- Tiger release from Apple drives crowds wild
- Apple sets Tiger OS loose
- Might there be an SP3 before Longhorn?
- Beware of typos regarding Google
- SGI gets supercomputing contract from military
- Gates calls for unrestricted use of H-1B visas
- Eliot Spitzer sues Intermix Media in spyware-related case
- Care and feeding of blogs
- "The New Normal"
- Nokia unveils Nseries phones with cameras, music
April 30, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Tiger release from Apple drives crowds wild
The release of an Apple OS is always an event, but the debut of the Tiger upgrade to the Mac X Friday night brought out the wild side of hundreds of users who lined up at Apple retail stores throughout the country, some capturing the spirit in animal oufits.
At the official opening time of 6 p.m. in San Francisco, the line outside an Apple Store snaked up Stockton Street wrapping around to O'Farrell, wrote Mac-world's Channing Joseph, with a contribution from Philip Michaels.
Ten minutes before the store opened its doors, more than 200 people were lined up, waiting to get their hands on Tiger and its promised 200 features and enhancements, Joesph wrote. First-in-line honors went to Mario Ortiz, who showed up at the Apple Store two hours before the Tiger event. Ortiz, from San Francisco, had ordered a copy of OS X 10.4 from Amazon.com, but the software hadn't arrived yet; he decided to come down to the San Francisco store to get his hands on a copy.
"I've pretty much been an Apple fan for a while," said Ortiz, adding that he makes it a habit to be among the first adapters of Mac operating systems. "I want to keep up the tradition."
Right behind Ortiz was San Franciscan David Dellinger, who came to the Apple Store even though he planned to wait a week or two before installing Tiger to "let the dust settle," according to Macworld.
"I had never come to a launch event before," said Dellinger, who was eager to try out the latest version of iChat AV. "Hands down, the quality (of iChat's video )is so much better than what's out there."
In New York, hundreds of Mac users in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan stood patiently in line and watched a man in a cat suit dance to the tune of "Eye of the Tiger," promoting the debut of Apple's new operating system.
Costumes weren't just restricted to customers, Macworld reported. At the San Francisco Apple Store, employee Nikki Bongard donned a set of ears and pair of Tiger-stripped sleeves to help greet patrons. "You've got to get into the spirit," she said.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on April 30, 2005 01:06 AM
April 29, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Tiger, the latest Mac OS upgrade from Apple Computer, is hitting the stands to applause from analysts who cite its integrated search engine and a batch of ease-of-use features.
Version 10.4 of OS X has more than 200 new features and innovations including Spotlight, its desktop file search technology; Dashboard, a new system that uses what Apple calls widgets to access functions such as stock quotes; and enhanced functionality for iChat.
Apple said Tiger as to go on sale Friday evening at participating Apple Authorized Resellers and Apple retail stores worldwide. "All 105 Apple retail stores will host "Tiger World Premiere" events from 6:00 p.m. to midnight offering workshops and hands-on demonstrations of Tiger's hottest features, plus giveaways at every store including a chance to win a PowerBook G4, iPod and more," Apple said in a statement.
Enhancements to Tiger include 64-bit application support, access control lists, portable home directories and new services, such as Weblog Server and Software Update Server.
Tiger received warm reviews. "It's a very attractive OS," said Rob Enderle, president and founder of The Enderle Group. He cited Spotlight and its ability to enable creation of "Smart Folders" using search to access documents and create files.
Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, endorsed Tiger in enthusiastic terms earlier this month.
"Seeing it up close and personal yesterday made it clear to me that Apple is light years ahead of Microsoft when it comes to developing PC operating systems," Bajarin said.
He also particularly praised Spotlight.
"This search engine is integrated into the new OS and does an amazing job of not only finding any file, image or even video file, but then groups them accordingly," he said. "As you type in the search term, files come up instantly that have the referenced tag attached to them and as you focus the search around the actual question or term you want, the files it finds are then grouped ac-cordingly. So, all text files with that searched term in it is at the top, followed by email files, image files and video files that include the search term. I have tested five desktop search programs in the last year and Spotlight by far the best of anything out there for searching and organizing search related content."
Tiger's new version of iChat supports up to 10 people for audio and video conferencing. "The way they allow a user to see the other video conference participants are really innovative," Bajarin said. "It literally allows you to view the others in a 3D-like environment where each person in the conference is framed as if they were sitting right in front of you at three different angles."
Posted by Jack McCarthy on April 29, 2005 01:51 PM
April 29, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Might there be an SP3 before Longhorn?
While researching another post this morning, I landed on security vendor F-Secure's blog, News from the Viruslab. Today's entry says that while speaking at National Security Day Sweden, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer dropped some hints about future service packs and what Microsoft is adding into the next version of Internet Explorer.
Here are F-Secure's exact words:
Mr. Ballmer made some interesting remarks: Microsoft might indeed ship SP3 for Windows XP before Longhorn comes out. Also, upcoming version 7 of Internet Explorer should have anti-phishing technology built-in.
The pending Internet Explorer 7 will feature support for Cascading Style Sheets and PNG graphics as well.
Stateside, Microsoft officials said that a public beta version of Windows Server 2003 R2 will be available within the next two weeks. R2 is an interim release of Windows Server 2003 that carries some of the feature packs Microsoft has created since the previous release, and is slated to ship in the fourth quarter of 2005.
While in Europe, Ballmer also paid a visit to the EU's anti-trust chief.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 29, 2005 09:27 AM
April 29, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Beware of typos regarding Google
Google is grabbing headlines this morning, but a word of caution: don't mistype the word Google into a URL bar, lest you'll come face-to-face with a Trojan mine.
The planted attacks, for typing certain words such as 'googkle,' launch several pop-ups that redirect unsuspecting visitors to pages that download executable scripts onto the user's machine. The Trojan then infects the Windows System folder and blocks connections to anti-virus Web sites.
On the RSS front, reports and blog posts are circulating that Google is now testing AdSense within RSS.
Google competitor Yahoo, meanwhile, posted a beta of its My Web service, adding personal search and collaboration to its array of end-user tools. Search memory is the latest skirmish in the ongoing battle for the loyalty of Web surfers being fought by not only Google and Yahoo, but also Microsoft.
Scarlet Pruitt of the IDG News Service takes a close look at how Microsoft is weaving features for finding desktop files into the Longhorn OS currently in development. The story, Longhorn organizes against Google, says that Microsoft will not knit together desktop and Internet search in Longhorn -- something of a surprise since the Redmond giant last December made its desktop search tool available to beta testers.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 29, 2005 08:13 AM
April 28, 2005 | Comments: (0)
SGI gets supercomputing contract from military
A new Silicon Graphics supercomputer has been installed at the Aeronautical Systems Center's (ASC) Major Shared Resource Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
The installation is pretty top of the line. It consists of a 2,048-processor SGI Altix supercomputer, with each node consisting of a 1.6 GHz Intel Itanium 2 processor. The supercomputer also includes a 4 gigabit storage infrastructure configured from the SilkWorm 4100 family of 4-Gbit/sec midrange SAN switches, from Brocade Communications. Speed should not be a problem.
According to Maria Zimmer, ASC MSRC's Applications Management Branch chief, the new system will be used for a variety of purposes. "We'll be using it for advanced design concepts, military simulations, weather simulation, weapon system design and for any project that has large data requirements," she said. Military contractors will also use the system when working on projects for the military.
Posted by Bob Francis on April 28, 2005 12:11 PM
April 28, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Gates calls for unrestricted use of H-1B visas
The news that Microsoft's Bill Gates put eliminating all quotas for H-1B visas on his wish list should come as no surprise.
Here's part of what he had to say during a panel discussion about ways to spur U.S. innovation and compete with other nations, in Washington, D.C.
"The whole idea behind the H1-B thing is, 'Don't let too many smart people come into the country,'" Gates said. "The thing basically doesn't make sense. That's just wounding ourselves in this global competition."
This issue pits and divides employers and employees like no other in recent memory.
To get the other side of the argument, I interviewed an immigration lawyer who basically represented the employer side,
Norm Matloff, professor of computer science at UC Davis .
The big corporations appear to speak with one, shall we say scripted, voice?
Gates is in a long line of executives bashing the American education system on a number of fronts.
One, he claims we are not graduating enough math and science majors and two, the graduates aren't as good as those educated in other countries.
Gates claimed there are not enough skilled programming people here and so he needs to hire foreign nationals.
If that is the case, why did Phillip Bond, undersecretary for technology at the U.S. Department of Commerce, who was on the same panel as Gates say that the H1-B debate is complicated because U.S. engineers currently have a larger unemployment rate than the rest of the U.S. population?
I called Matloff again to see what he thought about Gates' comments. Here's a piece of what he said.
"The lobbyists point out that China graduates five or six times as many engineers per year as we do. What they are not telling you is that most of them don't get work as engineers. They get work as technicians, plant managers, building inspectors, and so on," Matloff told me.
As to the argument that American's aren't as well educated in math and science, here's another observation from Professor Matloff.
"Test scores in places like Iowa, which don't have a large underclass to deal with, are fine. And the two countries said to be our biggest competitors, India and China, refuse to participate in those international tests. India, for instance, still has an illiteracy rate of 50 percent."
Matloff claims what this is really about is hiring cheap labor. Despite the laws that say you must have parity, there are ways to get around it. See my second column on H-1B visas for more on that.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on April 28, 2005 09:59 AM
April 28, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Eliot Spitzer sues Intermix Media in spyware-related case
If anyone can bring down a company that's up to no good, it's New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. In a suit filed this morning in New York City, the fierce Spitzer alleges that Intermix Media installed spyware and adware onto unsuspecting PCs, and then plagued users with annoying pop-ups that inhibit productivity.
Spitzer is quoted in The New York Times article:
Spyware and adware are more than an annoyance. These fraudulent programs foul machines, undermine productivity and in many cases frustrate consumers' efforts to remove them from their computers. These issues can serve to be a hindrance to the growth of e-commerce.
Spitzer has successfully gone after Wall Street and the insurance industry and recently has been taking a harder look at Internet companies, the story said.
Spitzer, by the by, also has his own blog: Spitzer 2006. He is using the blog and RSS as tools in his gubernatorial campaign. The link I provided is just a link, and neither advocates nor opposes Spitzer's bid.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 28, 2005 09:37 AM
April 28, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Companies ought to encourage blogging, but having policies on blogging is advisable, according to a presentation at the Software 2005 conference on Wednesday afternoon.
Noting that vendors such as Sun Microsystems and Microsoft have embraced blogging, presenter David Sifry, founder and CEO of Technorati, said employees should not only be able to blog but that they should be autonomous and not subject to PR agency screening.
"We all know corporate speak," Sifry said.
He did acknowledge, though, that some companies may have concerns about violating SEC laws pertaining to public company disclosures. A Delta Airlines employee, for one, was fired for a blog, Sifry noted.
Therefore, a corporate blogging policy may be in order. A basic policy can include:
* A requirement that the blogger use his or her real name.
* A disclaimer that says the blogger does not necessarily speak for the company.
* A confidentiality and privacy statement so that the blogger does not violate any non-disclosure agreements.
* A policy on the use of obscenity, tone, and slander.
* Certification that employees will not violate any copyrights.
* A disclaimer pertaining to corporate risk.
Blogging works well at companies that have a culture of trust rather than a culture of fear, said Sifry. Blogging can serve to evangelize, he said.
Asked about money-making possibilities pertaining to blogs, Sifry was a little short on details. He did say software companies can sell blogging software and there are ad sale and syndication possibilities for blogs.
The use of RSS provides interested blog readers with information as soon as it is ready, Sifry said. "What happens to trade magazine space when you can talk directly to the person that is interested?" Sifry asked.
Well, I suppose if someone wants to, they can download one-sided, vendor press releases or ads, or catch other material off of a vendor's Web site right now. Trade magazines theoretically serve as a disinterested third-party observer presenting the pro's and con's of a technology or issue. It's not likely that a blog from the technology developer would present this kind of perspective. And do people really want to be pummeled with vendor ads formatted as technology blogs?
The future for blogs should prove interesting.
-- By Paul Krill, from the Software 2005 conference in Santa Clara, Calif.
Posted by Caroline Craig on April 28, 2005 06:33 AM
April 28, 2005 | Comments: (0)
After the turbulent boom times of the 1990s, the current decade has presented a period dubbed "The New Normal," according to Roger McNamee, author of "The New Normal" and a speaker at the Software 2005 conference on Wednesday.
"The reason this is going to be 'The New Normal' is because it's going to be with us for a very long time," said McNamee, who also serves as co-founder and general partner at Elevation Partners, Integration Capital Partners, and Silver Lake Partners. Featured in the so-called "New Normal" is the ubiquity of now-indispensable devices such as cellphones and Blackberrys, he said.
The 90s bull market was boosted by Moore's Law and the fall of the Berlin Wall, which greatly expanded America's ability to sell into new markets, he said. Previously, markets were limited to North America, Western Europe, and some parts of Asia.
For workers who did not lose their jobs in the technology bust period that followed the 1990s, they have had to take on new tasks and do more work with fewer people. This has made these employees more indispensable and afforded them new, marketable skills, according to McNamee.
"As the economy rises, the employees have more leverage," he said.
Now, time management becomes the key to success in "The New Normal," McNamee said. And workers need to prioritize family, career, and bank accounts to be successful, he said.
Lastly, McNamee told the audience life is a constant battle between fear and greed. But fear is transitory, greed permanent, said McNamee, sounding a bit like Gordon Gecko from "Wall Street."
-- By Paul Krill, from the Software 2005 conference in Santa Clara, Calif.
Posted by Caroline Craig on April 28, 2005 06:21 AM
April 27, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Nokia unveils Nseries phones with cameras, music
Nokia on Wednesday launched three new Nseries mobile handsets, hoping users will be seduced by the smart phones' built-in multimedia gadgets, which take print-quality pictures, read e-mail, play music, browse Web sites and display mobile TV.
Nokia is also touting new features such as 3G (third-generation) technology, multigigabyte memory, VHS resolution video, WLAN (wireless LAN) capabilities, megapixel cameras and lens from the German optics maker Carl Zeiss, IDG News Service said.
The new handsets are the N90, N91 and N70. The first of the new phones to hit the market, sometime before the end of June, will be the N90, which is being marketed as Nokia's premier mobile photography handset, though Nokia declined to give a specific launch date. The suggested retail price for the N90 is $909, but a Nokia spokeswoman stressed that prices will depend on local markets and retailers.
The N90 has a multihinge twist-and-shoot design for its 2 megapixel camera, which also offers autofocus and 20x digital zoom as well as integrated flash. It has two screens: the main display has 352 x 416 pixels, while the second screen can shoot video in MP4 format using the display -- 352 x 416 pixels and 262,144 colors -- as a viewfinder, Nokia said.
The N70 is also a 3G smart phone with a 2 megapixel camera, video-calling capabilities, stereo FM radio, a digital music player and new 3D games all in a compact package measuring 108.8 millimeters by 53 mm by 17.5 mm.
Additionally, a variant of the N70 for EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) markets will be available at an unspecified later date.
The N91, which sports the ability to store up to 3,000 songs on the integrated 4G-byte hard disk and plays 12.5 hours of music, will begin shipping in November.
The phones are initially being pitched at the European markets with pricing in euros. However, the tri-band handsets will be offered worldwide, allowing U.S. consumers, for example, to use the phones wherever WCDMA (Wideband Code Di-vision Multiple Access) and GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) networks are available, Nokia said.
The handsets are part of Nokia's answer to criticism that the world's largest handset maker had found itself behind the times when a demand for camera and clamshell phones sparked the market.
Nokia has aggressively sought to make its handsets more appealing to customers, particularly in the U.S. where demand for the clamshell form and cameras has been high.
Nokia hopes that the new range of camera, based on its Series 60 software platform for smart phones and sporting stainless steel finishes and black pearl and silver colors, will continue that trend.
The company also wants to get users hooked on 3G and multimedia. As such it is partnering with companies to boost the appeal of its smart phones and entice users to utilize the Internet connection and audio/video features. On Tuesday, Nokia said that as part of a partnership with Yahoo Inc., it will begin embedding in some of its phones -- the 6680, 6681, 6630 and the N70 -- Yahoo messag-ing, search and Web browsing software. The 6680, 6681 and 6630 are already widely available in Europe and Asia, said Nokia spokeswoman Karoliina Lehmus-virta.
