Best of the blogs: Even though the providers try to make it seem as if they handle everything involved with the software-as-a-service model, SaaS demands IT intervention. The upside is that it's "further proof of the lasting importance of IT," Ephraim Schwartz writes in The five tenets of SaaS integration. "It's no longer a question of whether IT admits SaaS into the enterprise. It's a question of how IT makes it work."

Notes from the field: The frightening Robert X. dons his Cringely mask to warn users to be afraid, very afraid of Microsoft. The company "can take over your computer wherever you are, and do whatever it wants." Yet another Windows Update snafu proves just that. This latest went ahead and installed Windows Desktop Search 3.01 on PCs configured not to run the resource hog, to which Microsoft muttered underneath it's breath, "oops, sorry." But, Cringe reveals, "the ugly truth is that Microsoft is using security fears to force its enslaved base (that would be you and me) into installing stuff it wants us to have. Somebody needs to put a stake through its heart, before it kills again." Windows Live? Or just ... undead? What could possibly be scarier than that? A blind date with Larry Ellison, for one. Yikes.

App dev: Yesterday, Microsoft detailed project Oslo for model-centric applications, with a bent toward SOA and integration, and it has Savio Rodrigues shaking his head. "You know, SOA and especially Composite Applications, are supposed to be about heterogeneous environments. I didn't find a thing that leads me to believe that Oslo has much to do with interoperability," Rodrigues writes in Microsoft Oslo: Lacking interoperability? "Microsoft, open you eyes ... your 'SOA' customers care about more than .NET and all customers benefit from open standards. This is not new news."

The news beat: Security geeks say Leopard needs fixing -- and that Apple has "a long way to go to catch up with Microsoft," security-wise. Intel ships its dual-core Itanium 2 update, Montvale, a server processor that offers incremental improvements, such as a faster front-side bus. Google finally makes its social networking power move as it sets to unleash today OpenSocial, its initiative "to spread social applications across the Web." And Poor earnings results prompt more layoffs at Alcatel-Lucent.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 31, 2007 11:16 AM