Thursday, June 30, 2005

Microsoft Said to Be in Talks to Buy Adware Developer - New York Times

Microsoft Said to Be in Talks to Buy Adware Developer - New York Times: "For the last two weeks, Microsoft has been in talks to buy a private Silicon Valley company, a move that underscores just how eager Microsoft is to catch up with Google, the search and advertising giant.
The company that Microsoft has pursued is controversial: Claria, an adware marketer formerly called Gator, and best known for its pop-up ads and software that tracks people visiting Web sites. The Gator adware has frequently been denounced by privacy advocates for its intrusiveness.
The offer price on the table as recently as yesterday was $500 million, according to people who have been briefed on the talks. But a person close to Microsoft said last night that the negotiations were on the verge of breaking off."

Personal Technology -- Device Lets You Watch Shows on a Home TV, TiVo From Elsewhere

Personal Technology -- Device Lets You Watch Shows on a Home TV, TiVo From Elsewhere: "Unlike time shifting, which has been around for decades, place shifting is just getting going. A few portable video players are available, but they can't play live TV, only shows recorded on special TiVo models or relatively expensive TV-capable 'Media Center' PCs. And they are clumsy to use.
Today, however, place shifting of TV shows takes a big leap forward. A Silicon Valley start-up company called Sling Media is introducing a $250 gadget it calls a 'personal broadcaster.' This small device, named the Slingbox, can beam any live TV show coming into your home to an Internet-connected Windows PC anywhere in the world. It also allows you to remotely watch shows you have recorded at home on a TiVo or other digital video recorder."

WSJ.com - Oracle Overcomes Takeover Worries

WSJ.com - Oracle Overcomes Takeover Worries: "Oracle's flagship database-software business again powered results, with sales of database and so-called middleware programs up 16% to $1.26 billion."

IBM's Cloudscape Versus Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 Express

IBM's Cloudscape Versus Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 Express: "The most readily apparent advantage of Derby over Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition lies in Derby's capabilities as a comprehensive cross-platform DBMS--not just running on Windows or Linux or Unix on the server tier or the desktop, but also running on device-oriented operating systems such as Symbian or Palm OS on the client tier. Meanwhile, Microsoft has stated repeatedly that there are no plans for SQL Server on non-Windows platforms. Obviously, if your requirements include (or might ever include) running your database apps on multiple platforms, then neither of Microsoft's SQL Server editions will let you fill that particular bill.
Derby's cross-platform abilities are due, of course, to it being a 100% Java database engine, which means it can integrate tightly with any Java-based solution in the Java stack. This also makes it especially appealing to professional Java developers working with a combination of proprietary and open-source Java application servers and development tools.
When it comes to capabilities, Cloudscape doesn't labor under any of the limitations of Express, such as number of processors. While Derby/Cloudscape doesn't use multiple threads per query, it runs concurrent queries in concurrent threads, so will take advantage of multiple CPU's for better throughput and scalability. And Derby/Cloudscape doesn't have any explicit limits on disk or memory usage, so customers won't be forced into a pricey upgrade just because their data needs cross an arbitrary line. "

ScottGu's Blog: Atlas Project

ScottGu's Blog: Atlas Project: "The popularity of AJAX shows the growing demand for richer user experiences over the web. However, developing and debugging AJAX-style web applications is a very difficult task today. To write a rich web UI, you have to know a great deal of DHTML and JavaScript, and have a strong understanding of all the differences and design details of various browsers. There are very few tools to help your design or build these applications easily. Finally, debugging and testing these applications can be very tricky.
What we’ve set out to do is to make it dramatically easier for anyone to build AJAX-style web applications that deliver rich, interactive, and personalized experiences. Developers should be able to build these applications without great expertise in client scripting; they should be able to integrate their browser UI seamlessly with the rest of their applications; and they should be able to develop and debug these applications with ease.
For this work, we’ve been working on a new project on our team, codenamed “Atlas”. Our goal is to produce a developer preview release on top of ASP.NET 2.0 for the PDC this September, and then have a website where we can keep updating the core bits, publishing samples, and building an active community around it.
Here are some of the pieces of Atlas that we are going to be delivering over time:"

(Read the post...)

More Worries For VoIP Vendors - Forbes.com

More Worries For VoIP Vendors - Forbes.com: "Vonage CEO Jeffrey Citron says he's not particularly worried about widespread port blocking, but acknowledges that the risk 'has obviously moved up a bit.' He expects the FCC to continue to discourage port blocking and anticipates future legislation that will make it explicitly illegal across all kinds of networks.
Besides, the Brand X decision actually helps VoIP providers, says Citron, by strengthening the position that they are not a telecommunications service and, therefore, should not be subject to the same rules, taxes and fees as traditional phone calls. "

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Microsoft Wants a Piece of the Ajax Action

Microsoft Wants a Piece of the Ajax Action: "Microsoft and some of its backers claim that Microsoft has been doing Ajax-style development for years and had never gotten the credit for it. They point to Outlook Web Access as an example of an Ajax-style application developed by the Redmond software maker.
Microsoft is continuing to advance the Ajax concepts and principles with forthcoming products, as well, Microsoft officials said."

Fat Cyclist: An Open Letter to the Tour de France

Fat Cyclist: An Open Letter to the Tour de France: "Let me be clear, Tour: I realize that you are not a cognizant entity; you are an event. Hence, I will not feel angry if you do not respond. Even so, I think there are some things you -- and your constituents -- need to know what I am expecting from you this year, if you wish us to continue on friendly terms."

(Read if you're a Tour fan...)

Google Blog: Cover the earth

Google Blog: Cover the earth: "Last October Keyhole and Google joined forces to integrate satellite imagery with Google search technology in a single product. Now we've landed on Google Earth. You can fly from space right down to any place on the planet and take in spectacular 3D views, and for major US cities you can now see 3D city models. And more: where Google Local works today (the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.), you can search Google Local from within Earth for points of interest, businesses listings, driving directions, and lots more (like some of these excellent locations). True to Google form, there is now a free version. Ready to explore?"

Pretty cool -- download and explore (see links in original post)

Microsoft Ships Final Windows 2000 Update

Microsoft Ships Final Windows 2000 Update: "Now virtually abandoned by the software giant, Windows 2000 was the first mainstream Windows release to utilize the Windows NT kernel. Microsoft shipped client and server versions of this product in February 2000, and then moved the NT kernel to the home market with the release of Windows XP in October 2001. Since then, Windows development has slowed dramatically. Despite major updates of XP aimed at Media Center PCs and Tablet PCs over the years, Microsoft is still struggling to ship its next major Windows release, codenamed Longhorn."