"We'll see the fruits of this partnership initially in Europe but there is great interest by both parties to expand the capabilities to additional handsets and markets, like the U.S.," Lehmusvirta said, "but we have no time tables to announce yet."
The agreement with Yahoo is not exclusive and Nokia is also currently in "discussions with other players, looking into similar partnerships," Lehmusvirta said, adding that she could not name any potential partners.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on April 27, 2005 03:28 PM
April 27, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Gates wants an end to foreign worker visa limits
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said Congress should do away with limits on how many foreign workers technology companies can bring to the U.S. under what's known as the H1-B visa program.
Asked what he would do if he were king for a day and could make any changes to U.S. policy, Gates said he'd eliminate the H1-B program, which sets limits on visas granted to highly skilled foreign workers. Gates participated in a Microsoft-sponsored panel discussion in Washington, D.C., about ways to spur U.S. innovation and compete with other nations, IDG News Service reported.
"The whole idea behind the H1-B thing is, 'Don't let too many smart people come into the country,'" Gates said. "The thing basically doesn't make sense. That's just wounding ourselves in this global competition."
Gates and Richard Rashid, senior vice president for Microsoft Research, both complained that the company cannot find enough qualified computer science appli-cants, and that the H1-B visa limit, which now stands at 65,000 workers per year, has hurt their ability to attract top IT workers.
The U.S. education system is producing fewer math and science graduates than countries like India and China, and top IT workers in those countries and others are more often opting to stay home instead of work at a U.S. company, Gates said.
Gates found little argument to his H1-B stance at the forum, which included two U.S. lawmakers and a university president. Phillip Bond, undersecretary for technology at the U.S. Department of Commerce, noted that the H1-B debate is complicated because U.S. engineers currently have a larger unemployment rate than the rest of the U.S. population.
Bond suggested that companies like Microsoft see more visas as a way to recruit cutting-edge talent, but there are IT workers in the U.S. looking for work.
Gates doesn't encounter a lot of unemployed IT workers, he said. "I think there must be a categorization problem," Gates added. "Anybody who's got some computer science skills is not looking for work."
Some on the panel blamed strict U.S. immigration policies following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for a lack of available IT workers, with Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman saying U.S. universities experienced a 25 percent decline in graduate applications from overseas two years ago and another 5 percent decline this past year.
Bond said the dot-com bust in 2000 may have also scared off potential computer science majors. Gates and Tilghman also focused on the U.S. kindergarten through 12th grade education system as part of the reason fewer U.S. students are inter-ested in science and math compared with students in other nations.
"Dramatic" changes are needed in primary and secondary education, Gates said. But even if he were king for a day, Gates said he wasn't sure what he could do to fix education because states and local school districts control schools more than the federal government does.
Gates and other panelists also called for the U.S. government to increase its spending on research and development. Bond noted that government spending on research and development has increased in the past five years during the admini-stration of President George Bush, and funding for National Science Foundation has increased 26 percent since 2001.
Some of the Bush administration's research funding has gone into programs like the so-called Star Wars nuclear defense shield, said Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat. Bush has pushed for various tax cuts, but more money is needed for research, which is critical to the future of the U.S., Leahy said.
"We are not spending enough for research," Leahy added. "If we can find money for Iraq and find money for other things, we can find money for research."
Most on the panel said they are confident that the U.S. can continue to be the leading technology innovator, but other countries will continue to become more competitive. Asian countries are trying to copy the U.S. higher education system, giving their students home-grown opportunities, Bond said.
"India and China and others are becoming competitive," Bond said. "The United States has this in common with Microsoft: When you're number one, everybody is gunning for you."
Posted by Jack McCarthy on April 27, 2005 02:49 PM
April 27, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Will Apple iPod get stereo Bluetooth headset?
I met with Michael Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG and asked him if he heard anything about enabling iPod with Bluetooth so that you can use a Bluetooth wireless stereo headset.
Foley said everyone is waiting for it but he's heard nothing from Apple.
However, here's the straight skinny on what it would take to add Bluetooth to the iPod.
Number one, since the Bluetooth 2.0 spec is now ratified, which performs at 3Mb per second, stereo headsets are already on to the market.
The cost to Apple of adding a Bluetooth radio to the iPod would be about $2.50 for the iPod and another $2.50 for a headset. That's assuming Apple wanted to offer the wireless headset.
Now, the retailing rule of thumb according to Foley is that the BOM [Bill of Materials] is a 4x increase when it finally hits the store shelves. So, a BOM of $2.50 adds $10.00 to the retail price of an iPod. Perhaps our friends at
Wal-Mart who are getting heavily invovled in music will discount that a bit.
The bigger challenge comes from battery life. An iPod will take about 10 to 15 percent hit on battery life using a Bluetooth chip, according to Foley.
Form factor is another issue. The radio and supporting circuitry is about the size of a thumbnail so Apple should be able to squeeze that in to the box. But they will also need to find room for an internal antenna. If cell phones can do it, iPod can too.
Apple is probably keeping a close eye on Nokia of late who will probably turn out to be their chief rival. My bet is Nokia will have a Bluetooth cell phone and MP3 player with stereo headset very soon. Nokia volumes on camera phones is huge.
In case you did not know, a company called Ten Technology already makes some Bluetooth add products for the iPod.
There's the naviPro eX Wireless Remote Control and naviPlay Bluetooth stereo adapter for iPod to be bundled with HP stereo headphones.
So will Apple do it this year? I have no idea but it would be nice even if they have to use PhotoShop to eliminate all those white wires from around the necks of the models in their ad campaign.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on April 27, 2005 12:12 PM
April 27, 2005 | Comments: (0)
The unauthorized biography of Steve Jobs
Apple is at it again.
The company reportedly removed several books from all 104 of its Apple stores by John Wiley & Sons, the publisher of iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business, an unauthorized biography of the Apple CEO.
Wiley sent a manuscript to Apple and Apple, in turn, demanded that Wiley not publish. When Wiley said it would bring the book to market against Apple's wishes, Apple decided to stop selling other Wiley titles.
Technology Review's David Appell calls Apple's moves to suppress the unauthorized story of Steve Jobs, nothing short of a "dumb move."
Apple is only fueling demand for the book and, in its retaliatory moves against Wiley, actually losing out on money it would make by selling the other books as well.
iCon is scheduled to be available in bookstores within the next six weeks.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 27, 2005 11:41 AM
April 27, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Cisco adds Sipura to bolster VoIP
Just in time for the largest networking show of the year, Networld+Interop (now just Interop), Juniper Networks and Cisco have made large acquisitions.
Juniper Networks yesterday said it plans to acquire Peribit Networks and Redline Networks.
The two acquisitions give Juniper additional products in the network application delivery and performance market.
"Juniper Networks is capitalizing on its leadership position to redefine the networking market," said Scott Kriens, chairman and CEO of Juniper, in a statement. "The addition of application acceleration technologies to Juniper Networks' best-in-class routing and security solutions is a natural extension of our traffic processing strategy. We are raising the bar on what users can and should expect from the network," he said.
Peribit develops WAN optimization appliances to provide increased WAN capacity, faster application performance, prioritized application delivery and system wide visibility of network and application performance. Peribit has over 900 enterprise customers worldwide, according to the company.
Redline designs network solutions that maximize the performance, flexibility and scalability of web-enabled enterprise data centers and public web sites. Redline has over 350 enterprise customers, according to the company.
Cisco, for its part, yesterday announced plans to acquire VoIP vendor Sipura Technology, which it plans to integrate into its Linksys Group division.
Cisco will fork over about $68 million in cash and options for Sipura, which makes analog terminal adapters (ATAs), which allow users to connect conventional phones to a broadband service to use VoIP.
Posted by Bob Francis on April 27, 2005 09:43 AM
April 27, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Firefox hits 10 percent, Netscape flaw found
At least according to one consultancy, Firefox is now the browser of choice for 10 percent of business users. Janco Associates issued a report this week, The Browser Market Share Study, that breaks down the stake claimed by each of the top seven browsers.
Internet Explorer 83.07%
Firefox 10.28%
Mozilla 3.81%
Netscape 0.92%
AOL 0.85%
MSN 0.76%
Opera 0.41%
This morning's news about Netscape was less positive for that browser. Danish security firm Secunia warned of what it called a "highly-critical" vulnerability in the Netscape browser which makes it feasible for attackers to create Web sites that exploit the flaw, execute code on a visitor's PC, and thereby gain access to that system, Scarlet Pruitt of the IDG News Service reported. The buffer overflow is confirmed in Netscape 7.2, has been reported in 6.2.3 and could affect other versions as well.
