration tool. Email doesn't allow for conversations, it spawns discussions at the best, and flame wars at the worst.

Great new ideas are often created at the lunch table or during cigarette breaks. True collaboration requires face to face conversations. By promoting a non-email days, Intel is promoting people to actually talk.

Intel chief Paul Otellini has previously blamed high cubicle walls for preventing one-on-one conversations. Minor detail, however, is that Intel itself was instrumental in establishing that dreaded cubicle culture.

Gordon Moore last month admitted to introducing the cubicle to Intel as a low cost way to jam as many people as possible into an office space.

October 9, 2007 at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Your database dollars at work

Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison is a known airplane enthusiast, which might explain why the database and enterprise software company sponsors the Team Oracle stunt-flying team. The daredevils were showing their skills this weekend over the San Francisco Bay at Fleetweek.

Just in case you didn't believe it was in San Francisco, that's Alcartraz in the back ground

Don't flame Oracle for spending its software revenues on frivolous activities like flying stunt aircraft. As the Simpsons so eloquent put it, the Blue Angeles (pictured above - against the Golden Gate bridge) are "America's favorite waste of tax payer dollars". And a growing portion of those liberal San Franciscans seems to agree actually.

October 7, 2007 at 02:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Think different

I can't help but feeling a bit jittery every time when a counter movement becomes the mainstream movement. That's mainly because revolutions have a pretty tough time behaving in a civilized manner once they reach the stage of absolute power.

Just think of the great mess that the communists created, or chaos created by the Republican party under Bush.

It's great news for Apple that Macs are dominating this class room at the Missouri School of Journalism. But for heaven's sake, can we please get some Ubuntu in there to ensure diversity?

Seen on: Brand infection

October 5, 2007 at 08:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Sun joins Microsoft on the virtualization wanabes list

Sun officially unveiled its hypervisor technology today. Dubbed xVM server, Sun will essentially offer a customized Solaris version with the open source Xen virtualization technology.

Sun is late with virtualization, but at least not as late as Microsoft. The server maker for years has been offering its Logical Domains (Sparc only) and Virtual Containers in its Solaris operating system. But the market has gathered behind hypervisors, so hypervisors it will be.

By choosing for Xen, Sun can quickly catch up with competitors like Red Hat and Novell. But even then, it quickly becomes obvious that Sun is playing catch-up. When asked about plans to support for Intel's Flexmigration technology, Sun's CTO for software Tim Marsland admitted to being unfamiliar with the technology (it will enable live migrations between future generations of Intel chips, AMD has something similar), and then claimed that it would be up to Intel to add support to Xen.

Sun also has yet to make up its mind on creating an embedded version of its hypervisor, Marsland said. Will Sun support XenMotion, the ability in the upcoming Xen3.1 to move workloads while they are running? Marsland confirmed, but was unable to commit to a timeline.

Sun has some more time to clean up its act. The first xVM component will ship this December, but that's just a management console that will allow IT admin to control the hypervisor and manage the underlying hardware. The actual xVM server will be released as a preview in January and again in March and then launched in the second quarter of 2008.

Sounds like Sun willl launch another VMware competitor that VMware doesn't have to worry about much, at least for now.

October 5, 2007 at 01:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The CIO doesn't matter

Turnover of chief information officers is on the rise, as an increasing number of firms are downgrading IT from a strategic function to everyday business. That is the outcome of a survey of over 650 CIOs by a UK recruiting firm.

The trend seems to validate Nick Carr's 2003 assertion that "IT doesn't matter".

Servers and storage are commodities. The only notable difference between Intel and AMD processors lies in the number of floating point calculations that they can perform, a metric that no real person really cares about. The Intel Inside logo on a computer these days is as useful as knowing that your car comes with an engine.

In that reality, the average firm doesn't need a CIO – or at least doesn't need one as part of the management team. Such a role warrants an IT organization that is constantly raising the bar on its vendors and software. Companies like Google, Merrill Lynch or Wal Mart need a CIO.

But for the majority of the economy, a CIO demonstrates a desperate attempt to appear innovative.

October 3, 2007 at 06:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Boring game, cool trailer

You can make any game interesting if you have a Simpsons trailer.

Okay, I admit. I don't play computer games but am a huge Simpsons fan. There. I said it.

The trailer, btw, is for the upcoming "The Simpsons" game from EA. Neverquest was featured in the "Marge Gamer" episode of the Simpsons.

October 3, 2007 at 01:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ebay wakes up to meagre Skype reality

Skype on Monday didn't just loose its cofounder and chief executive; the firm also shed about half of its book value. Niklas Zennström, the wonder child behind Skype, KaZaA and now Joost, was forced to step down.

Ebay bean counters valued the firm to better reflect its real market potential, even though one could argue that a $1.2bn valuation (down from $2.6bn) very high for a firm that last quarter sold $90m in Skype-out minutes and other premium services.

The changes were met by a collective "What kept you so long?" by the collective world of armchair pundits posing as the blogosphere.

But Zennström himself won't go down without a fight. In an interview with blogger/journalist Thomas Crampton, he stressed that a 4-year-old company should be allowed to focus on growing its user base, not be forced to make money.

While we tend to agree in general, this bird won't sing in Ebay's cage. The auction giant has a great track record in acquiring to grow its market share internationally (as well as their 25 per cent stake in Craigslist.org). There is has learned to leave its new companies alone.

But Ebay has done a horrible job acquiring and integrating firms outside the online trading space. While we agree with Zennström that the jury is still out on Skype, there is a definite verdict on the failure of the Paypal purchase.

Paypal had the potential to wake up the US' outdated banking industry. Contrary to Europe, US banking clients can't just transfer funds to other bank accounts. Instead they have to write a check which is then processed by some insecure fulfilment firm – it's insecure, expensive and slow.

Paypal uses your email address as your bank account number, allowing for transfers at the speed of light. But instead of delivering on that promise, Paypal has been reduced to a payment service for handling Ebay transactions and squeezing their clients for transfer fees.

No wonder that Ebay fumbled the Skype acquisition. The firm is a – be it extremely profitable - one trick pony that knows how to do auctions, and nothing else. For Skype to succeed, it needs to find a home outside Ebay.

October 3, 2007 at 01:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The mapping business just got interesting

Thinking of map makers, you can't help but feel sorry for the guys driving around in their trucks mapping out the roads (and still getting it wrong on the I-80, the highway between San Francisco and Salt Lake City). But today's news that Nokia paid $7.7bn for Navteq makes those truck drives a bit more interesting.

You can't view this deal without taking into consideration that TomTom in July agreed to acquire TeleAtlas for $2.5bn.

TeleAtlas and Navteq quite simply are the digital mapping industry. Nobody else comes even close to their data collection. Look in the bottom of your maps for Google, Yahoo, MSN or Mapquest, and you'll see that they are provided by one of these two companies.

Both TomTom and Nokia believe that owning the maps will allow them to roll out new services at a much faster rate. TomTom for instance is already using feedback from mobile phones to update its maps and gather traffic information. The firm also is betting big time on collecting user generated content around its maps, think of restaurant reviews or businesses that aren't listed.

The big question becomes why Microsoft, Google or Yahoo didn't pull out there check books here. Were they just sleeping, or are TomTom and Nokia seeing something that the others aren't?

October 2, 2007 at 01:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack