- No Aero in PDC quiver
- On the forthcoming reality of self-organizing wireless networks
- Schwartz wins a battle
- Myhrvold argues in favor of invention
- PeopleSoft peddles more Oracle emails
- Bluetooth reality check
- Free advertising for Xybernaut
- John Cleese's day in the Sun
- Bad timing dogs Sun
- PCExpo not what it used to be
September 29, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Programmers looking forward to playing with Aero, the GUI-to-be within Microsoft's forthcoming Longhorn operating system, will just have to wait.
At this year's upcoming Microsoft Professional Developer Conference, a.k.a. PDC, attendees will receive a Longhorn build. That is, a Longhorn build minus the code comprising Aero.
Paul Thurrott reports that developers instead will get a Longhorn version in which Microsoft strips out the Aero code. The glimpse of Aero will come during Bill Gates' keynote at the conference.
Developers do have something to look forward to, however. As Thurott wrote:
What developers will receive at the PDC, however, is very interesting. For the past several weeks, the software giant has forked the code for Longhorn, developing a special PDC build that is separate and distinct from the main code fork. This build will include virtually every Longhorn technology except Aero, and will include a new, darker theme that supplants the lackluster Plex visual style seen in alpha Longhorn builds. Microsoft is currently struggling to complete this special PDC build in time for the show, which will be held in late October.
I read about this by way of Peter O'Kelly's blog, by the way.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on September 29, 2003 01:52 PM
September 24, 2003 | Comments: (0)
On the forthcoming reality of self-organizing wireless networks
An afternoon panel here at the MIT Emerging Technologies conference in Cambridge, Mass, focused on self organizing wireless networks, a.k.a. mesh networks.
A Technology Review editor moderating the panel started it off by saying that the panelists would not be discussing cell phone networks, Wi-Fi, or 802.11 standards. Good! Even though I enjoy the freedom WiFi provides me with today, it was refreshing to learn that the panel would concentrate on the concept of ad hoc wireless networks.
Peter Stanforth, CTO of Mesh Networks, showed us a slide explaining mesh networks -- the technology, not the company. I managed to jot down most of it:
Meshing = Range increase, low power and high data rates
Meshing = greater system capacity
Meshing + power control = less interference and more scalability in dense net-works
Meshing = only way to support robust, IP data traffic
He also said that a range of 800-900 square miles will be possible in the near future.
Lakshman Krishnamurthy, senior staff engineer in the network architecture lab at Intel said that the company is working on an application that enables wireless net-works to be built on an ad hoc basis in conference rooms. He didn't offer a timeframe in which it will come to market, but did say the next steps are to scale deployment and demonstrate ROI.
Naturally, the discussion turned toward obstacles facing mesh networks, namely a current lack of standards and algorithms. All agreed that there won't be one single networking standard, rather co-existence of networks built on various standards will be paramount.
Tonight is Technology Review magazine's awards dinner for recipients of its TR100 innovators award. I doubt that will warrant its own blog entry, but you can read about the winners.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on September 24, 2003 12:19 PM
September 24, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Until last week, you could have been forgiven for thinking Sun's Exec VP of Software Jonathan Schwartz was on a lone crusade. Sun's software stack has suffered from the perception that it played second string to the more lucrative hardware business. During my interview with him at SunNetwork last week, we joked about how he's winning the battle inside Sun to equalize the software/hardware equation. But on a serious note, he added that the proof is demonstrated by Sun's new sales compensation plan - hardware and software will effectively get equal commission status.
Ok, so Sun won a battle and it deserves kudos for getting its head around the software as a service model. But the bigger war isn't over. The question remains as to whether Sun can force Microsoft or IBM's hand on issues like pricing and delivery models. I don't get the impression either company is trembling in its boots just yet, but having said that, it has raised an executive eyebrow or two.
Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble is a good case in point. On Sept 16 he wrote:
Our licensing agreements need to get simpler. Our security must become best of breed. Our user experience must deliver value (and ease of use) far far beyond what Sun and the rest of the industry is trying to do with Linux/Unix (cute 3D tricks aren't gonna hack it). Yes, even better than the Mac. Our interoperability plan better go beyond just being able to stick a smart card into a PC and having your email and files pop up from some server somewhere. Our pricing must reflect the value our software delivers.
If it isn't perfectly clear to all of us that our customers now have several good OS and Office choices (and, despite what Sun said on stage, I think there still is a company named Apple that's coming after us too -- my spies at Apple tell me that G5's are selling so fast they can't make enough).
Posted by Mark Jones on September 24, 2003 11:11 AM
September 24, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Myhrvold argues in favor of invention
I'm blogging live via Wi-Fi here from the MIT Emerging Technologies Conference on MIT's campus in Cambridge, Mass.
Nathan Myhrvold kicked off the conference here Wednesday morning by stressing the importance of research and, ultimately, invention.
Myhrvold, a former Microsoftie who founded Intellectual Ventures and now serves as its managing director, said that unfortunately the research done by major corporations has waned during the last two decades.
He cited once-influential research operations, such as Xerox PARC, IBM's Wat-son Labs, and AT&T's Bell Labs, as places where research for its own sake is not done as it once was.
"IBM makes $1 billion in patent licensing and $1 billion in technology every year. So the rational thing to do if you're running IBM is shut the rest of it down and just run research," Myrhvold quipped.
A radical viewpoint, indeed. Then again, Myhrvold's whole point was that re-search and invention are about overcoming what is considered impossible.
"People are enormously constrained by what they think is impossible," he said.
But if more companies ran large-scale research programs, it would be a boon to the industry, he said, pointing to Cisco and Intel, as prime examples of companies that should spend more on research.
Bob Metcalfe chimed in that the Bell Labs was run by a telephone monopoly, Xerox Parc by a copier monopoly, and Watson Labs by a computer monopoly.
"It's as if you can only afford to do research if you're a monopoly," Metcalfe said.
Myhrvold retorted that is exactly why Cisco and Intel should be investing more in research.