Web Content by and for the Masses - New York Times

Web Content by and for the Masses - New York Times: "Many Internet developers think that the Internet's new phase will shift power away from old-line media and software companies while rapidly bringing about an age of computerized 'augmentation' by blending the skills of tens of thousands of individuals.
'The giant brain is us,' said Peter Hirshberg, a former Apple Computer executive who recently joined Technorati, a service based in San Francisco that indexes more than 11 million Web logs. His reference is to the 1960's fear that computers would emerge as omniscient artificial intelligences that would control society. Instead, he said, the Internet is now making it possible to exploit collective intellectual power of Internet users efficiently and instantly."

The Mossberg Solution -- PalmOne Transforms Its New PDA Into a Mobile Warehouse

The Mossberg Solution -- PalmOne Transforms Its New PDA Into a Mobile Warehouse: "The palmOne LifeDrive is a pretty fair little gadget for offloading important digital data that you want to keep with you while traveling or on a day-to-day basis. It would be especially handy for digital camera users who want a good way to offload photos when they can't get back to their computers to do so.
But it's expensive, it's bulky, and its poor battery life is really limiting, especially for people who will want to access their media and use the LifeDrive for Internet access over the course of a whole day. Until the company can improve battery life of the LifeDrive, we can't wholeheartedly recommend it.
Even if palmOne fixes the battery issue, it's not clear that the inclusion of the hard disk can revive the fading PDA category. Smart phones are also getting hard disks -- the first prototypes of hard-disk phones have already been shown in Korea and Finland. And once such hard-disk phones become common, they should be able to do everything the LifeDrive does and more, albeit with a smaller screen. So why carry a second, bulky device?"

ObjectWatch Newsletter: The Elephant That Wasn’t There

ObjectWatch Newsletter: The Elephant That Wasn’t There: "The Elephant That Wasn’t There. This issue reports on Microsoft’s major Tech-Ed 2005 conference in Orlando earlier this month. This was the conference at which Microsoft laid out its strategy for redefining Corporate IT by directly challenging You-Know-Who. Or maybe you don’t, because Microsoft never mentioned the company that is now its primary target for oblivion. Don’t miss this unique perspective on this important conference. Note: PDF only (we are experimenting with a new format)."

Excerpt:
"So, for the first time in Microsoft history, every product that is relevant to IT is being lined up in a cohesive and coordinated attack on IBM. Even the
dates of the product releases are timed together. Paul Flessner, Senior Vice President of Server Applications, announced in his keynote that the triumvirate of BizTalk 2006, SQL Server 2005, and Visual Studio 2005 will all be formally launched at the same time, during the week of November 7. A unified launch date of three independent products represents a coordination of effort that is entirely without precedent at Microsoft. Apparently, they are taking the elephant seriously."

More insightful analysis from Roger Sessions.

Redmond | Feature Article: It's Groove Baby!

Redmond | Feature Article: It's Groove Baby!: "Redmond: What are some of the high level issues you want to address with Exchange?
Ozzie: Microsoft has a broad variety of assets ranging from Hotmail to Smartphones to different forms of communication and collaboration, Groove, Live Meeting and things like that. I hope to bring a unifying influence from the perspective of both the user and the IT administrator who wants to use these things in conjunction with one another.
Redmond: How do you bring about that unification?
Ozzie: [Part of my role] is to help Groove get integrated. But my primary role is separate from any given product group. As part of Bill's staff, I am attempting to influence those different groups with a comprehensive vision strategy. "

Very timely and interesting interview.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

BT Selects Microsoft TV as Software Platform for TV Over Broadband in the United Kingdom: BT plans to test services in early 2006.

BT Selects Microsoft TV as Software Platform for TV Over Broadband in the United Kingdom: BT plans to test services in early 2006.: "Microsoft Corp. and BT today announced BT’s intention to use the Microsoft® TV Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) Edition software platform to deliver TV over broadband in the United Kingdom. The announcement further strengthens Microsoft’s continued commitment to working with the world’s leading network operators to bring next-generation television services to consumers."

Rich Client Platform is Eclipse's JavaOne headline act | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

Rich Client Platform is Eclipse's JavaOne headline act | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com: "Although the opening act for Eclipse at JavaOne will be the launch of version 3.1 of the Eclipse IDE, the news that everyone will probably be talking about is Eclipse's Rich Client Platform (RCP). In the interview Skerrett described the RCP like this:
'We're moving beyond just development tools in developing a platform for end user applications. Let me give you and example. When I subscribe to different blogs with RSS feeds, I have an RSS newsreader that is actually built on top of Eclipse in Eclipse RCP. I'm not using it through a browser. I'm using it through a Windows application, a Windows application that gives me the look and feel that I want and it has nothing to do with the development tools.'"

Sun And IBM Come to Terms

Sun And IBM Come to Terms: "In a Q&A session after the keynotes, Schwartz and Sun CEO Scott McNealy were a bit defensive about the open source pressure.
'We are the leaders in open source,' McNealy insisted. 'We're number one. There's nobody close to having donated as much open source. Every time we see the right and appropriate way to do something, we do it.'
Schwartz said the company's hesitation came from its desire to make sure that any code released remained interoperable and free of intellectual property issues. "

Gates continues to tout tablet PC - Computerworld

Gates continues to tout tablet PC - Computerworld: "'There will be a substantial improvement in the tablet software as part of the Longhorn release, and that's just one of many areas we are working on with Toshiba. And so I will again, without an exact date, predict that most portable machines will be tablets in the future, and I would hope that over the next three to five years, the software and hardware refinements will make that a reality.' "

Yahoo overhauls free Web e-mail service | CNET News.com

Yahoo overhauls free Web e-mail service | CNET News.com: "Yahoo is planning to overhaul its free Web-based e-mail service to make it work more like a desktop e-mail program, the company announced late Monday.
...
The new service is based on technology and expertise Yahoo acquired when it bought Oddpost in July 2004. The changes represent the most significant overhaul of the service since it was launched in 1997, Diamond said."

Microsoft gets hip to AJAX | CNET News.com

Microsoft gets hip to AJAX | CNET News.com: "Not to be left out of any development trends, Microsoft is working to simplify the job of building so-called AJAX applications, or Web applications with sophisticated graphics.
...
"People who do (AJAX development) are rocket scientists," Fitzgerald said. "In some ways, this papers over the mess that is JavaScript development. It's easy-to-build 'spaghetti' code."
Atlas--which is a downloadable piece of JavaScript code--gives developers a more structured environment for building applications, providing time-saving services such as an object model and debugging, he said. It will work across any Web browser that supports AJAX technologies."

I.B.M. Agrees to Modify Its Software for Sun Line - New York Times

I.B.M. Agrees to Modify Its Software for Sun Line - New York Times: "In addition to giving a boost to Sun's new computer line, which is expected to be available later this year, I.B.M. agreed to renew its 10-year licensing agreement for Sun's Java programming language, which was to expire next year.
'We're in this for the long haul,' said Robert LeBlanc, the general manager of I.B.M.'s WebSphere software line, which is used to help different computer systems talk to one another and will be converted to run on Galaxy. 'We're seeing more and more customers say we need your software on top of Solaris and A.M.D.'"

At $300 a Share, Google Looks Pricey and Still Irresistible - New York Times

At $300 a Share, Google Looks Pricey and Still Irresistible - New York Times: "Until recently, John Tinker, an analyst with ThinkEquity, a San Francisco-based investment bank specializing in growth companies, had set the highest price target on Google. Yet even Mr. Tinker uses the 'B' word - bubble - when describing the market's giddy embrace of Google, even as he has a price target of $330 on Google.
'The good news is this is a one-stock bubble,' Mr. Tinker said. 'Remember, in 1998, everything went up. That's a huge difference this time.' "

Monday, June 27, 2005

Dvorak Uncensored ? Is Bush Planning a Third Term?

Dvorak Uncensored ? Is Bush Planning a Third Term?: "There’s been a lot of weird Neo-Con activity that would indicate that they would like to repeal the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution and run George Bush for a third term. This, to me, explains the sudden attack on PBS since it is the last vestige of a free press now that the various National papers and the big TV networks are held hostage by large corporations.
If you think I’m kidding here is a bill introduced in the house this February by both Democrats and Republicans including a Congressman from Wisconsin, Sensenbrenner as well as the Dem. House Whip, Hoyer. The bill has one article and one sentence only:
`The twenty-second article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is repealed.’."

Hey, maybe W is just trying to make it easier for Bill Clinton to return and clean up the mess team W has made...

Chris_Pratley's OneNote WebLog : Using OneNote on two or more machines

Chris_Pratley's OneNote WebLog : Using OneNote on two or more machines: "One question I hear pretty often is: 'hey, I have two machines with OneNote - how do I keep my notes in sync?' There are a lot of ways to do this. In some ways it depends on what your needs are. After all, what doesn't?
First, be certain that you have Sp1 of OneNote. Use Help/Get Updates to check if you are not sure. SP1 has some adjustments to perform better when using files across multiple machines.
Next, decide if you want to sync all your notes or just have a portion of your notebook available on both machines.
Next decide if you need to have the notes accessible when you do not have access to your network.
Now, here are some typical ways"...

Interesting snapshot. Curious that Chris Pratley didn't include Groove in his list; two people who commented on the post did, however.

Blogger adds one-click image posting


Blogger adds one-click image posting Too bad it's not yet included in the BlogThis! interface.

WSJ.com - Sun Expected To Put Application Server Into Open Source

WSJ.com - Sun Expected To Put Application Server Into Open Source: "Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) is expected on Monday to place the software code for its application server into the open-source environment, where outside developers will be able to examine and adapt it.
Already for 18 months, the application server has been free to license. Sun said the source code for the application server - the foundation of the product - will be available Monday, the first day of its JavaOne conference in San Francisco."

I think this has gotten to the point at which it's about as meaningful as CA open-sourcing Ingres, in terms of likely market impact.

Are your feeds turning into too many long tails? Filter! - The Boston Globe - Boston.com - Technology - Business

Are your feeds turning into too many long tails? Filter! - The Boston Globe - Boston.com - Technology - Business: "Continuous partial attention is that state most of us enter when we're in front of a computer screen, or trying to check out at the grocery store with a cellphone pressed to an ear -- or blogging the proceedings of a conference while it's underway. We're aware of several things at once, shifting our attention to whatever's most urgent -- perhaps the chime of incoming e-mail, or the beep that indicates the cellphone is low on juice. It's not a reflective state.
Full attention, Stone suggested in her talk at Supernova, will be ''the aphrodisiac of the future.' (Which implies that those of us living in a state of continuous partial attention may not be, um, getting much action.)"

Includes a glossary of recent buzzwords/phrases.

Software knight Kapor takes up new quest - The Boston Globe - Boston.com - Tech News and Reviews - New Technology - iPod Reviews - Boston.com - Business

Software knight Kapor takes up new quest - The Boston Globe - Boston.com - Tech News and Reviews - New Technology - iPod Reviews - Boston.com - Business: "Kapor (pronounced kay-pore), 54, who founded Cambridge's Lotus Development Corp. in 1982 and grew it into what for a time was the world's largest software company, is back in the business after a 15-year hiatus. His new project, code-named Chandler, aims to do for e-mail and calendar functions what Firefox did for Web browsing: persuade tens of millions of ordinary computer users to abandon the Microsoft software bundled into their Windows operating systems and download a free ''open source' application. It's not a task undertaken lightly, and its success will hinge on offering people a product that is less frustrating and more useful and intuitive than the one they are using."

Timely update and historical review.

Sunday, June 26, 2005

The New York Review of Books: The Tragic Tale of a Genius (review by Freeman J. Dyson)

The New York Review of Books: The Tragic Tale of a Genius (review by Freeman J. Dyson): "Neither Wiener nor von Neumann nor Shannon, nor anyone else in the 1940s, foresaw the microprocessors that would make digital computers small and cheap and reliable and available to private citizens. Nobody foresaw the Internet or the ubiquitous cell phone. As a result of the proliferation of digital computers in private hands, Wiener's nightmare vision of a few giant computers determining the fate of human societies never came to pass. But other aspects of Wiener's vision of the future are coming true. We see, as he predicted, millions of skilled human workers displaced by machines and sinking into poverty. We see the basis of the wealth of nations moving from the manufacture of goods to the processing of information. We see the beginnings of an understanding of the mysteries of the human brain. We still have much to learn from Wiener's vision."

Mobile e-mail | The CrackBerry backlash | Economist.com

Mobile e-mail | The CrackBerry backlash | Economist.com: "THE BlackBerry, an iconic pocket-sized e-mail device, has millions of devoted fans—but increasingly has its critics, too. “My wife has banned me from using it at weekends,” moans one technology industry executive. At a recent technology conference organised by The Economist, the question of “CrackBerry” dependency, rather than grid computing or web services, was one of the hottest topics. The winner of the British version of “The Apprentice”, a reality TV show, has admitted that his wife has threatened to flush his BlackBerry down the toilet. Meanwhile bosses grumble that nobody pays attention in meetings any more, because they are so busy doing e-mail under the table. It takes over your life! It ruins your marriage! It distracts you at work! The BlackBerry backlash, it seems, has begun."

Saturday, June 25, 2005

WSJ.com - AOL Latin America Files For Bankruptcy Protection

WSJ.com - AOL Latin America Files For Bankruptcy Protection: "America Online Latin America Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The company listed assets of $28.5 million and debts of $181.8 million, and said Time Warner Inc., parent company of America Online, was its largest unsecured creditor, with a claim of $160 million. The company, which provides AOL-branded service in Mexico, Brazil and other Latin American countries, had warned it March that it expected to run out of operating cash after the third quarter, and said at the time it wasn't trying to get new financing because it didn't believe it would be able to obtain it."

(Full article)

Good Morning Silicon Valley: So Greg, what do you say we buy SAP?

Good Morning Silicon Valley: So Greg, what do you say we buy SAP?: "Oracle's got a few more acqusitions left in it yet. This morning, the company named Greg Maffei, once Microsoft's top deal-maker, as its president and CFO. While at Microsoft, Maffei established a merger and acquisitions group that made more than $9 billion in investments in cable, telephone and Internet companies - $5 billion investment in AT&T Corp., a $1 billion investment in cable-TV operator Comcast, a $150 million investment in Apple and the $425 million purchase of WebTV. "

Surprising that none of the major news articles on this topic have noted that many of Maffei's mega-deals were ultimately disasters.

Microsoft Announces RSS Support in Longhorn, IE 7

Microsoft Announces RSS Support in Longhorn, IE 7: "Longhorn will feature RSS technologies in three key areas. First, the IE 7.0 Web browser in Longhorn will make it easy to discover RSS feeds (i.e., Web sites that offer syndicated, or subscription-based, versions of their content), then view and subscribe to those feeds. Second, Microsoft will add pervasive APIs directly to Longhorn so that developers can take advantage of RSS in their own applications. Third, the company will create a new set of RSS extensions, called Simple List Extensions, that will make it easier for Web sites to publish as RSS feeds lists such as music playlists or top 10 lists.
IE 7.0's RSS features seem to be similar to the RSS support that Apple Computer built into its Safari Web browser in Mac OS X Tiger, which Apple released in April. When you navigate to a Web site that includes an RSS feed, you'll see an illuminated icon in the toolbar. Click that icon, and the RSS feed will be displayed in the browser using 'pretty views,' Schare told me. You can then subscribe to the feed, which will add the subscription to a Common Feed List that's similar to but separate from IE's Favorites list."

PBS | I, Cringely . June 23, 2005 - No Flash in the Pan

PBS | I, Cringely . June 23, 2005 - No Flash in the Pan: "In all the world of computing and the Internet, what technology has the greatest market share and the most loyal upgraders? Is it Microsoft's Windows operating system? Is it Sun's Java programming language? No, it is Macromedia's Flash web graphics software. Flash is installed on more computers than any other program. Not only does Flash have a market share that dwarfs Windows and Java, we upgrade relentlessly to new versions. Flash is huge, and Flash is a lot of the reason why Adobe Systems recently agreed to buy Macromedia, the home of Flash.
Of course, Adobe gets a lot more than Flash from its $3.4 billion (all stock, no cash) purchase. It gets Codeweaver [sic -- Dreamweaver] and ColdFusion, and a bunch of web development tools that go a long way toward carrying Adobe from being a software company for print to a software company for the web. Heck, Adobe gets the FreeHand vector drawing package for the second time, having sold it to Macromedia years before after buying Aldus. FreeHand, which Adobe had to sell the last time because it competed too directly with Illustrator, might well go on the block again, though it is hard to imagine what company would be in a position to buy it. Microsoft?"

Interesting analysis

Friday, June 24, 2005

Arndt & Partner Weblog: Bill Gates Life Video about Groove Integration in MS-Architecture

Arndt & Partner Weblog: Bill Gates Life Video about Groove Integration in MS-Architecture: "Hear and see 59 minutes what the Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates talk about the coming integration by Groove Networks Technology in the MS Architecture"

CEO Summit session.

Update: go to time index ~40 minutes for the Groove part

Almost All Libraries in U.S. Offer Free Access to Internet - New York Times

Almost All Libraries in U.S. Offer Free Access to Internet - New York Times: "Nearly all libraries around the country have free public Internet access and an increasing number are offering wireless connections, according to a study released Thursday by the American Library Association here.
The study, which was conducted by researchers at Florida State University, found that 98.9 percent of libraries offer free public Internet access, up from 21 percent in 1994 and 95 percent in 2002. It also found that 18 percent of libraries have wireless Internet access and 21 percent plan to get it within the next year."

Cutting Here, but Hiring Over There - New York Times

Cutting Here, but Hiring Over There - New York Times: "Even as it proceeds with layoffs of up to 13,000 workers in Europe and the United States, I.B.M. plans to increase its payroll in India this year by more than 14,000 workers, according to an internal company document.
Those numbers are telling evidence of the continuing globalization of work and the migration of some skilled jobs to low-wage countries like India. And I.B.M., the world's largest information technology company, is something of a corporate laboratory that highlights the trend. Its actions inform the worries and policy debate that surround the rise of a global labor force in science, engineering and other fields that require advanced education."

Google hires prominent EBay engineer - The Boston Globe - Boston.com - Technology - Business

Google hires prominent EBay engineer - The Boston Globe - Boston.com - Technology - Business: "Google Inc., the most-used Internet search engine, has hired Louis Monier, a prominent EBay Inc. engineer and founder of the AltaVista search engine, in the latest sign of Google's efforts to attract talent to compete with Yahoo Inc.
Monier said in a phone interview yesterday that he left his job as director of EBay's advanced technology group last week and will start work at Google next week.
Google's hiring of Monier, a native of France who worked in the 1980s at Xerox Corp.'s Palo Alto Research Center in California, underscores the company's push to hire prominent engineers to develop new products. Mountain View, Calif.-based Google in March hired Mark Lucovsky, one of the creators of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT operating system."

WSJ.com - Oracle's Ellison Recruits Maffei To a Senior Role

WSJ.com - Oracle's Ellison Recruits Maffei To a Senior Role: "The software industry's self-styled consolidator just hired a new right-hand man.
Six months after Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison completed his $10.6 billion acquisition of PeopleSoft Inc., the billionaire software maker has recruited Gregory Maffei, an industry executive known for aggressive deal making at archrival Microsoft Corp., to become Oracle's president and chief financial officer.
Mr. Maffei was Microsoft's chief financial officer through a period of expansion in the 1990s and has been serving as chairman and CEO of telecommunications provider 360Networks Corp.
Mr. Maffei, 45 years old, assumes his new role immediately. He will oversee the company's finance, legal, human-resources, manufacturing, distribution, administrative and real-estate operations."