Opera Software, meanwhile, last week unveiled Opera 8 and armed the browser with security features built to fight phishing.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 27, 2005 07:29 AM
April 26, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Novell ships ZenWorks Asset Management
Filling out its systems management product line, Novell next week will ship ZenWorks Asset Management, a set of integrated tools designed to discover and track hardware and software assets in the enterprise.
Available as an add-on to existing ZenWorks products or as a stand-alone product, ZenWorks Asset Management discovers and reports on devices including desktops, laptops, servers, routers, and switches, as well as software.
Also included is a software compliance component and software usage reporting capabilities. ZenWorks Asset Management is priced at $33 per device or user.
Novell also is cooking up an upgrade to its Open Enterprise Server, which shipped earlier this year at LinuxWorld. We also recently reviewed it.
The new version of OES, code-named Cypress and due in the first half of 2007, will merge a future version of NetWare with Version 10 of the company's Suse Linux Enterprise Server, which is expected to begin shipping in the first half of 2006, according to an IDG News Service story.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on April 26, 2005 05:43 PM
April 26, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Juniper adds to network portfolio
Just in time for the largest networking show of the year, Networld+Interop (now just Interop), Juniper Networks has announced plans to acquire Peribit Networks and Redline Networks.
The two acquisitions give Juniper additional products in the network application delivery and performance market.
"Juniper Networks is capitalizing on its leadership position to redefine the networking market," said Scott Kriens, chairman and CEO of Juniper, in a statement. "The addition of application acceleration technologies to Juniper Networks' best-in-class routing and security solutions is a natural extension of our traffic processing strategy. We are raising the bar on what users can and should expect from the network," he said.
Peribit develops WAN optimization appliances to provide increased WAN capacity, faster application performance, prioritized application delivery and system wide visibility of network and application performance. Peribit has over 900 enterprise customers worldwide, according to the company.
Redline designs network solutions that maximize the performance, flexibility and scalability of web-enabled enterprise data centers and public web sites. Redline has over 350 enterprise customers, according to the company.
Posted by Bob Francis on April 26, 2005 03:32 PM
April 26, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Gates shows off Longhorn features at WinHEC
Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates previewed a range of features from the forthcoming Longhorn operating system at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Seattle, including a new document format called Metro.
While news about the general availability of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and three 64-bit server operating systems garnered the lion's share of attention, the unveiling of Metro marks an important direction for Microsoft.
Metro appears to rival Adobe Systems's PostScript and PDF technologies, IDG News Service said.
The format, based on XML (extensible markup language), will be licensed royalty free and users will be able to open Metro files without a special client. In the demonstration, a Metro file was opened and printed from Internet Explorer, Microsoft's Web browser.
Printers and printer drivers can include support for Metro and deliver better and faster printing results than with today's printing technology, Microsoft said. On stage, a Xerox printer with Metro built in was used to print a sample slide.
The Metro technology is likely to go head-to-head with Adobe's PostScript technology. "It is a potential Adobe killer," said Richard Doherty, research di-rector with The Envisioneering Group in Seaford, New York. "But this is just the first warning shot. Adobe could put something that is even more compelling [on top of] Longhorn."
WinHEC attendees will receive a preview version of Longhorn, intended for hardware makers to develop drivers for the operating system. A first Longhorn beta is due by the end of June and the final version in late 2006, but any date could slip because of issues that may come up during testing, Gates said.
Gates repeated that Longhorn will be a big deal for Microsoft and that it will be pushed into the market by the company's biggest marketing effort yet.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on April 26, 2005 12:29 PM
April 26, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Security is Extreme on high speed networks
Think maintaining a secure network is difficult today? Just wait until you upgrade to 10 GbE switches and watch viruses zip around your network screaming the equivalent of "Nah, nah, nah, betcha can't catch me!"
This week, for instance, Force10 Networks is increasing the density of its TeraScale E-Series family of switch/routers to more than 1,260 Gigabit Ethernet ports per chassis with a new line of High Density 90-port line cards. "These systems are designed to accommodate the increasing demand for bandwidth and have the capacity to accommodate growth for what we estimate to be 10 years," said Andrew Feldman, vice president of marketing at Force10. "These types of networks used to be relegated to the scientific and research areas, but now we're seeing more commercial applications," he said.
Some security vendors have taken some notice of these new faster networks and are designing some new security features into their products. Extreme Networks this week announced a new security rules engine and a new security appliance designed to bring security to the core of the network, particularly networks operating at GbE or 10 GbE speeds.
The rules engine is free with the Extreme's BlackDiamond 10k switch. The new Sentriant Virtual Security Resource (VSR) appliance is priced at $42,000. Both are available in June.
Posted by Bob Francis on April 26, 2005 10:56 AM
April 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Qwest announces quarterly profit as it awaits Verizon move on MCI
Qwest, in the midst of an acquisition fight with Verizon Communications for MCI, said it expects to see a profit for the first quarter 2005 as a result of a gain of approximately $250 million on the sale of its wireless assets to Verizon Wireless.
Qwest received a boost in its ongoing tug-of-war with Verizon for ownership of MCI Saturday when MCI's board concluded a revised offer from Qwest is superior to a deal from Verizon that it had earlier accepted, IDG News Service said.
The offer is worth $30 per MCI share and consists of $16 in cash and $14 in Qwest stock, which is substantially more than the deal accepted from Verizon in late March. That is worth $23.50 per share and consists of $8.75 in cash and $14.75 of Verizon stock for each MCI share.
Although MCI's board has decided that the $30-per-share Qwest offer is superior, it hasn't yet changed its recommendation to shareholders to accept the Verizon deal. Under the terms of merger previously agreed, Verizon has until Friday to submit a revised offer or let its current offer stand. MCI's board then has until May 3 to change or keep its current recommendation. A termination of the deal with Verizon would come with a $240 million penalty to MCI, according to Verizon.
Qwest has submitted counter-offers that have been turned-down by MCI but the competition did result in Verizon hiking its offer to about $7.6 billion. The Qwest offer made on Friday was worth $9.9 billion.
Qwest said in a statement that it was "gratified" with the decision of MCI's board.
Verizon said it believes its deal represents the best short and long term deal for MCI shareholders and that it will "consider all of our options and determine how best to serve Verizon shareholders."
Qwest said it will report its quarterly financial results, May 3. The company said it expects to report that it continued to hold revenues flat for the fourth consecutive quarter and to report revenue before cost of sales and SG&A in excess of consensus expectations and in the range of $970 to $990 million.
"We are pleased with our performance in the quarter and look forward to dis-cussing it in more detail next week," said Richard C. Notebaert, Qwest chairman and CEO. "Our continuing disciplined cost reduction and facilities optimization efforts are paying off and benefiting profitability, as planned. This progress is enabling Qwest to continue investment in our growth products and other strategies to improve our competitive position, financial flexibility and future growth."
Posted by Jack McCarthy on April 25, 2005 04:30 PM
April 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Gates debuts 64-bit Windows, talks up Longhorn, Metro
Microsoft chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates formally and finally ushered Windows into the world of 64-bit computing on Monday delivering 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional and laying out the company's plans for delivering a raft of exploitive 64-bit applications over the course of this year and next.
Gates, as expected, also demonstrated the latest progress made on its next generation 64-bit operating system, codenamed Longhorn, saying the company remains on track to deliver the product for the holiday season in 2006. Microsoft plans to deliver the first significant beta to developers at the company's Professional Developers Conference this September.
"The changeover to 64-bit computing (from 32-bit computing) will happen much more quickly than any other platform changeover. I think it will be the driving force behind Windows for the next decade but it will bring us our greatest level of competition as well," Gates said during his keynote address at the company's annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference.
By the end of this year Microsoft will deliver 64-bit versions of SQL Server, Commerce Server 2005, Host Integration Server 2005, BizTalk Server, and Services for Unix, Gates said. In 2006 and 2007 Microsoft will deliver the Longhorn client and server versions, along with Exchange Server, Microsoft Operations Manager and its Virtual Server 2.0.