Later today there are panels on emerging technologies, wireless networks and a talk by Michael Dell, so I'll post accordingly.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on September 24, 2003 08:11 AM
September 19, 2003 | Comments: (0)
PeopleSoft peddles more Oracle emails
I've just got my hands on a bunch of emails thrown our way late on a Friday afternoon by PeopleSoft's PR people (geez, thanks guys, just want I wanted to do right now).
The documents were released Thursday as part of the Alameda County Court proceedings. This is the second time (Google search) we've received email from the court proceedings, so no doubt the media will pick it up again.
Given that PeopleSoft's PR people love to peddle this stuff to keep up the sympathy vote I'm only going to bite off a little chunk since it makes good reading.
1. From the "No Surprises to Anyone Dept": Oracle realized it would do damage to PeopleSoft, but the emails show that inside Oracle the takeover bid was evidently not widely discussed or debated before the offer was made.
An email from Oracle Executive Vice President Safra Catz on 6/6/2003 to execs including CFO Jeff Henley and former Chief Marketing Officer Mark Jarvis reads: "If you've seen the news you will notice that we've announced that Oracle will launch a cash tender offer for PeopleSoft [and goes on to talk about how exciting it is etc etc., then speaks about PeopleSoft execs] we don't expect their senior management team to join us. We have not spoken to them directly and this deal is considered 'hostile'."
Then in a transcript of the conference call to analysts, Jeff Henley notes: "The most immediate thing that really drove the announcement of this transaction was PeopleSoft's announcement several days before the proposal to merge with J.D. Edwards."
Now, here's something of a surprise.
2. From the "Yes, IT Analysts Really Are Massaged By Vendors Dept":
Peggy O'Neill, Oracle vice president of analyst relations writes to Charles Phillips on 6/07/2003:
"See how influencable (sic) they are when we give them a little love! We deliberately courted [an AMR analyst] because he has a "strong voice" within AMR, he is able to drown out/mute other negative opinions from his own colleagues."
Then we have a slightly more worrying email exchange between Forrester and Oracle execs about a draft report on the merger, apparently needing Oracle's approval before publication.
After telling the analysts she's concerned about the "tone and balance" of the draft report, Peggy O'Neill's correspondence reads in part:
"The drafts we've seen so far seem more occupied with beating Oracle up for its behavior than giving advice to end users. I urge you to take a second look at this."
We have not yet got an official response from Oracle or the analysts regarding the latest emails.
Posted by Mark Jones on September 19, 2003 06:43 PM
September 19, 2003 | Comments: (0)
There were a few cool Bluetooth demonstrations here at DemoMobile. In Thursday's session Logitech showed a Bluetooth mouse and a mouse-keyboard combination. The idea was to let the PC become a wireless hub for a variety of Bluetooth enabled devices. Also, the office system company Brother unveiled a tiny, pocket size micro printer that uses Bluetooth to print from Palm, PocketPCs, laptops, and tablets.
Although the demos were impressive, talking with an analyst here, David Hayden of MobileWeek, brought the Bluetooth balloon back to earth. The only killer app for Bluetooth will be wireless headsets, he said. Bluetooth isn't going away, but the original idea that it would be ubiquitous as a cable replacement technology is pretty much dead in the water. Complexity in the end-user configuration and usage as well as interoperability issues have plagued Bluetooth, Hayden said.
"The huge mistake that the Bluetooth group made is they didn't focus enough on the simplicity of usage. It is still a challenge to make work," Hayden said. "Bluetooth is supposed to be a standard, but a lot of companies use tweaks in the standard so that every Bluetooth device is not compatible with every other Bluetooth device."
In addition, some handset manufacturers are pulling away from Bluetooth in favor of other features such as cameras. One upcoming handset device from Sony Ericsson does not have Bluetooth, but it was supported in an earlier version.
Hayden said Bluetooth won't disappear, but the early dreams of a short range connectivity utopia were over the top.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on September 19, 2003 02:12 PM
September 18, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Free advertising for Xybernaut
In the general session here at DemoMobile, just before the talks began, someone lugging a large duffle bag accidentally knocked over full pitcher of water onto a very nice slim notebook on the table. It was a sad sight. The victim held his expensive water logged notebook upside down to drain the water from it. It was probably ruined or at least severely damaged. This incident sparked a Xybernaut worker sitting nearby to tell a neighbor that the Xybernaut rugged tablet PC has sealed edges and some kind of Gor-tex waterproof coating inside to protect against just such an assault from liquid.
Xybernaut earlier in the keynote demonstrated its rugged, portable tablet PC system designed for the everyday worker in hospitals, construction sites, and factory floors, It can be dropped, tossed onto concrete and hung on a belt buckle. Hmm. was that an undercover Xybernaut employee who knocked over the water? No.. That would be an expensive advertisement.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on September 18, 2003 01:24 PM
September 18, 2003 | Comments: (0)
I'm blogging live from John Cleese's keynote at SunNetworks. For those of you who don't watch PBS, as John put it, he's very well known in the UK and Australasia for his work on Monty Python, Faulty Towers etc etc.
The theme of his talk is that we simply have to acknowledge that mistakes are part of life, and certainly part of the IT industry. After starting off by deciding his role here is to be the court jester and abuse people - he called the audience "geeks" - Cleese has taken us through a discussion of how many people have made mistakes throughout history, from philosophers to inventors and business people.
Turning to the geeks in the crowd he said they were smiling at his message because: "The crap architecture (you built) contains major management flaws that only you can fix. Clever, but sly."
Update: Paul Krill jotted down a few Cleese quotes:
"The problem is that we don't have a good word for the reasonable try that doesn't succeed."
"Java was once thought of as a nifty technology for animating Web pages."
"Today's protected system is tomorrow's unprotected system. So does that make today's system a mistake? Well, yes, if it's a Windows System. "
"Remember this: It's practically impossible after a really good idea emerges to recall exactly what the process was that gave birth to it."
"As far as creativity is concerned, there's actually no such thing as a mistake."
"A man who is afraid to make mistakes is unlikely to make anything."
"Even the attempt to minimize risk can only result in the that greatest risk of all - rigidity."
The British lost the Revolutionary War "because we were leading 8 nil at halftime [and] we lost interest."
Denying mistakes results in lying and cover-ups that build exponentially. "This kind of concealment creates terrible anxiety."
On stress making you stupid: "Suppose Edison was afraid of producing a light bulb that didn't work? My Auntie Vera put it differently; she said we learn only from our mistakes."
"Science makes continual improvements only by learning from its mistakes in theories."
"I believe the big question here is how to change our attitudes towards mistakes so that instead of living in morbid dread of making an error, as so many people, in the future we only live in dread of repeating that error."
As my guru said: "People expect things to go smoothly despite life-long experience that they never do."
"Why [is SunNetwork being held at] the Moscone Center? I grew up in a town smaller than this place." "[It is] carefully situated on the San Andreas Fault and they build 80 percent of it underground...and it is the one place in San Francisco where the food is no good."
"What about Scott's haircut? You'd think he could afford a better hairdresser than Supercuts. Maybe a better hairdresser wouldn't let him in dressed like that."
Posted by Mark Jones on September 18, 2003 11:53 AM
September 18, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Dang. Everything was going well for Sun this week until it executed a classic case of PR foot-in-mouth and stuffed everything up. The big business news today is that Sun's laying off 1,000 workers in an effort to regain profitability. It's not likely to significantly impact the company's ability to deliver on this week's impressive news, but it sure does see the return of the dark financial clouds that persistently hold it down.
Update from Paul Krill at SunNetwork:
Sun Chairman/CEO Scott McNealy acknowledged during a press conference today at SunNetwork that the company is laying off slightly fewer than 1,000 workers. The company, however, still is hiring people in some specialty parts of the organization and the company is undergoing a natural rebalancing, McNealy said.
"We've got 35,000 employees worldwide," McNealy said.
Posted by Mark Jones on September 18, 2003 10:03 AM
September 18, 2003 | Comments: (0)
PCExpo ain't gettin' no respect. And I think there might be some behind-the-scenes chicanery taking place here in the Big Apple.
For starters, the buzz here was far short of what I've seen in previous years. This was, after all, one of the more important trade shows in the industry not so long ago.
Moreover, Microsoft and IBM delivered something of a strike against PCExpo on Wednesday by holding a Web services 'technical briefing' here in NYC, not all that far from the Jacob Javits Center in which PCExpo is taking place. Rather than make that event part of the conference, however, the two companies held it separately from PCExpo. My guess is that they figured since Bill Gates and Steve Mills would be there, members of the press would actually forego the bigger conference to come to their event. And while I myself thankfully did not have to do so, I would have if we had not have anyone else to attend.
But even some of the folks that actually came to PCExpo, namely IBM and HP, don't seem to be taking it as seriously as they have in the past. Again, both companies drummed up something to release, per the above link. For the most part, however, HP used PCExpo to host a multitude of briefings under non-disclosure agreement. From what I can tell, those meetings spanned from handhelds to notebooks to desktops. IBM even asked me to sign an NDA about some forthcoming BladeCenter news.
I didn't sign anything, but guess when the NDA's for both companies lift, and when that news will be made public...
Well, according to PR representatives from each, the news breaks in November. I may be going out on a limb here, but these guys might be using PCExpo to brief reporters on announcements they are planning for Comdex. Or, perhaps it's just the conspiracy theorist in me manifesting. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
One conference I am really looking forward to, by the by, is MIT's Emerging Technologies. That takes place next week and I'll be joining my colleague Ed Scannell there, so we'll be sure to write something up from that one.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on September 18, 2003 09:18 AM
September 17, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Scarlet Pruitt of IDG News Service already wrote a comprehensive story on HP's information lifecycle management strategy, but I wanted to make a few comments.
This strategy, and others like it, are interesting to look at as an admission that customers are no longer happy with buying only a storage box. They clearly want services.
SANs are no longer new and nobody has money to buy one on curiosity alone. In fact, virgin SAN customers are few and far between. So these services are aimed at those who own SANs already but are fed up that they aren't getting value out of them.
The eight partners HP announced are companies HP had worked with before. Clearly they just decided it makes more sense to formalize the relationship and then have HP test, verify, implement, and support the solutions they were al-ready building on top of HP's gear.
I spoke with Rusty Smith, the owner of this effort at HP, about this strategy and he explained this arrangement benefits all. The customer get HP's guarantee, the partners gain credibility by virtue of working with HP, and HP gets new customers.
Smith also told me HP is considering packaging some of these co-developed so-lutions. He also said this program is different from EMC's because HP is a systems company. In other words, HP knew all along it wasn't just about arrays, but rather business processes. Smith points out that data is not created by storage, but by applications. He also noted that HP has tape offerings to go with its disk products- something EMC does not have. And I think if you are talking lifecycle management, you better be telling customers how they are going to get their data onto tape.
Posted by Scott Tyler Shafer on September 17, 2003 04:50 PM
September 16, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Verisign's lesson in stupidity
How can you make the entire Internet community hate you forever in one easy lesson? Answer: Stuff around with a central tenet of the Internet.
Outrage over Verisign's decision to resolve URL error messages to its own domain registrar continues to echo around the Internet today. Jeremy Zawodny calls Verisign "pure evil," (via Scripting News), Slashdot readers had colorful words to describe the company, while The Reg reports "Net admins being urged to block Verisign's catch-all domain."
Jon Udell he called me today about this story, and in passing offered some great insight: "The Internet is supposed to be comprised of dumb switches in the middle." Apparently Verisign thinks that needs to change.
Posted by Mark Jones on September 16, 2003 05:19 PM
September 16, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Cell phone giant Nokia is after some big enterprise dollars. On October 1, the company will officially launch Nokia Enterprise Solutions, according to Nokia's VP of Communications, Kari Tuutti.
I caught up with Tuutti late yesterday as part of the Espoo, Finland-based exec's current US tour and asked him about the strategy. The company's theory is that enterprises are looking to tightly integrate back-end applications and infrastructure with mobile devices like cell phones or smartphones.
For Nokia, the term "enterprise mobility" means integrating IBM's WebSphere, Oracle app servers and databases, and RIM's email servers with next-generation smartphones. (By the way, Nokia reckons a smartphone is not a Microsoft-proprietary term. It refers to any cell phone with rich data processing and multimedia capabilities, Tutti claims.)
On the plus side, the new division will be able to leverage Nokia's existing relationships with the Fortune 1000 customer set. However, the challenges ahead appear daunting from where I sit, for the following reasons:
* Nokia is in the process of recruiting VARs (Value-added Resellers) and distributors in the traditional IT channel. This is essentially a completely new strategy for the company. Unlike the simple world of retail cell phone sales, the IT channel is a complicated animal.
* A strong channel takes a lot of work, and money. Tutti was not able to clearly explain to me how all the components that make up a Nokia enterprise solution would fit together. If I don't get it, a VAR won't either.
* IBM, Oracle and RIM partnerships are good. But what about Microsoft and Sun? Those guys have huge channels. You don't want to go excluding yourself from business with Microsoft or Sun-savvy VARs. Tutti responded to my questions about this by saying Nokia's mobile infrastructure is "fully compatible" with Microsoft's Exchange Server, as an example. He also hopes Nokia will be compatible across the Microsoft server stack: "You would hope .Net is open." Well, yes, you would. But if you don't have a signed deal with them it could get tricky.
* Which leads me to my next point: Nokia and Microsoft will always have partnership problems because Nokia's Symbian OS is increasingly under attack by Microsoft and its own mobile ambitions. So if we are to believe the hype, the mobile OS wars are only just beginning. Add to that the complexity of Nokia's mobile infrastructure inside the enterprise and the situation looks murky for enterprise IT buyers.
* Last point: I'm curious - what sort of demand exists for Nokia's style of mobile infrastructure anyway?
More reading: The Reg talks about mobile email usage.
Posted by Mark Jones on September 16, 2003 03:35 PM
September 16, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Contemplating the future of ThinkPad's design
Hardware advancements seem to be the biggest buzz, if you really want to call it that, here at TechXNY, a.k.a. PCExpo, at least on Tuesday.
I met with both HP and IBM this morning to talk about future plans for their product lines. While HP reserved some of its 'announcements' for those reporters willing to subject themselves to NDA's, both companies did announce new desktops that Tom Krazit of the IDG News Service covered in a story that we ran.
During the meetings I sat down with two of the IBM folks who design the ThinkPad line of notebook PCs, for a glimpse at some of the prototypes they are kicking around as they move toward a new laptop design.
David Hill, director of PC design at IBM, likened the process of honing ThinkPads to Porsche bringing out new models, say the 911, every year in that the concept remains the same but improves through refinement.
In a bit of mild irony, HP's director of commercial PC design center, Randall Martin, on this very day showed me a slide comparing the history of automobiles to that of the PC. The theme was strikingly similar: "The automobile started as a single-purpose device to get from point A to point B," Martin explained, adding that today cars are more complex and, while the same principal still exists, modern automobiles have more capabilities than the original models.
As part of the refinement process, IBM is trying to make its ThinkPad notebooks more effective for road warriors and desk-bound workers alike. To wit, it showed me two prototypes that came from different angles: One was a notebook designed to offer more of what users expect from a desktop, the other started as a desktop design with an eye toward mobility.
I'll spare you the 15 minutes they spent talking about the keyboard and TrackPoint because, well, it's just not that all interesting. And, I'm reasonably certain that most people do not base high-volume corporate purchasing decisions on either.
The first model was built on the ThinkPad T40 base, but is a bit thicker. To more closely resemble a desktop scenario, IBM enabled the screen to be raised, and to pop forward and closer to the user. Picture a flat panel monitor attached to the notebook. The keyboard, meanwhile, slides out and down closer to the surface on which the system is resting. Naturally, this system can also be used without raising the monitor, exactly like a traditional laptop.
Hill said that in IBM's Research Triangle Park labs they have real airplane seats that recline, and testing showed that even if the passenger in front of you puts his seat all the way back, you can still reach the keyboard and actually see the monitor. I know I cannot do that with the ThinkPad I am using to write this.
The second prototype is noticeably thicker, heftier, and the screen has more flexibility when it is raised. The keyboard is the biggest difference, though. It can be removed from the system to operate wirelessly.
Again, the automobile analogy. "These are like concept cars. We're exploring the user reactions," Hill said. And he declined to provide any timeframe that IBM hopes to deliver the new form factor.
Hill was careful to point out that the design to eventually reach market may be somewhere in between these two prototypes.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on September 16, 2003 01:50 PM
September 12, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Vignette plans business process engine
At the Seybold show this week in San Francisco I caught up with content management vendor Vignette, and learned a little about their upcoming product direction. Vignette has been on a mission to broaden out from its roots in traditional Web CM, and in the process has assembled content, portal, integration, process workflow, analysis, and collaboration tools as part of its Vignette V7 platform.
Because content creation and delivery involves such a wide spread of tools, the company plans to deliver a business process integration engine.
Although timing was not discussed, nor whether the functionality would come in the form of new features to Vignette's existing process workflow tools or as a separate product, business process integration clearly will be a focus for the company in the coming months, according to Vignette vice president Leif Pedersen.
"The next step is making sure you can manage business process across all those pieces of software," Pedersen said. "This is more complex than traditional CM workflow."
Robert Perry, director of product marketing, explained why process integration tools should be tightly coupled with CM.
"Business process starts with content or uses content. Many applications require information from repositories, and content is the source of or an important part of what we move through the process," Perry said.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on September 12, 2003 04:26 PM
September 12, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Sun Microsystems will next week announce the new names of its desktop software bundle Project Mad Hatter, and its Project Orion infrastructure stack, a PR rep told me this afternoon. Of course, he didn't actually disclose the names because that, together with official confirmation of pricing details, will mostly likely be the only two components of "real news" left to discuss at the SunNetwork show that kicks off Tuesday.
Sun's been leaking like a sieve with regards to "Project" news. Executives have selectively disclosed nuggets of information to various publications over the past two weeks - most of it previously reported. What bugs me about Sun PR in this case is an apparent lack of coordination.
Anyway, the latest nugget I bring to the table is the components of Orion that will NOT be included in this Tuesday's announcements. Missing from the first release will be a high availability app server, mobile access products, grid software, and peer-to-peer capabilities. Sun told me this week that Project Orion (or whatever it's called next week, it doesn't matter) will ultimately be comprised of up to 100 different products. No wonder they're selling the "Project" as a bundle. Enterprise technology buyers are loathe to contemplate that many SKUs.
Posted by Mark Jones on September 12, 2003 03:31 PM
September 11, 2003 | Comments: (0)
As I mentioned in my last post I had lunch today with the peeps over at RLX Technologies. They are on a press tour and are making some announcements on Monday. I can't go into that yet, but I can tell you this- I think Sun Microsystems should acquire RLX. Please indulge me and my not-so-well-thought-out logic.
RLX is on its fifth generation of blade servers and is very competent at making entry-level blades. Sun, of course, is an expert in making high-end single symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) servers. Sun is losing share to these 1U servers and are spread too thin trying to appease both group of customers. With RLX they could meet the low-end market needs and still develop its high-end line.
I even asked RLX CEO Doug Erwin about the idea. He didn't think it was the worse idea ever. He even mentioned a price, but I'm not sure if he was joking or not... so I won't mention it.
Sun needs to do something, right?
Posted by Scott Tyler Shafer on September 11, 2003 02:33 PM
September 11, 2003 | Comments: (0)
On Monday, Bob McMillan of IDG News Service and I went to OracleWorld to catch Michael Dell's keynote. Bob was covering it for news and I was there looking for some additional quotes on a forthcoming Dell story that I just put to bed. Anyhow, after the keynote ended Bob and I immediately started to discuss what Dell has said about a standard blade architecture. From there Bob and my other colleague Ephraim Schwartz wrote up a story about Intel and others seeking to establish exactly that- a standard form factor for blades.
Let's stop right here. Michael Dell is brilliant. He totally threw that out there at a major conference with one goal- to get the press to bite. And bite we did.
Dell likely has little interest in funding or working with others to create a standard blade architecture. All he wanted to do was stir up the pot and stir it up he did. He single-handedly got a slew of reporters on the phone pressing HP, IBM, Sun and others about a standard architecture. Why? Because he wants his competitors to do all the work in standardizing blades so Dell can then undercut them in pricing once the architecture is standardized. You see, in July, Dell all but got out of the blade market, because it was too hard to sell one and they were not cheap enough to build. Oh and as Dell suggested, the demand for them wasn't there.
This all dawned on me at lunch with the folks from RLX Technologies. Bob Van Steenberg, CTO at RLX, said that when he worked as general manager at Dell (under Dell himself) he was often told not to worry about certain things, but instead wait for the company's competitors to sort things out and then jump on it. RLX was certainly not knocking Dell, but it was good insight to how deep the Dell philosophies run.
It will be interesting to see what develops in the form of a group to standardize blade architectures. Michael Dell knows best - you can't have a commodity market before you have standards.
Posted by Scott Tyler Shafer on September 11, 2003 02:00 PM
September 10, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Show's over for today but party continues
Last report on OracleWorld for the day from Ephraim:
Oracle PR said tonight's "Grid Nirvana" party at Pier 48, featuring Kinky, Train, and Violent Femmes will go ahead as scheduled.
Finally, Google has this roundup of OracleWorld bomb scare related stories.
A reminder that the show will continue Thursday as previously scheduled.
Posted by Mark Jones on September 10, 2003 04:34 PM
September 10, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Ephraim just got off the phone from an SFPD spokesperson, and rang through this report that he said has not yet been communicated to mainstream media.
A bomb threat was called in at 1:20pm. No group identified themselves as being responsible. The police are still searching. Approximately 11,000 people had to be evacuated from the Moscone Center. Nobody got hurt.
As an aside, it's interesting to note that the Police estimated OracleWorld attendance at 11,000 people, while Oracle PR told us 20,000.
An Oracle spokesperson will be holding an informal press conference at the Sheraton Palace Hotel shortly, Ephraim said.
In other news, Oracle has rescheduled database guru Ken Jacobs' interrupted keynote to 11am tomorrow. The show will remain closed for the remainder of today.
Another thought in passing -- if Wi-Fi was more readily available in public areas I would not be Ephraim or Paul's proxy-blogger.
Posted by Mark Jones on September 10, 2003 04:14 PM
September 10, 2003 | Comments: (0)
OracleWorld bomb threat confirmed
Paul Krill is also at the show, and reports that Oracle PR's people have confirmed San Francisco's Moscone Center was evacuated because of a bomb threat.
The show's organizers are hoping open the doors for the 20,000 attendees again at 4pm, he said.
Meanwhile, Ephraim reports that with Howard Street blocked, the streets around the Moscone Center are jammed. TV crews and a helicopter have also joined the Police and Fire Department at the scene.
Almost two years to the day after 9/11, Ephraim said the attendees he has talked to have "zero concern" about the bomb threat. "Everyone's talking about grid computing."
Posted by Mark Jones on September 10, 2003 03:41 PM
September 10, 2003 | Comments: (0)
The OracleWorld show has stopped in its tracks. Our Editor-at-Large Ephraim Schwartz is at the scene and just phoned through this report to me:
They are evacuating the building and there are dozens of police here. Chuck Philips was talking to the police very seriously about the situation. The first wave of the police went down the steps while people were still filing into the keynote. Next they decided it had to stop, and the announcement was made: 'Folks we are evacuating the building.'