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Oracle to offer JDeveloper tool for free | InfoWorld | News | 2005-06-22 | By Paul Krill

Oracle to offer JDeveloper tool for free | InfoWorld | News | 2005-06-22 | By Paul Krill: "Oracle (Profile, Products, Articles) at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco next week will announce intentions to offer its JDeveloper 10g Java developer tool for free.
The tool, which has been priced at $995 per developer seat, will be available free of charge on June 28. Future releases will also be free.
Describing the tool as an SOA development environment, Oracle's Rick Schultz, vice president of Oracle Fusion middleware, said JDeveloper features an IDE, UML-based modeling, a BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) process flow designer, and Web-services capabilities.
...
“We’re actually doing some work in the Eclipse Foundation as well, but as far as JDeveloper, we really don’t even view it as a direct competitor in a way to Eclipse in a sense that JDeveloper is much more than an IDE,” he said. "

Beyond Wi-Fi: Laptop Heaven but a Price - New York Times

Beyond Wi-Fi: Laptop Heaven but a Price - New York Times: "EV-DO offers two addictive benefits. First, it's cellular. You don't have to hunt down public hot spots; an entire metropolitan area is a hot spot.
Second, EV-DO means sheer, giddy speed. EV-DO is a so-called 3G (third-generation) network, the fruits of $1 billion in Verizon development. And when your laptop or palmtop locks onto a good signal, you can practically feel the wind in your hair.
How fast is that, exactly? Verizon claims you'll be able to download data at an average of 400 to 700 kilobits per second (kbps), which turns out to be true. That makes EV-DO at least five times as fast as the rival technology offered by Cingular and T-Mobile, called EDGE (70 to 135 kbps), and about seven times as fast as Verizon's original data network (still available), which it calls NationalAccess (60 to 80 kbps).
...
Finally, there's the little matter of price: $80 a month, a price that seems expressly designed to milk corporate business travelers. On one hand, that price gets you unlimited service, and it really is $80 a month; at this point, you're not saddled with the taxes and fees that jack up your cellphone bill. On the other hand, that price doesn't even include cellphone service. (Of course, you can always use a free program like Skype to make voice calls while you're connected - but you didn't hear it from me.)"

The Seattle Times: Microsoft: Windows without player not big seller

The Seattle Times: Microsoft: Windows without player not big seller: "PC makers and distributors are holding back from buying the new alternative version of Windows XP that Europe's competition commissioner ordered Microsoft to offer as part of the punishment in the software maker's long antitrust battle with the European Union.
Windows XP N was released to distributors last week in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, and will be available to the public in the next few weeks. Versions in 10 additional languages will be released in July....
But computer distributors and manufacturers are so far showing little interest in the new product, which compels consumers to choose their media player and download it from the Internet. And that raises questions over the effectiveness of the media player component of the antitrust ruling."

I can't imagine this is a surprise to anyone...

Personal Technology -- Samsung Phone Offers Wireless Broadband, But It Has Drawbacks

Personal Technology -- Samsung Phone Offers Wireless Broadband, But It Has Drawbacks "For Americans who want a smart cellphone with a built-in keyboard for typing email, the best choice by far has been PalmOne's Treo 650, sold by most major U.S. wireless carriers.
The standard BlackBerry hand-helds from Research In Motion make clunky phones, and the slimmer BlackBerry 7100, while an acceptable phone, lacks a full keyboard. The models using Microsoft's hand-held software have either lacked keyboards altogether or been too large to make comfortable phones. In contrast, the Treo is both roomy enough to be a good hand-held email device and compact enough to be a good phone.
Starting today, Verizon Wireless will introduce in the U.S. the first Microsoft-based smart phone with a built-in keyboard that is about the same shape, size and weight as the Treo. This new phone, the $599 Samsung i730, has one major capability the $399 Treo lacks -- the ability to surf the Web and to send and receive email at broadband speeds.
...
Finally, the i730 is $200 more than the Treo 650. But if you prefer Microsoft's software to Palm's or crave having wireless broadband in a phone, the Samsung i730 is a good choice."

WSJ.com - Internet Scams, Breaches Drive Buyers Off the Web, Survey Finds

WSJ.com - Internet Scams, Breaches Drive Buyers Off the Web, Survey Finds: "A deluge of online scams and breaches of financial databases are taking a toll on electronic commerce, a survey from research firm Gartner Inc. shows.
In a disturbing message for online retailers and bankers, more than 42% of online shoppers and 28% of people who bank online are cutting back on their activity because of 'phishing' attacks and other assaults on sensitive data, according to a May survey of 5,000 U.S. online consumers by Gartner, scheduled for release today."

WSJ.com - Microsoft Extends Legal Protections

WSJ.com - Microsoft Extends Legal Protections: "Microsoft Corp. is extending legal protection to personal-computer makers and other partners, the latest step in the company's effort to combat the use of the Linux operating system and what it sees as increasing threats associated with intellectual-property disputes.
The Redmond, Wash., software maker will offer legal indemnification to shield partners that distribute Microsoft software from legal costs and damage claims resulting from litigation over patent, trade secrets or other intellectual property. Microsoft will cover the partners' costs and damages to a level based on the size of the business they do with Microsoft, according to Microsoft executives.
The move comes as Microsoft says partners are seeing growing risk of litigation related to intellectual property. The company already offered indemnification to customers and now it is broadening the program to include partners."

Microsoft to Ship Digital Image Suite 2006

Microsoft to Ship Digital Image Suite 2006: "While Digital Image Suite 2006 visually resembles and works much like its predecessor, this version includes a wide range of new features. The product now supports video management as well as image management, providing a single location in which to manage and organize digital photos and movies; as with images, movies can be rated, marked with flags and keywords, and shared. The suite also supports editing various Raw image formats, and includes a new device synchronization feature that helps you share digital images with portable devices through Windows Media Player 10. Digital Image Suite 2006 also includes PhotoStory 3.1, the latest version of Microsoft's amazing digital photo slideshow solution, which adds photo quick-edit features."