During Gates' keynote the company also introduced a new family of graphics technologies, code-named Metro, which they believe will offer a unified framework to address the growing use of document-based workflows. The technologies also include advanced graphics and extended color information in documents and Web-based applications.
The purpose of the Metro products is to simplify the creation, sharing, printing, viewing and archiving of digital documents, while also improving image fidelity and print performance. Metro will employ an open document format and uses XML as well as other standards for helping exchange data among a range of different platforms.
Company officials said on Monday they expect to complete the Metro specification sometime during Longhorn's development cycle.
In the demonstration of Longhorn Microsoft focused on the product's visualization capabilities including folders and icons that graphically depict their actual content thereby proving live snapshots of the documents. They also showed off how documents can be created and organized based on metadata, authors, subjects and even keywords.
Microsoft also announced its Longhorn Ready PC Program which is intended to offer guidance for hardware makers for their next generation of PCs. The hardware requirements included a modern CPU, 512 megabytes of memory and a graphics card capable of supporting the Longhorn Display Driver Model.
The company also on Monday announced plans to release the first public beta of Windows Server 2003 R2 "shortly," officials said. In addition to the enhancements now in Service Pack 1, the updated release includes more options for connecting to and controlling identities and access management, managing branch servers, and setting up and managing storage options.
-- By Ed Scannell, reporting live from WinHEC in Seattle
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 25, 2005 01:58 PM
April 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft kicks off 64-bit era at WinHEC show
Microsoft's annual Hardware Engineering conference begins this week, and forthcoming versions of Windows will take center stage.
My colleague editor at large Ed Scannell writes about the 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003 and the XP client that Microsoft announced today, as well some of the details Microsoft will provide on the more distant Longhorn OS.
BusinessWeek looks at Longhorn from a security perspective.
Naturally, Microsoft will tout the usual hardware partners backing the new versions. Yardena Arar, senior editor at PC World, an InfoWorld sister publication, reported:
Microsoft says a number of vendors will be announcing systems with x64 (either the desktop or one of the server editions) pre-installed, including Acer, AlienWare, Dell, FSC, Fujitsu, HP, Hitachi, IBM, NEC, and Unisys.
Individuals who already own 64-bit PCs running the 32-bit version of Windows XP Professional have until July 30 to replace it with a licensed version of x64 at no charge through Microsoft's Technology Advancement Program. Details will be made available through Microsoft's x64 Web site.
The full PC World story is here.
Microsoft also will show off new Tablet PCs, according to a story in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Reporter Todd Bishop wrote:
The prototypes to be shown by Gates include a tablet-style computer that would be about as thin as 10 sheets of paper, with a screen that measures about 7 inches wide by 5 inches tall. It would weigh about 1 to 2 pounds, with a built-in camera, wireless capabilities, microphone and all-day battery life. The target price would be about $500 to $800.
Check back with InfoWorld.com for ongoing WinHEC coverage.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 25, 2005 08:09 AM
April 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Magneto, Microsoft's Blackberry-killer
His name is Ya-Qin Zhang, and he is the mind behind Microsoft's mobile plans. The company hopes to detail the initial results of his efforts -- the forthcoming next-generation of Windows Mobile, code-named Magneto -- in early may, according to The New York Times.
The story, At Microsoft, a Smart Guy Has His Hands Full With the Smart Phone Business, profiles Ya-Qin Zhang, discusses Magneto, and focuses mostly on Microsoft's chances in the mobile fray.
The Wall Street Journal has a story on Blackberry-maker RIM facing competition from the likes of Nokia, Motorola and Samsung, not to mention Microsoft.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 25, 2005 07:32 AM
April 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Dual-core rivalry between AMD and Intel includes HP
Joining the dual-core race sponsored by AMD and Intel, Hewlett-Packard unveiled new servers, the HP ProLiant BL45p for the HP BladeSystem and the dual-core HP ProLiant DL585, which use AMD's new dual-core AMD Opteron processor.
HP said it also plans to release the HP ProLiant BL25p, BL35p and DL385 and the HP xw9300 Workstation with dual-core technologies in mid-2005, when AMD delivers its Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor 200 Series.
"The advent of dual- and multi-core processor technologies represents an industry defining change which returns us to the performance promise of Moore's Law at industry-standard prices," Brad Anderson, senior vice president and general manager, Industry Standard Servers, HP, said in a statement.
AMD and Intel have run a tight race to beat each other to market with their dual-core chips, IDG News Service said. Earlier this week, PC vendors Dell and Alienware began shipping systems with Intel's first dual-core processor, the 3.2GHz Pentium Extreme Edition 840.
The marketing blitz behind dual-core has turned out to be one of the more interesting aspects of this technology, said Kevin Krewell, editor-in-chief of Microprocessor Report, in San Jose, California. "They both launched their chips in the same week, which is pretty amusing," he said. "They're fighting tooth and nail."
"The reality is neither AMD nor Intel are first to the party," Krewell said. "In fact, they are late to the party for dual-core processors."' IBM and Sun Microsystems have been shipping dual-core servers since the advent of their Power4 and UltraSparc IV chips, and many other vendors, including Azul Systems, which this week unveiled systems based on a 24-core processor, have mastered the move to multicore designs, he said.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on April 22, 2005 05:58 PM
April 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)
(Momentary) Rain on Sun's Java parade
Sun Microsystems today held its 10th birthday bash for the Java language, at the Sun campus in Santa Clara, Calif. But the sun didn't shine.
With hundreds of Sun employees and dignitaries gathered outside, suddenly it began to rain after not having rained in the Bay Area for two weeks. It rained hard. Then about 45 seconds later, it stopped.
And everybody went back outside to supposedly reflect on the success of Java.
"It's been way more successful than anybody had any fantasies of," said James Gosling, a Java pioneer who now serves at CTO of the Sun Developer Products Group.
Although questions have been raised about exactly how much revenue Java generates for Sun, Gosling said that if Java had not succeeded, it would be a Windows-only world. Thusly, Java has helped maintain diversity, according to Gosling's explanation. "There would have been no way for anybody else to create anything other than a Windows machine," Gosling said.
Another early Java developer, Tim Lindholm, a Sun Distinguished Engineer, noted Java's original promise was for running applets in browsers. "Java became a force to be reckoned with. Then it moved into the cellphones and servers," and other systems, Lindholm said.
Sun's decision to let anyone develop on Java has resulted in a vast array of Java-based products, even from Sun competitors such as IBM and BEA Systems. It seems that Microsoft is the lone holdout on Java.
It will be interesting to see what type of 20th birthday party might be held for the multiplatform Java programming language 10 years from now, or whether it will have been succeeded by something greater.
(By Paul Krill, reporting from the Java 10th Birthday Party)
Posted by Jack McCarthy on April 22, 2005 04:47 PM
April 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Qwest offer for MCI ups the ante
Qwest Communications International made what it called its "best and final offer" to buy the outstanding shares of MCI for about $9.9 billion, raising the stakes in its bidding war for MCI with Verizon Communications.
The response from MCI could come within hours, as Qwest gave MCI's board of directors until Saturday to accept the offer.
"We request that you take the steps necessary under your agreement with Verizon to declare our offer a Superior Proposal. If MCI does not inform us by 5 p.m. (eastern daylight time) on April 23, 2005, that Qwest's proposal constitutes a Superior Proposal and give notice of such determination to Verizon, our offer will be withdrawn," Richard C. Notebaert, Qwest's MCI Chairman and Chief Executive Officer wrote in the letter to the MCI board.
The new offer raises the cash portion of Qwest's bid by $2.50 per share, to $16 per share, Notebaert said.
Qwest maintained its offer of $14 per share in stock and also plans to cover a recent $0.40 per share dividend paid by MCI to stockholders, IDG News Service said.
Qwest's new offer is about 30 percent higher than the $7.64 billion offer from Verizon that was accepted by MCI on March 29, Notebaert said.
MCI's directors have previously turned down Qwest because of its steep debt. But one analyst said Qwest remains viable despite the debt, at more than $15 billion. "Qwest is the smallest of the four Baby Bells (behind Verizon, SBC Communications, and Bell South), but it's still a strong company," said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecommunications analyst in Atlanta, Ga.
Qwest said it believed MCI would accept the offer.
