May 07, 2008

It's JavaOne, but where's Scott?

Scott McNealy, who was the longtime CEO of Sun Microsystems and still is company chairman, has been absent from the company's JavaOne conference in San Francisco this week. A longtime fixture at the event even after stepping down as CEO in 2006, McNealy instead is in Washington, DC on business for Sun Federal, a Sun subsidiary that works with federal government accounts. McNealy is president of Sun Federal. McNealy had been known for presentations that injected humor into the event, such as offering in 2006 a Top 10 list of advantages to no longer being CEO.... more

TAGS: Application Development

May 06, 2008

Missing the iPhone's point

Every week, it seems, some device maker or cellular carrier is announcing its iPhone killer. The latest is the HTC Touch, whose main claim to fame is that it has beat Apple's iPhone to the 3G market (3G being the set of faster cellular networks than what the current iPhone uses). Never mind that the HTC Touch won't ship until June -- around the time that the new 3G iPhone is rumored to launch -- so any claims of being first are premature. But who cares if the HTC Touch is first to run on 3G networks? Apple has proven... more

TAGS: Mobile devices

April 30, 2008

The right Vista strategy: Do nothing

Most analyst firms were excited about Windows Vista in 2006, when it was on the verge of being released. But for several firms, that enthusiasm withered as it became clear that Vista is a flawed OS that few users actually want. Gartner has been among the most consistent doubters of Vista, warning businesses in November 2005 that the Vista migration would be long and slow, with most IT shops not able to fully deploy it until 2009 -- advice it still holds to. And today its view on Vista has soured considerably. [ Tell Microsoft to keep XP indefinitely: Sign... more

TAGS: Windows Vista

April 25, 2008

Celebrating Parallels and its desktop virtualization gift

This week, Parallels announced that it has sold 1 million copies of Parallels Desktop, a utility that lets Intel-based Macs run Windows alongside Mac OS X. Although EMC's VMware unit now offers a similar product, it was Parallels that pioneered this application. And this application has played a significant role in making the Macintosh more widely acceptable in both personal and business environments, as it got rid of the "what if my app won't run on the Mac?" dilemma that overshadowed Apple for years. For the masses (including senior execs who sign IT project checks), Parallels defines virtualization. And that's... more

TAGS: Virtualization

April 24, 2008

Microsoft's XP intransigence is simply mystifying; can Dell save the day?

You have to wonder what's going on a Microsoft when it comes to the issue of keeping XP available past the planned June 30 cutoff date. The company clearly knows that Vista was hardly its best moment, an ungainly OS forced out the door after years of delay so Microsoft would have something new to sell. A triumph of short-term thinking that is turning out to be a Pyrrhic victory. But Dell may offer the face-saving out for Microsoft that also saves XP. Decidedly mixed signals, so why the line in the sand for XP? While both chairman Bill Gates... more

TAGS: Platforms

April 24, 2008

OLPC's open source qualms underscores a larger limit

It's all very noble. MIT researcher and pundit Nicholas Negroponte challenges the PC industry to develop and sell a $100 PC for poor countries so their populations can be computer-literate and thus more able to compete in a global economy. He then puts his money where his mouth is and establishes the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization, which then develops a $200 laptop to help achieve those goals. Early on, OLPC decides to go open source, to save money on the software on these ultracheap PCs as well as to get a leaner OS than what the commercial world... more

TAGS: OLPC

April 23, 2008

Microsoft reaches for the cloud

At a press briefing Tuesday, Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner put some meat on the bones of Microsoft's "software plus services" strategy to deliver cloud computing capabilities to customers. Turner reviewed Microsoft's current on-demand offerings -- mainly Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, plus hosted versions of Exchange and SharePoint -- but also revealed that major new announcements would follow at the Microsoft Partner Conference in early July. When asked whether Microsoft plans to offer a development platform in the cloud, Turner grinned and said pointedly: "We are not announcing anything today." Given the strength of Microsoft's developer base, and the... more

TAGS: Software as a Service

April 22, 2008

The platform lock-in game moves to the cloud

In the last week, there's been a lot of noise around cloud computing, thanks to Microsoft's announcement today of its Dynamics CRM Online service launching and the joint Google-Salesforce.com announcement last week that paired Google Apps with Salesforce.com's CRM tools. [For analysis of Microsoft's Tuesday news concerning Dynamics CRM, at which it also foreshadowed services that will follow in July, read Microsoft reaches for the cloud.] The idea of cloud computing is highly appealing, as it helps free up IT resources for generic or at least isolatable technologies so that IT can focus on projects that add differentiating value to... more

TAGS: Cloud computing

April 11, 2008

Text messages from Uncle Sam

The FCC this week approved a plan to create a nationwide emergency alert system that will deliver text messages to cell phone users should an emergency, disaster, or attack occur. The Warning Alert and Response Network Act (WARN Act) of 2006 gave the FCC the task ofcoming up with new ways to alert the public about emergencies. According to CNN, cell phone companies that voluntarily opt into the system will send text messages to subscribers in response to three types of events: Presidential alerts such as terrorist attacks; natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes; and child abductions or... more

TAGS: Government

April 10, 2008

Analysts say Microsoft takeover most likely future for Yahoo

Despite Yahoo's ostensibly deft maneuverings this week, analysts suggest that being swallowed by Microsoft is the most likely fate for Yahoo. Just yesterday, Yahoo said it is testing Google search ads, a deal some interpreted as the latest move on Yahoo’s part to avoid a hostile takeover by Microsoft. Now, news outlets large and small are reporting that Yahoo is in talks with AOL to discuss a merger of sorts that many see as yet another avoidance tactic. Ah, but the plot thickens once again, as Microsoft, too, is in discussions with a potential partner: News Corp. might band with... more

TAGS: Business

April 10, 2008

Why IT needs to get over cloud-aversion

The cloud was everywhere, except in the Las Vegas skies, at the Gartner ITXpo conference this week. The cloud computing sessions were full and plentiful, yet the mood was hardly energetic. Several Gartner speakers exhorted the mainly-IT audience to accept the cloud as an unstoppable force, and not ignore it or oppose it. Audience questions showed that IT is not yet convinced. Most questions were tactical, such as how to handle integration or assure security -- worthwhile goals in some circumstances, but not the key issues in thinking of cloud computing, notes analyst Darryl Plummer. Cloud computing, and external sourcing... more

TAGS: Cloud computing

April 09, 2008

As VC flows toward China, Valley resembles days of bust

The situation is not that dire just yet, but signs are beginning to emerge that Silicon Valley is not immune to the difficulties affecting the U.S. economy. And whereas Valley VC's once tended to primarily act locally, they're now eyeing global markets. "During the first three months of the year, only five companies backed by venture capital investors went public on Wall Street, the National Venture Capital Association said last week. That is down from 31 in the fourth quarter of last year, and is roughly the same level as at the nadir of the dot-com bust," The New York... more

TAGS: Business

April 09, 2008

High marks for U.S. Internet

Refuting conventional wisdom, a European study cited in this NY Times article claims that "Internet infrastructure of the United States is one of the world’s best and getting better." The study, done on behalf of the World Economic Forum, looked at variables such as market factors, the political and regulatory environment, and technology infrastructure rather than just Internet bandwidth capacity and data transmission speeds. On this basis, the study found that the U.S. now ranks fourth in the world behind Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland. Last year the U.S. ranked seventh. Still, some Internet veterans remain skeptical. The NY Times quotes... more

TAGS: Broadband