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

WSJ.com - Microsoft Aims to Be Top Seller Of Smart-Phone Software in 3 Years

WSJ.com - Microsoft Aims to Be Top Seller Of Smart-Phone Software in 3 Years: "Microsoft Corp. aims to become the top seller of software in the fast-growing "smart-phone" market within three years, said Ya-Qin Zhang, a top executive in the software giant's mobile business.
Dominance in software for smart phones – upgraded wireless handsets that handle functions like Internet surfing, email and videogames – has so far eluded Microsoft.
The world's largest software company entered the market in late 2002, but its share remains far behind industry leader Symbian Ltd., which is part-owned by Nokia Corp.
Mr. Zhang, however, said he believes a series of factors is likely to turn the tide in Microsoft's favor. There are now 48 manufacturers producing mobile devices based on the company's software, whereas most of the phones using Symbian software are made by one company, Nokia. World-wide, Microsoft-powered smart phones are available from 68 wireless carriers in 48 countries."

InformationWeek > Google > Google CEO: We Won't Compete Directly With PayPal > June 21, 2005

InformationWeek > Google > Google CEO: We Won't Compete Directly With PayPal > June 21, 2005: "Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt on Tuesday denied recent media and analyst reports that the online search engine leader is gearing up to compete directly with eBay Inc.'s pioneering PayPal service, although he acknowledged some kind of electronic payment product is in the works.
Although he declined to provide any details about the project, Schmidt made it clear it won't trespass on PayPal's turf.
'We do not intend to offer a person-to-person, stored-value payments system,' Schmidt said during an interview with The Associated Press. "

Ray Kurzweil's New Book

Ray Kurzweil's New Book: "I just got a preview copy of Ray Kurzweil's upcoming book, 'The Singularity Is Near.' I am still going through the tome's 603 pages, more than 100 of which are annotations and notes. What I've gleaned so far is, if you thought Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines,' which talked about a time when human and machine cognition would blur, was really out there, this new book is really, really out there. Delightfully so."

Microsoft to debut Web-based Communicator | CNET News.com

Microsoft to debut Web-based Communicator | CNET News.com: "Microsoft unveiled plans on Tuesday to introduce a Web-based version of its Communicator enterprise messaging software in order to offer customers increased flexibility in accessing the company's collaboration and communications tools.
...
According to Microsoft, using Communicator Web Access together with the company's Live Communications Server software will allow workers to access its IM system from any device connected to the Internet. Gupta called the introduction the next step in Microsoft's plan to provide "ubiquitous access to rich presence and an integrated communications experience.""

PC Magazine: BitTorrent Creator Dismisses Microsoft P2P Project

PC Magazine: BitTorrent Creator Dismisses Microsoft P2P Project: "Yesterday, BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen called Microsoft Research's attempt to create its own version of the person-to-person application 'vaporware' and 'complete garbage.'
In Cohen's blog, he said Microsoft Corp.'s boast that the new P2P protocol, codenamed Avalanche, would fix transfer rate problems and disconnections was unfounded."

Monday, June 20, 2005

lenn?: Skyping and Blogging from 40,000 Feet

lenn?: Skyping and Blogging from 40,000 Feet: "Ok, I know I am not the first one to write this post, but the miracle of in flight WiFi just kind of leaves a geek giddy with excitement. I am above the Baltic sea right now just having left Copenhagen on SAS to Tokyo Narita. I don't ever want to fly again without this. Called Melissa and was able to Skype for free from the cabin. Add in SAS's forward and bottom view cameras and I don't think I have ever flown an airline this innovative. Connexion by Boeing ... the killer app for Skype."

Oracle readies second grid database | CNET News.com

Oracle readies second grid database | CNET News.com: "The new version will support the XQuery, a new standard for developers to write applications that retrieve XML documents from a database. As part of a partnership with Microsoft, Oracle 10g will run Microsoft's Common Language Runtime. That will allow the database to run programs written with Microsoft languages such as C# or Visual Basic. "

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out - New York Times

Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out - New York Times: "Scientists and technologists have the same uneasy status in our society as the Jedi in the Galactic Republic. They are scorned by the cultural left and the cultural right, and young people avoid science and math classes in hordes. The tedious particulars of keeping ourselves alive, comfortable and free are being taken offline to countries where people are happy to sweat the details, as long as we have some foreign exchange left to send their way. Nothing is more seductive than to think that we, like the Jedi, could be masters of the most advanced technologies while living simple lives: to have a geek standard of living and spend our copious leisure time vegging out.
If the 'Star Wars' movies are remembered a century from now, it'll be because they are such exact parables for this state of affairs. Young people in other countries will watch them in classrooms as an answer to the question: Whatever became of that big rich country that used to buy the stuff we make? The answer: It went the way of the old Republic."

Neal Stephenson essay in NYT, via Dan Gillmor

Investing - Gates and Ozzie Get Into the Groove - FORTUNE - Page 1

Investing - Gates and Ozzie Get Into the Groove - FORTUNE - Page 1: "In an extended version of FORTUNE’s Q&A, the software legends reveal how Groove Networks’ tools will be incorporated into Microsoft’s universe."

Fortune subscription required... but some excerpts:
"How long have you guys known each other?
Ozzie: [We met in] either '81 or '82, when I was at Software Arts.
Then you stayed in touch as Ray developed Notes [for Lotus Development]?
Gates: We didn't know what Notes was, but we knew you [looks at Ozzie] were asking us a lot of very good networking protocol questions. Ray quickly got a reputation as giving us the best feedback on how our tools could be better.
How much has Microsoft wanted to beat Notes?
Gates: There are two ways to think of Notes. One is as an e-mail product, and the other is as a deep collaboration product. Microsoft competed with Notes as e-mail. We never matched Notes in some of the collaborative features."
...
What about your open-source rival OpenOffice?
Gates: Well, most people already own Microsoft Office, and so it's free to them, whereas OpenOffice is not the same quality, not innovating, and doesn't have all the modules. We compete with our installed base by innovating.
...
Bill, what makes you the most excited about Groove Networks?
Gates: Demand for information is at its greatest during a crisis like the tsunami. [Groove was used by relief organizations during that disaster.] All of these organizations were trying to gather information—"Where is the map?" "Where is this problem?" "Are we duplicating effort?" "Are we leaving something undone?" There are wonderful stories where Groove enabled all of these different organizations to do amazing things. Nobody wanted to let the other guy host the server and the network didn't always work. Groove made a real difference there. But we look at those things and say, "Gosh, we could have done even better."