Ephraim suspects it could be a bomb threat, but Oracle has not confirmed that suggestion.
Posted by Mark Jones on September 10, 2003 02:42 PM
September 10, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Looking to make inroads in the Chinese marketplace, IBM on Wednesday launched its IBM DB2 Linux Mobilization Program, to accelerate use of the DB2 database in that country.
The company also has forged a partnership with Chinese Linux vendor Red Flag Software to promote Linux-based DB2 information management solutions in China. The first deliverable from this collaboration will be the bundling of DB2 Express, which is a version of the database built for smaller companies, with Red Flag's Linux for use at small and midsized companies in China.
IBM and China already operate a Linux Solution Cooperation Center, to help customers make their programs available for Linux. Additionally, the 150 Linux developers at the center also provide training for Linux professionals in China.
Posted by Paul Krill on September 10, 2003 02:32 PM
September 10, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Apple's cheap supercomputing foray
BusinessWeek reports that Virginia Tech is building a supercomputer comprised of 1100 new 64-bit G5's. Surprisingly, Apple's 'low cost' was a determining factor, as Business Week writes:
What attracted them was the G5's unique architecture. It uses dual processors to reach processing speeds up to 2 gigahertz. Virginia Tech scientists didn't care whether that was the fastest to date -- it was plenty fast for their purposes. They figured that if they strapped 1,100 G5s together, they could amass enough computing muscle to handle the massive calculations necessary for nanosecond electronics and computational chemistry. In short, they would have a world-class supercomputer.
And they would have it for chicken feed, relatively speaking. The Mac cluster will cost no more than $5.2 million, which is "quite modest," according to Tech officials. To save more money, the university is recruiting students to help set up 19.25 tons of computers, routers, and other equipment.
It's a huge win for Apple's enterprise ambitions, and further validates InfoWorld's assertion since 2002 that Apple's become a true enterprise player. And in case you missed it, Tom Yager recently wrote a cover story on Apple in the enterprise.
Posted by Mark Jones on September 10, 2003 02:24 PM
September 10, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Come fall in Las Vegas, Comdex will be a purely business-to-business show.
I just got off the phone with a representative from Comdex, and it was actually interesting. Apparently, the folks behind Comdex are honing the conference to make it more attractive -- and more navigable -- for prospective attendees and exhibitors.
Comdex is hoping to put on a new countenance this year and, in so doing, is shedding its consumer slant to wear a business-to-business face.
The move should come as no surprise, really, given how the confer-ence has struggled in the last few years.
The new Comdex will be divided into 7 enterprise units: Wireless and mobility, Web services, open source, Windows and .Net, On Demand Computing, security, and the digital enterprise. The last in that list is broad category that includes technologies such as business intelligence, storage management, outsourcing and IP telephony.
All that said, I still have to remain skeptical about just how much buzz this year's Comdex will generate, particularly given the sour economy. But next week at PC Expo, errr, TechXNY, I'll be speaking with the GM of Comdex, so if I learn anything else I'll be back here to let you know.
Either way, check back here for posts from TechXNY.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on September 10, 2003 08:34 AM
September 09, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Intel CEO keynote leave some listeners wondering
Craig Barrett, Intel CEO, took his turn at bat on Tuesday afternoon at the Oracle World conference in San Francisco. Barrett is part of a star-studded show that also includes keynotes by Dell's Michael Dell, Sun's Scott McNealy, and Hewlett Packard's Carly Fiorina
Barrett's address to a huge audience of Oracle customers had two distinct messages, with only a thin thread tying them together.
Message one from Barrett was that the United States lacks a "coherent plan" for the digitization of business. And failing that, the United States and Europe will lose its competitive edge to Asia, particularly India and China.
If the audience, consisting of Oracle customers from around the world, were in anyway disturbed by that message there was no way to tell.
Barrett ticked off the four components for success in the world economy: an IT infrastructure, big R&D budgets, creativity, and an educated work force.
Barrett then went on to say that in each of those four areas China and India are making huge strides. He said that if Taiwan with only a population of 25 million on a small island had a huge impact on the world economy, imagine what will happen when China and India start to make gains in educating its population, building a brand new IT infrastructure, and rewarding creativity. At the same time, Barrett noted that the governments of these countries are behind a growing budget for research and development.
Barrett concluded this portion of his speech by saying that with the economy in the doldrums IT will have to do more with less or "suffer the consequences" of world competition.
The second message left some in the audience scratching their heads. The theme of the message was "IT counts." Barrett juxtaposed the argument for his message against the recent Harvard Business Review article that said IT does not count.
Barrett went on for about a half hour telling the audience consisting of IT experts why IT counts. One audience member was heard distinctly by those around him when he moaned and said, "next he's going to tell us why water counts."
And indeed, the message seemed unusual in the setting of a major high tech conference.
Linking these two messages was the thought that if the United States and Europe behave as if IT doesn't count the rest of the world will have their way with us.
Perhaps there was a hidden message, however. Barrett never said technology counts, or high tech counts, he stayed strictly with the phrase IT counts. The message to the faithful was possibly that IT must play a key role in the process of developing business strategies for their companies--not a particularly new message-- and IT should not be delegated to the backroom along with the HVAC units.
If this was indeed the message it would have been better delivered in a more direct manner, in this reporter's opinion.
Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on September 9, 2003 04:34 PM
September 09, 2003 | Comments: (0)
It's a ZOO down at San Francisco's Moscone Center. The keynotes are packed, and there are more national and international media packed into press conferences than I have seen in some time. A sign of better times ahead? I hope so.
Btw, don't forget to check out our OracleWorld special report for breaking news from the show.
Posted by Mark Jones on September 9, 2003 01:53 PM
September 09, 2003 | Comments: (0)
McNealy's a 'gift wrapped' software kinda guy
Scott McNealy showed off more of his slightly irreverent comical style today at OracleWorld. Standing on Oracle's stage he quipped of Sun's early investment in Oracle: "I wish they hadn't sold me the Oracle software."