"We are confident that this revised proposal fulfills the MCI Board's description on April 5 of an offer it was prepared to find a Superior Proposal," Notebaert wrote. MCI rejected a revised $8.9 billion offer from Qwest on April 5.
Verizon had previously signaled that it would not fight Qwest if MCI decided to accept the $8.9 billion offer. But on Thursday, the company spoke of its commitment to closing the deal with MCI.
"Notwithstanding the latest Qwest proposal, we continue to believe Verizon is the best partner for MCI. As we move through the proxy process, we will con-tinue to assess the situation and intend to take the necessary steps at the appropriate time to secure shareholder approval and complete our pending transaction," Verizon said in a statement.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on April 22, 2005 03:07 PM
April 21, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Mono, which is an open source implementation of the Microsoft .Net Framework, was in focus at the MySQL Users Conference 2005 on Thursday.
The technology features a virtual machine that can enable .Net applications to run on Windows or Linux and Unix, and lets .Net developers build apps for those two platforms.
"It's an alternative to developing applications with the .Net framework," said Miguel de Icaza, vice president of Developer Platforms at Novell and the main developer of Mono. Mono applications also can run on Java frameworks.
Tailored for desktop applications, Mono supports languages such as Visual Basic, C# and Python and features binary compatibility with .Net. de Icaza showed a photo manipulation application, FSpot, that was built on Mono.
An upcoming version of Mono, due in September and possibly to be dubbed version 1.2 or 2.0, will feature Windows Forms support for building cross-platform GUI applications as well as support for C# 2.0.
de Icaza said he did not know the size of the Mono user base. But technology that brings .Net to Linux sounds like it could gather a lot of support as it matures.
(By Paul Krill, reporting from the MySQL Users Conference 2005 in Santa Clara, Calif.)
Posted by Cathleen Moore on April 21, 2005 04:13 PM
April 21, 2005 | Comments: (0)
In a week fraught with processor news, AMD on Thursday stepped onto the floor and showed off its dual-core moves, a mere 3 days after Intel trotted out the Pentium Extreme Edition 840 dual-core chip.
This latest round of processors is the first from each company to include two separate cores integrated into a single chip. AMD and Intel claim dual-core processors perform better than single core chips even at slower clocks speeds because they reduce power consumption and heat dissipation.
In InfoWorld's technology preview, AMD's Opteron finds a new gear, InfoWorld Test Center technical director Tom Yager wrote:
Dual-core systems will be most attractive to those who have an eight-cylinder appetite but only a four-cylinder budget. But dual core is no bargain if it shortchanges customers on performance. AMD told us that the second core delivers a 70 percent to 90 percent performance improvement to multiprocessor applications.
In short, Yager found, in his words, that Opteron is as close to future-proof as an entry-level 64-bit desktop or server architecture can be. He also wrote:
To be blunt, Intel's claim of technological parity with AMD is an easily penetrated smoke screen.
If all other technical differences were set aside, AMD's on-chip memory controllers, dedicated memory banks for each processor, and independent I/O channels among CPUs would decide the battle with Intel's EM64T. All these features are unique to AMD's x64 system implementation, and we'll see them exploited by major commercial OSes and development tools, including Windows Server 2003 x64 Editions and Visual Studio 2005 (currently in beta).
InfoWorld's full special report Opteron times two, includes the complete review and a handful of related pieces, including Yager's take on benchmarks.
Intel, for its part, had some other spots on its dance card this week. On Monday the chipmaker also launched its WiMax wireless broadband chip formerly code-named Rosedale, and detailed backing from vendors and providers.
Intel also said this week that sales of notebook chips helped boost its first quarter results.
While chips keep coming out a feverish pace, IDG News Service correspondents Tom Krazit and Sumner Lemon teamed up to write With chips, Moore's Law is not the problem, a piece about how the law of diminishing returns is impacting chipmakers. Last week Gordon Moore reflected on the past 40 years.
Market researcher IDC, meanwhile, said that China is the third largest and fastest growing market for semiconductors, fueled by purchases of PC, notebooks and servers. (Full disclosure: IDC is owned by International Data Group, the parent company of InfoWorld.)
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 21, 2005 07:33 AM
April 20, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Legal issues cloud but don't stop open source
Panelists at MySQL's user conference Wednesday discussed challenges in the enterprise pertaining to open source and, as could be expected, the familiar issue of legal issues surrounding software patents came up.
The concern is that customers in deploying open source software may unknowingly be using patented software without permission, with patent holders then able to seek compensation. But the issue apparently is not stopping open source deployments, the panel moderator said.
"In our experience, [the issue] may hold it up, but we haven't seen it stop it," said Andrew Aitken, managing parter at Olliance Group, which provides management consulting pertaining to open source.
The legal issues are a concern on the part of purchasers; vendors must help customers, said Rick Fleischman, director of product marketing for Zend, which focuses on PHP-based software development. As companies adopt open source, they consider themselves possible targets, he said. The question is how vendors can ensure there won't be patent issues. "I don't think it's resolved at this point," Fleischman said.
"Whenever you talk to customers, the subject of indemnification comes up," said Javier Soltero, president of Hyperic, which provides IT management technologies. Parties seeking indemnification might even hear that the provider wants indemnification in return, according to Soltero.
Concerns about software patents could act like a governor on a car, keeping open source adoption from accelerating at a higher speed. But some customers now seek open source solutions first and commercial offerings only as a last resort. Thusly, it doesn't look like these legal issues will serve as a brake on open source deployments altogether.
(By Paul Krill, reporting from MySQL Users Conference 2005 in Santa Clara, Calif.)
Posted by Jack McCarthy on April 20, 2005 05:50 PM
April 20, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Ballmer says Microsoft will embrace virtualization
Steve Ballmer announced Microsoft's commitment to virtualization Wednesday, unveiling a beta of Virtual Server 2005, and adding that virtualization will become an area of major investment for the company.
Ballmer, speaking at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas, said the Virtual Server lets users run different OSes on a single hardware server. It can host a range of x86-based OSes, including Linux, but there has not been official Linux support.
Additionally, Microsoft plans to build virtualization into Windows Server. The addition, based on Windows hypervisor technology, will come in the Longhorn "wave" of products.
No details were mentioned on whether the virtualization features will be in the first Longhorn server release, due in 2007, or be added later. The virtualization technology will support hardware technologies from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 was made available in beta Wednesday, with SP 1 (Service pack 1) due later in the year, Ballmer said. There is also a Management Pack available immediately for Virtual Server for MOM.
"I want to start though with a little longer term perspective, the "Longhorn" timeframe, and I'm not saying "Longhorn" but about that timeframe there's a number of things that we're working on that are very important in virtualization," Ballmer said. "We're going to take the virtualization format, the .vhd format, which we're working today to get standardized across industry participants, we're going to take that format and make it extensible, which we think is very important for all of you and for us in terms of where virtualization technologies can go in the future, open and extensible approach to virtualization we think is very important.
"When we release Virtual Server SP 1 you'll see a number of improvements," Ballmer said. "We've added support for non-Windows virtual machines being hosted on top of our Virtual Server product, including support for Linux. Remember what I said earlier about interoperability? We're really believing that. We know folks are going to want to run Windows systems and Linux systems and other sys-ems together on top of our Virtual Server and Windows. You'll see support for that later in the year.
"We're dramatically improving our performance and you'll see us support 64-bit hosts now that we have 64-bit support in the Windows Operating System," Ballmer added. "We're licensing our VHD format broadly. You'll see that in the fall, and there's a large amount of support going into all of our Windows Server System products to support the Virtual Server in a very strong way."
Also related to virtualization, Microsoft said it will offer a royalty-free license for its Virtual Hard Disk format for partners to build on top of the format, IDG News Service said. For users of MOM, Microsoft recently shipped an addition so they can manage virtual servers from the operations management application.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on April 20, 2005 05:33 PM
April 20, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Despite the plethora of news stories about the benefits of WiMax and why it
outdoes WiFi, the reality is WiMax for the rest of us won't be available for at least another three years.
I did a column on this about a year ago and everything I said about WiMax then is still true now.
The current level of excitement is due to the news that Intel is now shipping WiMax chips. See our news story.
The first iteration of the technology will be used by the carriers, not ordinary citizens. One reason for that is that it is a fixed wireless solution useful for last mile connections to customers.