Steve Case's New Act: You've Got Revolution! - New York Times

Steve Case's New Act: You've Got Revolution! - New York Times: "Mr. Case, 46, started Revolution, a private holding company, in April, two years after quitting as chairman of AOL Time Warner (now simply Time Warner). With at least $500 million of his own money committed to this venture, he is determined to shake up a lucrative sliver of the health care industry by buying and building companies that help people take care of themselves. "

Saturday, June 18, 2005

MasterCard Says 40 Million Files Are Put at Risk - New York Times

MasterCard Says 40 Million Files Are Put at Risk - New York Times: "MasterCard International reported yesterday that more than 40 million credit card accounts of all brands might have been exposed to fraud through a computer security breach at a payment processing company, perhaps the largest case of stolen consumer data to date.
MasterCard said its analysts and law enforcement officials had identified a pattern of fraudulent charges that were traced to an intrusion at CardSystems Solutions of Tucson, Ariz., which processes more than $15 billion in payments for small to midsize merchants and financial institutions each year. "

WSJ.com - Google to Offer Payment Service To Compete With eBay's PayPal

WSJ.com - Google to Offer Payment Service To Compete With eBay's PayPal: "Google Inc. this year plans to offer an electronic-payment service that could help the Internet-search company diversify its revenue and may heighten competition with eBay Inc.'s PayPal unit, according to people familiar with the matter.
Exact details of the search company's planned service are not known. But the knowledgeable people say it could have similarities with PayPal, which allows consumers to pay for purchases on Web sites by funding electronic-payment accounts from their credit cards or checking accounts. Some consumers like PayPal for the security it offers, since it allows them to share their banking or credit-card numbers only with PayPal without having to divulge the information to merchants."

Friday, June 17, 2005

Adobe Earnings Jump 37 Percent - Yahoo! News

Adobe Earnings Jump 37 Percent - Yahoo! News: "Adobe Systems Inc. said Thursday that its second-quarter profits rose 37 percent as the maker of Acrobat and Photoshop reported strong sales of its most popular software.
...
Responding to questions about how Adobe plans to compete with the world's largest software company, Adobe executives cited their 10-year lead in the market, large adoption of their software, and their numerous business partners.
Nonetheless, Chizen has acknowledged in the past that the only competitor that keeps him up at night is Microsoft.
"Given that Microsoft has $40 billion in revenue and unlimited resources we can't ignore them," Chizen said. "But we can feel good about where we are against where they are.""

PCWorld.com - Skype Does Videoconferencing and More

PCWorld.com - Skype Does Videoconferencing and More: "Skype Technologies' strategy of welcoming third-party vendors is spawning numerous extensions to its popular Internet telephony service, which is beginning to branch into videoconferencing, data collaboration, and mobile wireless calls."

Nice to see a healthy ecosystem around Skype, but I'm looking forward to a version of the Skype client that includes video etc. directly, rather than relying on 3rd-party vendors/initiatives.

Bink.nu | Microsoft readies BitTorrent alternative

Bink.nu | Microsoft readies BitTorrent alternative: "Researchers at Microsoft's (Profile, Products, Articles) Cambridge, England, labs are developing a file-sharing technology that they say could make it easier to distribute big files such as films, television programs and software applications to end-users over the Internet.
Code-named Avalanche, the technology is similar to existing peer-to-peer (P-to-P) file swapping systems such as BitTorrent's, in the sense that large files can be divided into many smaller pieces to ease their distribution. End users request the file parts from other users' hard drives and reassemble them to create the original file. "

Is Linux For Losers? - Forbes.com

Is Linux For Losers? - Forbes.com: "Theo de Raadt is a pioneer of the open source software movement and a huge proponent of free software. But he is no fan of the open source Linux operating system.
'It's terrible,' De Raadt says. 'Everyone is using it, and they don't realize how bad it is. And the Linux people will just stick with it and add to it rather than stepping back and saying, 'This is garbage and we should fix it.''
De Raadt makes a rival open source operating system called OpenBSD. Unlike Linux, which is a clone of Unix, OpenBSD is based on an actual Unix variant called Berkeley Software Distribution. BSD powers two of the best operating systems in the world--Solaris from Sun Microsystems (nasdaq: SUNW - news - people ) and OS X from Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people )."

Timely reality check -- read the entire article.

One-fifth of Web users prefer online news - Nielsen - Yahoo! News

One-fifth of Web users prefer online news - Nielsen - Yahoo! News: "Nearly one-fifth of Web users who read newspapers now prefer online to offline editions, according to a new study from Internet audience measurement company Nielsen//NetRatings.
The first-time study from Nielsen//NetRatings found that 21 percent of those Web users now primarily use online versions of newspapers, while 72 percent still read print editions.
The remaining 7 percent split their time between online and offline editions. Comparable historic statistics were not available."

I spend less time reading dead-tree publications but also scan far more sources than I used to...

PBS | I, Cringely . June 16, 2005 - The Osborne Effect

PBS | I, Cringely . June 16, 2005 - The Osborne Effect: "The reason for the drop was that the Osborne Executive was not competitive with the Kaypro, a slapped-together rival priced at a couple hundred less ($1,795 instead of $1,995 for the Osborne 1), but it had a much larger screen -- 12 inches compared to O1's five inches.
The Executive came out, much better built, more manufacturable, but with a mere 7-inch screen. There was deep disappointment among Osborne fans. Worse, it was priced at $2,195 -- a two hundred dollar increase in a very price-sensitive end of the market! Four hundred dollars more than Kaypro for a brand name but a smaller screen? No thank you! Buyers walked away. Osborne sales dropped to fewer than a thousand a month for the next three months--which was enough to choke the high-flying company, which was forced to declare bankruptcy after a mere five months of this.
But the buyers just walked across the street to the Kaypro. Kaypro sales jumped to nearly 10,000 a month -- in other words, they captured all the disgusted Osborne buyers. Which proves the Osborne's disaster had nothing to do with, as legend has it, the 'pre-announced DOS machine.' The Kaypro was and remained for the next 18 months a CP/M machine.
So poor Adam Osborne is off the hook. Spread the word."

I stand corrected. BTW I still have my trusty Kaypro -- here's a picture of a similar box on eBay, for those of you who weren't born yet when I purchased it... Tragically, the CP/M boot disk for this type of unit is currently listed on eBay for the same asking price -- $9.99.

Investing - Gates and Ozzie: How to Escape E-Mail Hell - Intro - FORTUNE

Investing - Gates and Ozzie: How to Escape E-Mail Hell - Intro - FORTUNE: "On a shelf in Bill Gates' austere office at Microsoft in Redmond, Wash., sits a crystal ball. It was an apt accouterment for the conversation FORTUNE's David Kirkpatrick had there last month with Gates and top lieutenant Ray Ozzie --a 90-minute exploration of how technology will shape our working lives in the next decade. "

Alas, you'll need a Fortune account to read the full interview...