It seems these days he'd rather rely on hosted -- or "gift wrapped" -- software than have his people work on "5000 mods to get into the Oracle software." Sure, we understand that simplified application integration would save IT folks a lot of money. That story is called Web services.
Anyway, there was another quote that stood out during McNealy's keynote. Startups have the luxury of avoiding today's bloated application suites. "Can you imagine building the company around the software, not building the software around the business processes?" It's the old chicken and the egg situation: people first or software first? McNealy's answer to that open question filled the keynote hall with nervous laughter: "I happen to believe people are a lot easier to replace than software." Spoken like a true hardware, err.. sorry, "systems" guy.
Posted by Mark Jones on September 9, 2003 01:51 PM
September 08, 2003 | Comments: (0)
In covering Oracle World at the Moscone center in San Francisco, Oracle
promised WiFi just about everywhere. It was in the press room for sure, but despite the password and SSID they gave out to get into the Oracle Wifi network I could not log on. But my trusty Verizon/Sierra Wireless Air Card 555 saved the day.
Sure it was slower, I was getting about 90Kbps, but there was no delay in instant messaging and accessing email took about 10 seconds longer than IEEE 802.11b. Big deal.
The 1XRT wireless data card never went down, and I got access anywhere at the Moscone center, not just in one of Oracle's Hot Spot rooms.
Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on September 8, 2003 03:39 PM
September 08, 2003 | Comments: (0)
PHP development moves to the enterprise
Zend Technologies on Monday is announcing Zend Studio 3.0, an integrated development environment for Web developers building enterprise applications in the open source PHP scripting language as well as in JavaScript and HTML.
PHP has been gaining momentum in the enterprise, according to officials at Zend, in Ramat Gan, Israel. The new version of Zend "brings enterprise development [tools] to the PHP community," said Zev Zerasky, CTO at Zend and co-inventor of PHP.
Version 3.0 features support for PHP 5, faster performance, an expert-level debugger and project management tools for developing Web applications and deploying and maintaining PHP applications, Zend said. Remote debugging in Zend Studio enables testing of code changes prior to deployment.
The upcoming PHP 5 release offers advanced editing, debugging and analysis of PHP applications, according to Zend.
Shipping now, Zend Studio 3.0 enables developers to simplify develop and maintenance of applications. Pricing starts at $195.
Posted by Paul Krill on September 8, 2003 12:45 PM
September 05, 2003 | Comments: (0)
TechDirt asks in response to yesterday's post: "When Did I Become The Bandleader For RSS Backlash?"
I'm not trying to lead RSS backlash - I'm trying to figure out why there's so much hype about the standard, when so little has been done to market what it's useful for.
I couldn't agree more, and appreciate the clarification. If any clarification is needed on my part, it's that perhaps we could call the sentiment an RSS hype backlash. Bashing RSS itself makes no sense given that every technology goes through the Gartner hype cycle. It's a bit like html: we don't get excited about html itself anymore, rather focus on the web it spawned.
And on an amusing note, Phil Wolff is busy blogging about the "blogging backlash," which is pretty funny in an Onion-humor kind of way. Anyway, he read my post and emailed me a link to his "Don't blog: Headlines from the future" PowerPoint slide. I'm glad someone isn't letting the blog world take itself too seriously. :)
Posted by Mark Jones on September 5, 2003 04:52 PM
September 05, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Lycos e-mail outage is STILL going on?!
Are you kidding me? In our high-tech world with a mobile phone on every ear, instant messaging in the classroom, and Wi-Fi hotspots in McDonalds, you can't even get your e-mail at your desktop computer? Lycos' free Web mail and "Plus" services with extra storage have been unavailable to its users since Tuesday. I have two Lycos mail using friends who have since opened Yahoo accounts, because what is the point of having an e-mail account if you can't send or receive messages from it.
Apparently, according to my friend (now a recovering Lycos mail customer), Lycos users were warned Tuesday about temporary downtime due to maintenance. But something went amiss and now the company has fingers crossed that the service will be up by end of Friday. Something to do with the latest and greatest SoBig virus variant I could muster some compassion for. Maybe.
Although Lycos' U.S. presence has already been waning, and they have some solace to be found in their Spanish parent Terra Lycos, as far as technological credibility goes I think we can wave Lycos bye-bye. Really. E-mail is supposed to be the simple stuff. Even my Dad is on e-mail. But then again he's not using Lycos.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on September 5, 2003 01:38 PM
September 05, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Some media industry shop talk: Google might have the largest mindshare of any search site, but that has not (yet?) translated into dominance in the news world. CyberJournalist reports Google News gets 3.4 million hits a month, leaving it just outside the list of Top 20 global news sites.
Posted by Mark Jones on September 5, 2003 09:59 AM
September 04, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Surprise! Oracle's extended the deadline for it's PeopleSoft common stock tender offer. No one saw that one coming... again...
Posted by Mark Jones on September 4, 2003 05:36 PM
September 04, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Inside baseball: the RSS backlash
For those of you without an RSS newsreader, let me give you an insight into a somewhat disjointed discussion that I've been watching unfold in the blog world for a while. If this discussion were to have a theme, I'd call it the weblog/RSS backlash.
The latest chapter unfolded today when Docs Searls quoted from a Business 2.0 article, which reads in part:
Even the often interesting and provocative postings from top-tier bloggers like Dan Gillmor, Dave Winer, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger are endlessly self-referential. They're all quoting one another, sending readers in a circle. It's like a revolving door with no escape. And so much of the talk is inside baseball: "RSS," "Daypop," "Technorati," "Blogdex," and "Link Cosmos" mean nothing to those not steeped in blog culture. The medium itself is still the main topic of conversation. Boring. No wonder so few people read blogs.
Blogging may be fun, daring, comical, and a lot of other wonderful things, but, except in the rarest of cases, it's not essential to business.