Carriers like AT&T spend over $8 billion a year paying fees to the ILECs
[Incumbant Local Exchange Carrier] to use their wired links to buildings and homes.
WiMax is a way around that. If AT&T can deploy a Wimax radio and antennas on buildings, it can bypass the ILECs.
However, WiMax is not mobile. In fact even the standard for fixed wireless hasn't been ratified let alone a standard for mobility.
WiMax for mobile has a long ratification process to go through. So Intel and others aren't shipping WiMax mobile chips simply because they really can't even start until the mobile standard is closer to ratification and they are assured that it won't change.
So, next year you might see some Metropolitan Area Networks [MANs], that's fixed wireless from one building to another, come to fruition, but you won't be seeing WiMax hot spots for quite some time.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on April 20, 2005 04:28 PM
April 20, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Google personalizes search history
Google Labs today released My Search History, a beta search service that may eventually change how users find and browse information on the Web.
My Search History indexes the full text of a user's search queries and displays the results, marked with date and time, and whether the results were clicked on or not.
If a user can't remember the exact search topic but does recall the date of the search, My Search History features a calendar that lets the user click on a specific date to display results.
The service also offers a related history option, which shows everything Google has returned over time to a user about search terms. It also displays how many times a user has visited a search result and the last time it was viewed.
The service lets users remove items from the search history and pause the recording of searches.
Sign in is required, either with an existing Google account username and password (for Gmail, Google Groups, Google Alerts, or Froogle), or by creating a new account. Once a user signs out, the search history is no longer saved.
My Search History stores your history on Google servers, which Google officials said lets users view their search history from any computer.
Has Google reinvented the bookmark? Well, not exactly, but this could be a glimpse of the future for Web browsing and searching. In theory it sounds powerful. I tried it and, without much logged in the history yet, I'm not sure if it will prove an easier or more effective way of pinpointing searches or sifting through information that I know I've found useful in the past. But my resistance might just be from habit. It is true that I tend to search for the same topics over and over, oftentimes with a vague recollection of a past result that I need now.
It does, however, feel a little invasive knowing that Google is recording all my movements on the Web.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on April 20, 2005 04:26 PM
April 20, 2005 | Comments: (0)
MySQL marks 10 years; future IPO likely
MySQL celebrated its 10th anniversary this week, and a co-founder acknowledged that taking the company public is likely at some juncture.
Co-founder David Axmark, interviewed at the MySQL Users Conference 2005 in Santa Clara Wednesday, said the company does have venture capitalist investors who would like to exit at some point, thus making an initial public offering likely. But no decision has been finalized and no timeframe set. "That's up to our investors to decide," Axmark said.
Reflecting on the evolution of MySQL, which began in Scandinavia in 1995, Axmark said the company's database was offered under a partial open source license in 1996 and a full, GPL-based license in 2000. Asked why the company initially opted for an open source strategy, Axmark said, "Why not?"
"We had nothing to lose. We had a couple of customers we would have had anyway," Axmark said. He added that those involved in the venture already were using open source technologies such as Linux and emacs.
Now, the company boasts 50,000 downloads of its software per day and revenues of $20 million last year, with revenues doubling every year. But Axmark does not see open source software generating the kind of billion-dollar earnings sheets that proprietary commercial companies have seen. "The customer gets to keep the biggest part of the pie," through cost savings, Axmark said.
Open source will dominate software commodities but not specialized systems such as complex ERP applications, Axmark said. Such a system has a small number of users and a great deal of code, making it less conducive to open source, he said.
Axmark is an outspoken opponent of software patents, even applying "No Patents" stickers to his laptop. It is just too hard to determine whether something being done in software already exists, he said.
Also at the show, Marten Mickos, MySQL CEO touted open source, MySQL showed off some new clustering technology, and Red Hat's Michael Tiemann spoke out against software patents and Microsoft.
-- By Paul Krill, reporting from the MySQL Users Conference 2005 event.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 20, 2005 02:27 PM
April 20, 2005 | Comments: (0)
John Galt and shipping software
Comparing Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged hero with Microsoft, and tying both together into a chapter about the issues associated with getting software out the door is no easy task, but the folks over at the Mini-Microsoft blog give it a whirl in a post about, among other things, Microsoft brain-drain, what the departure of Lenn Pryor, Microsoft's director of platform evangelism means, and the Redmond Giant's ongoing problems with shipping software.
Former Hailstorm architect Mark Lucovsky addressed the downsides of Microsoft's approach to shipping software in a post of his own.
If you want an answer to the question 'Who is John Galt?' you won't find it at Mini-Microsoft. Instead, you'll just have to read Atlas Shrugged.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 20, 2005 01:48 PM
April 20, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Toshiba reincarnates the Libretto
Toshiba announced this morning that it will once again sell its Lilliputian notebook computer, the Libretto. After three years of not doing so, the move is likely to raise a few skeptical eyebrows. Will the new Libretto U100 be more successful this time around?
Perhaps. The Libretto was king of the "wow" factor in its day, and that is a title it could regain. But accompanying that status is a high price tag and an elite, a.k.a. small, user base.
Now with standard-sized notebooks even smaller than when Toshiba took the Libretto off the market, more people simply used to carrying laptops around on a regular basis, and the proliferation of Blackberry and other handhelds used primarily for sending and receiving e-mail, Toshiba likely will struggle to find a niche for the newest Libretto. It won't be as an e-mail device, that's for sure. The Libretto is too expensive and too hefty for that.
With the Libretto's crammed keyboard, its market nook probably won't be as a smaller replacement for people who don't want a full-sized notebook either.
By way of a comparison, the Libretto weighs 2.16 pounds and retails at $1,999. Dell's lightest laptop touches down on the scale at 2.5 pounds, and runs $1,699. Both have built-in Wi-Fi and Pentium M chips. The main differences under the hood are that the Libretto has twice the memory and hard drive space as Dell's system. The outside is a different story, though. Dell's system features a 12.1-inch screen, while the Libretto has a 7.6-incher.
Other notebook makers, meanwhile, are focusing on price-reduction more than innovation, according to a story by IDG News Service correspondents Martyn Williams and Sumner Lemon. The piece, Cost key in driving laptop technology, says that the concentration on keeping prices down means that future machines are bound to closely resemble those sold today, albeit with the usual memory, CPU and software upgrades.
There could be some truth in that with the Libretto: Engadget described the ultraportable as having a "boxy, mid-80's" design.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 20, 2005 09:37 AM
April 19, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Adobe adds Macromedia to form a multimedia giant
The move by Adobe Systems to acquire Macromedia creates a clear leader for development of document management, Web publishing and online video delivery tools, analysts say.
Adobe has traditionally been strong in the offline graphical design business, such as desktop publishing, while Macromedia has a presence in graphical user interfaces for the desktop with its Dreamweaver and Flash products. The merging of these two businesses would give Adobe new capabilities for delivering rich media tools, IDG News Service said.
"The combination of Adobe and Macromedia strengthens our mission of helping people and organizations communicate better," Adobe said in a statement posted on its Website. "Through the combination of our powerful development, authoring and collaboration tools – and the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash – we have the opportunity to drive an industry-defining technology platform that delivers compelling, rich content and applications across a wide range of de-vices and operating systems."
Some see the move as a pre-emptive strike at Microsoft. "I see this as both companies bulking up against Microsoft," said Steven Brazier, an analyst at Canalys. The first step will be both vendors supporting each other's formats, and Adobe will likely start integrating Flash into its products, Brazier said.
Adobe also stands to benefit from Macromedia's base of ColdFusion Wed developers, allowing it to integrate and automate new offerings, according to RedMonk analyst James Governor.
Governor predicted that dynamic forms that allow users to create, change and share information online will be one of the first products of the marriage. Graphics automation is also in the cards. Both of these capabilities would fly in the face of Microsoft's plans, according to Governor.
"Adobe's ambition in this acquisition looks like a bit of a Longhorn killer to me," Governor said.
Microsoft has been working on dynamic form technologies and a graphics system called Avalon as part of its upcoming operating system, Longhorn. By moving into these areas, Adobe may be trying to cut the software giant off at the pass, both analysts said.
"There is no doubt that this is a significant competitive threat to Micro-soft and one of Adobe's goals is to predict future battles," Brazier said.
The combined company would be able to create a variety of rich media and Internet applications that use Flash, bumping into areas that Microsoft has shown interest in, said Ovum analyst Bola Rotibi.