I can appreciate the sentiment here, because like it or not, the world of blogging IS a thriving sub-culture with its own class system. And that's not a bad thing. It's just that like-minded people naturally hang out together. Anyway, Doc's response in part was to note that "the number of business blogs already verges on the countless." Agreed. Microsoft is a notable example that has a truckload of bloggers.
Which leads me to my next link in the chain. Former InfoWorld-er Steve Gillmor responded to a post by Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble about the former's passion for all things RSS. Gillmor's response included quotes from Gillmor readers:
First was Dare Obasanjo: I read his blog. He isn't kidding, all he writes about is RSS and how it is the second coming. I haven't such hyping since the dot bomb days. As you can see from previous posts, particularly Private Life II, I've been on this jones since well before the .bomb days.
Gillmor goes on to conclude: RSS saves us time, it's not hype. It's hope.
The argument in blog world goes that without RSS, it would be virtually impossible to keep track of the multiple discussion threads that wend their way through thousands of blogs and news channels. I agree. RSS is an XML-based technology that allows people with newsreaders to opt-in to their information channels of choice. Why spend your time trawling web sites? So because I use and understand this stuff, I think it's cool.
But not everyone's so excited. Here's where we get to my last link. Techdirt posted an interesting comment the other day, reflecting what I think are the feelings of anyone who doesn't understand RSS baseball:
I think RSS has a marketing problem. It is still terribly confusing for most people - and most publicity efforts so far do more to confuse rather than help. First of all, I don't care what the hell RSS stands for, but having an acronym be the focus is confusing (and scary) to your average user.
RSS-based news aggregators might not yet be ready to replace email, as that article argues. But integration of RSS and email is definitely on the immediate horizon. For example (and excuse the plug), InfoWorld's parent company IDG recently signed a deal with NewsGator to include our news feeds in its newsreader. (Press release is here).
The interesting thing about NewsGator is its integration with Microsoft Outlook. The fact is that your average Joe Shmoe executive does not want to stuff around setting up web-based or client-side newsreaders. And there are plenty of these to choose from btw.
He/she does however need to consume a number of news channels from major media outlets through to favorite bloggers. And while I'm not endorsing NewsGator, the idea of RSS/email integration must be compelling from a user's perspective because it's simple, and you don't have to leave your existing messaging environment.
It's also interesting from an enterprise perspective because I can imagine the day when RSS-powered email clients are included in the software image on your machine. In fact, I wouldn't be too surprised if the likes of Microsoft and IBM Lotus are not far away from including RSS newsreaders in their email clients. It's a must-have feature.
When it's all said and done, I think of RSS as an enabler that's wrapped into such things as newsreaders or next generation email clients. Getting angry about RSS, blogs, or the people who are most visibly leveraging them misses the point. These are early days in the evolution of RSS-powered software. If you want to ignore the inside baseball discussions, simply opt-out of reading RSS related blogs - that's how it's supposed to work.
Posted by Mark Jones on September 4, 2003 05:00 PM
September 04, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Calling all PR and marking folks: The buzz here at InfoWorld is that we've extended the deadline for InfoWorld 100 nominations until Sept. 15th, at 5 p.m. I'm told no extensions will be granted after that time.
It's always interesting to see (and in my case, help select) what IT projects rise to the top in this annual award. The InfoWorld 100 is a leading indicator of what emerging technologies are gaining traction. A case in point: last year's winner was University of Pennsylvania's grid computing project. A year later and we're seeing more tangible evidence that enterprises are taking grid computing seriously -- next week's OracleWorld will be packed with grid computing talk, as this keynote lineup suggests. And while I'm on a roll, another proof point is news today from The Register about HP's grid-oriented consulting services.
Don't be shy - post your nomination here.
Posted by Mark Jones on September 4, 2003 01:15 PM
September 03, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Plumtree embraces portal standards
Plumtree Software today rolled out support for the new portlet standards WSRP (Web Services for Remote Portlets) and JSR 168. Versions 4.5, 4.5WS, and 5.0 of the Plumtree Corporate Portal now support the standards, which are being finalized this month. WSRP taps Web services to pull remote content and applications into portals, while JSR 168 aims to create a Java-based standard portlet API.
Other portal vendors such as Sun, IBM, BEA, and Vignette have shown support or announced plans to support the standards as well.
Most observers agree that the main impact of WSRP and JSR 168 will be increased variety of content and applications available in portals and a lessening of vendor lock in, which emerged as an issue when large infrastructure vendors entered the once niche market for corporate portals.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on September 3, 2003 04:56 PM
September 03, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Sun Microsystems is seriously considering joining the IBM-led Eclipse open source tools initiative, a Sun representative acknowledged on Wednesday.
The company does not see Eclipse as competitive to Sun's own efforts. "It's actually beneficial in many ways to the larger Java community," providing plug-ins for ease of use, the representative said. However, Sun remains fully committed to its NetBeans open source program for Java. Oracle in 2002 proposed a single API for access to IDEs for both NetBeans and Eclipse camps.
The Eclipse consortium is meeting Wednesday, but Sun as of yet had not made a decision on whether to join, according to Sun's representative.
Also, Sun at the SunNetwork conference in San Francisco in mid-September plans to reveal its developer strategy for its Project Orion platform. Project Orion is Sun's plan to bundle its various software products with its Solaris operating system. The package will include infrastructure products such as the Sun ONE (Open Net Environment) Web Server, Application Server and server management products.
Posted by Paul Krill on September 3, 2003 02:41 PM
September 03, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Altova this week announced availability of its Altova 2004 XML development tools line, for building XML and Web services applications.
The product line consists of: the XMLspy 2004 XML development environment, the Authentic 2004 XML document authoring tool, the Stylevision 2004 tool for designing XML-based Web sites, and Mapforce 2004, a visual data mapping tool with code generation capabilities for XML and database integration projects.
MapForce supports relational databases such as Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle9i, via Oracle Call Interface (OCI). XSLT (XSL Transformations) and Java code generation also are supported.
Posted by Paul Krill on September 3, 2003 01:39 PM
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