"When you think of where Microsoft is headed with the future of its Media Player and Media Center PCs, this goes head-to-head," Rotibi said.
The difference, however, is that the Microsoft offerings are locked into one platform, whereas Adobe will be trying to get its products on multiple platforms, she added. The company is looking to deliver content and applications not just to desktops, but to cell phones and other devices.
One analsyst said the Microsaft card may be exageratred. Adobe is in the graphics tools business and Macromedia has arguably the best web based graphical tools businesses," said Rob Enderle, founder and president of the Enderle Group.
"It makes sense for Adobe to expand its business lines to cover the Web-based tools more completely and expand its product line. Microsoft is clearly a tools company as well and you would think Macromedia would be on their short list of companies to acquire as a result so this could partially be a block against Microsoft (or Apple) moving more solidly into this space but, generally, I see this as more of a natural expansion then a competitive attack. "
But while Adobe and Macromedia have a lot of strengths and products between them, the question now is what the big strategy is, according to Rotibi.
"Integration of products is one thing, but creating a new lineup is something else," she said.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on April 19, 2005 04:59 PM
April 19, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft executes mobile IM strategy
Microsoft on Tuesday revealed plans to ship a new mobile enterprise IM client for Windows Mobile-based devices.
The mobile client will be based on the interface of Microsoft's Office Communicator 2005 client, formerly named Istanbul, which was formally launched in March.
Although mobile IM is currently available for consumer services such as Yahoo Messenger and AOL's AIM, Microsoft is hoping to stake out fresh territory by giving corporations a secure way to extend enterprise presence and IM to mobile devices.
The new mobile IM client will run on Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition and Windows Mobile 5.0, and will support a variety of wireless networks including Wi-Fi, GSM, and CDMA. Beta availability is planned for the second half of 2005.
Also on Tuesday, Research in Motion announced that is it developing an LCS client front-end to its BlackBerry wireless e-mail device.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on April 19, 2005 11:17 AM
April 19, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Outsourcing not all it's cracked up to be
Just when the zealots would have us believe that outsourcing was on the verge of steamrolling IT departments and leaving far fewer employees in its wake, Deloitte and Touche issued the results of a study that indicates myriad twists in just such a plot.
Deloitte's report, Calling a Change in the Outsourcing Market, found:
-- 70 percent of participants have had negative experiences with outsourcing.
-- One in four respondents realized that they could handle certain functions better in-house, and yanked those back inside the corporate walls.
-- 44 percent did not see cost-savings from outsourcing.
-- 57 percent ended up absorbing costs that they believed were included in the contracts with vendors.
-- Nearly 50 percent cited hidden costs as the biggest problem.
The list goes on and on. Literally. More than 80 percent of respondents have either limited or no transparency to a vendor's pricing schema, 73 percent are working to reduce outsourcing vendor dependancy, and nearly 50 percent lack a corporate-wide methodology to evaluate the business case for outsourcing.
Deloitte is not the only consultancy to take this stance. Gartner last month issued multiple studies on outsourcing that said customer service outsourcing is destined to fail, demand will increase for business process outsourcing, and that outsourcing could cost as much as one-third more than controlling the task in-house.
All that is not to say that there are no benefits to outsourcing at all -- of course there are, and some invaluable ones at that. In A field guide to software as a service, we look at some of the positives while posing the question: Could a business run entirely on hosted offerings?
I suspect you already know the answer; we did. But the writers uncovered some surpirses along the way.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 19, 2005 09:01 AM
April 19, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Dell offers up dual-core processors but the AMD question lingers
Intel announced dual-core chips this week and Dell was right behind the chipmaker with new systems that feature the processors.
The issue of whether or not Dell will ever use chips from AMD, however, still remains. Some Dell customers lately have been calling for the PC and server hardware maker to add AMD chips to its lineup. The competition and the choice, they say, would be beneficial.
But there may be more to Dell's monogamous relationship with Intel than the oft-considered reasoning. Speculators mostly predict that Intel applies significant arm-twisting and pressure on Dell behind closed doors, while publicly stating that Dell gets advantageous price breaks, first crack at new technologies, and other benefits from its fidelity.
In the article Despite dual-core, AMD still out with Dell, Tom Krazit of the IDG News Service delves into the less-contemplated facets of the debate, primarily that Intel is not the only one who gains from the exclusive relationship.
Dell, in fact, might have more to gain than anyone. Krazit explains how sticking with just Intel as a supplier helps Dell keep its costs down and that, in turn, reduces the price customers have to pay.
Of course, losing enterprise customers who want AMD chips to another hardware vendor won't help Dell's bottom line.
AMD is set to announce its dual-core processors on Thursday, and the pricing for those chips has emerged in press reports already.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 19, 2005 07:57 AM
April 18, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Intel ships WiMax chip for wireless broadband
WiMax broadband wireless technology took a major step forward Monday as Intel announced volume shipments of its PRO/Wireless 5116 chip, fromerly known as Rosedale.
While Intel has trumpeted WiMax for years as standards development slowly progressed, the chip giant finally is now churning out silicon. Equipment vendors including Proxim, Alverian, Redline Communications and ZiMax Technologies an-nounced agreements to use Intel silicon in products based on the IEEE 802.16-2004 standard that the chip addresses, Intel said.
In addition, some equipment vendors announced products the chip. Among them will be Redline, in Markham, Ontario, which will launch its RedMax line of customer premises equipment, IDG News Service reported. The company will introduce a product with an outdoor antenna and an indoor box with connections for phone and broadband data service, said Kevin Suitor, vice president of business development. It will cost consumers less than $500, Suitor said. Redline currently is running 50 trials with service providers using its pre-WiMax product, called the AN-100, he said.
Intel is not the first chipmaker to announce WiMax silicon, but it carries a lot of weight as both a high-volume chip leader and the rich uncle of the WiMax family, ready to put marketing dollars behind the technology. The chip hitting the market marks a significant moment for WiMax, Michael Cai, an analyst at Parks Associates, in Dallas, told the news service.
"The industry is really looking at Intel, because it's been positioned as the leader in the WiMax space," Cai said.
WiMAX, short for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a standards-based wireless technology for providing high-speed, last-mile broadband connectivity to homes and businesses and for mobile wireless networks. Intel said its WiMAX silicon delivers the features needed to provide cost-effective, high-speed wireless modems for homes and businesses. Initial deployments will enable delivery of broadband Internet access to remote areas not currently served by DSL or cable, and will make it possible to wirelessly connect build-ings up to several miles apart. Because it is standards-based, WiMAX technology is expected to make it easier and more cost-effective for new and existing broadband users to enjoy wireless Internet access.
"As a standards-based, high-speed Internet access solution, WiMAX can provide the platform for the next generation of Internet expansion, connecting the next billion Internet users," Scott Richardson, general manager of Intel's Broadband Wireless Division, said in a statement Monday. "In addition to deliv-ering the first flexible, highly integrated WiMAX system-on-chip, Intel has worked with a number of parties, including carriers and equipment manufacturers, to prepare the industry for the next wave of wireless technology."
Previously codenamed "Rosedale," the Intel PRO/Wireless 5116 broadband in-terface device is based on the IEEE 802.16-2004 standard, giving carriers and end-users the confidence that equipment from different vendors will work to-gether. WiMAX solutions based on 802.16-2004 enable the creation of high-speed, fixed wireless broadband networks, providing Internet connectivity, Internet Protocol (IP) and TDM Voice capabilities and IP-based real-time video at high speeds.
The Intel PRO/Wireless 5116 broadband interface is the first 802.16-2004 system-on-chip optimized for cost-effective WiMAX modems and residential gateways, Intel said. These units may be placed in either homes or businesses to receive and transmit a wireless broadband signal.
The product is designed with a high level of integration to streamline the development process and reduce costs for equipment manufacturers, Intel said. It also offers a programmable architecture that makes it easier for equipment manufacturers to add innovative, unique applications on top of the standards-based Intel solution.
To bring WiMAX connectivity to a broader audience, the Intel PRO/Wireless 5116 broadband interface enables both outdoor WiMAX products as well as new indoor solutions, such as self-installable WiMAX modems and residential gateways.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on April 18, 2005 04:13 PM
April 18, 2005 | Comments: (0)