Thursday, June 16, 2005

A Tablet Ready for Prime Time

A Tablet Ready for Prime Time: "Tablets have found a market with people in specialized jobs who use them as electronic clipboards for filling out forms and other tasks. But that's not where the mass market lies. For most people, these devices will serve mainly as conventional laptops. Only when specific tasks demand it will users swivel the screens around and write on them with a stylus. I have tried several of these 'convertible' tablets, and the problem they all share is their mediocrity as notebooks. The value added by the tablet features isn't enough to justify the purchase.
The difference in the $1,899 ThinkPad X41 Tablet is that it began life as the ThinkPad X41, which I regard as the best notebook in its class by far. And interestingly, while it was developed at IBM and carries the IBM brand, the X41 Tablet is in fact the first ThinkPad to hit the market since Lenovo Group acquired IBM's PC division in May."

Ed Brill: IBM Lotus Notes/Domino Strategy presentation from DNUG/IBM Lotus Technical Forum

Ed Brill: IBM Lotus Notes/Domino Strategy presentation from DNUG/IBM Lotus Technical Forum More details on Hannover and a summary of recent Notes-related developments

Lucane Groupware - Open source Groupware comparison

Lucane Groupware - Open source Groupware comparison Handy summary table via Arndt & Partner Weblog

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: BlackBerry backup plan set in patent impasse

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: BlackBerry backup plan set in patent impasse: "Research In Motion Co-Chief Executive Officer James Balsillie said he has back-up technology to keep U.S. BlackBerry devices running should a 3-month-old patent settlement with NTP fall apart.
'A workaround is a viable option,' Balsillie said in an interview yesterday. The alternative technology would run BlackBerry phones and pagers and is designed not to infringe on patents held by NTP."

Jerky Pictures and Sound Are History. Videoconferencing Is All Grown Up. - New York Times

Jerky Pictures and Sound Are History. Videoconferencing Is All Grown Up. - New York Times: "When Kevin Callahan started offering classical guitar lessons over an Internet video link, he wanted the sound to be as close as possible to being in the same room. After experimenting, he built a system that channeled three guitars, a microphone, and an orchestral synthesizer through a professional mixing board to his Macintosh. From there, he blended the sound with Apple's GarageBand software before sending it out over the Internet.
'It's not necessary,' he explained a bit nonchalantly, 'but it gives me quite a bit of flexibility.'
Now, he sits in his studio in Seattle and teaches students in Florida, California, Massachusetts and Spain. Some of his local students even use the system when time or illness keeps them from traveling to his house."

New Yahoo service searches subscription sites - Yahoo! News

New Yahoo service searches subscription sites - Yahoo! News: "Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) late on Wednesday said it had begun testing a service to search information on password-protected subscription sites such as LexisNexis, known as the 'deep Web.'
The move comes as Yahoo, Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG - news) and Ask Jeeves Inc. (Nasdaq:ASKJ - news) rush to give Web searchers access to ever more information -- from books, blogs and scholarly journals to news, products, images and video."

Personal Technology -- Free Microsoft Stopgap Offers Tabbed Browsing And Desktop Searching

Personal Technology -- Free Microsoft Stopgap Offers Tabbed Browsing And Desktop Searching: "Windows won't have integrated desktop search until the fall of 2006, and IE won't have built-in tabbed browsing until this summer. But Microsoft has just released a free product that adds both features to Windows computers. These add-on versions of desktop search and tabbed browsing aren't as good as their built-in counterparts, but they get the basic job done.
Microsoft's new, free utility goes by the ridiculously long name of MSN Search Toolbar With Windows Desktop Search, and it can be downloaded at toolbar.msn.com. When you download the toolbar, it adds a new row of icons and drop-down menus to the IE browser. Many of these are aimed at driving users to other MSN products, like its Hotmail email service. But you can also use the toolbar to turn on tabbed browsing and to perform desktop searches.
...
In my tests, MSN search did pretty well at finding things, but not as well as Apple's. Because it is built into the operating system, the Apple search feature could turn up words in emails seconds after they arrived. The MSN search had to wait to index newly arrived files.
The new MSN toolbar is a decent stopgap effort at desktop search and tabbed browsing. But I hope the integrated implementation of these features from Microsoft is better."

Not every day you see Microsoft critics looking forward to more feature/function integration at the OS level.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Who Will Google Buy Next? || kuro5hin.org

Who Will Google Buy Next? || kuro5hin.org: "Google is the new Internet behemoth, snatching up small companies left and right. So, in this article, I ask: what tech gems are in the running for Google's growing subsidiary menagerie? To help predict, I will first take a look at who Google has acquired in the past and what Google has done for them, and then I'll throw out a few possibilities for Googlification and discuss where they might fit into Google's strategy. "

Timely analysis via Slashdot

How Lance Armstrong Gets His Unusual Energy - New York Times

How Lance Armstrong Gets His Unusual Energy - New York Times: "Armstrong can ride up the mountains in France generating about 500 watts of power for 20 minutes, something a typical 25-year-old could do for only 30 seconds. A professional hockey player might last three minutes - and then throw up.
So how does he do it?
According to a scientist who studied Armstrong at regular intervals from 1992 to 1999, his prowess can be explained by a set of physiological changes that took place in his body over those seven years and that, in all probability, are continuing.
The changes are described in an article titled 'Improved Muscular Efficiency Displayed as Tour de France Champion Matures' in the June issue of The Journal of Applied Physiology."

InformationWeek > Interview > Ballmer On The 'New World Of Work' > June 14, 2005

InformationWeek > Interview > Ballmer On The 'New World Of Work' > June 14, 2005: "Ballmer: Ray understands how to do this. Groove got sold to CIOs, not to end users, primarily. What Ray was trying to do with Groove was to make sure you got the best of decentralization and the best of federation--that was a basic part of the Groove model. With the work we're doing to federate Active Directory over time with Passport, you want the best of decentralized and centralized. You really don't want to push all one way. With a decentralized design, it's hard to get corporate to buy-in. And if you're all centralized, you can't get any kind of organic, bottom-up work. ... Office 12 will bring with it a set of things to support this style of work because Office 12 is not going to require a new release of Windows at all. It will also run on Windows XP and other versions of Windows. The Groove infrastructure eventually could be made available independently of an Office release, but the initial thought is just to get Office 12 and Groove well integrated."

Yahoo buys blo.gs: Corante > Get Real > Yahoo buys blo.gs

Yahoo buys blo.gs: Corante > Get Real > Yahoo buys blo.gs: "I can see Yahoo making the run to be a major player in the service convergence trend. Picking up today 2 companies, and not too far back Flickr, is just the start. VoIP. Blogging. Photo sharing. All different services. Now all offered as part of the Yahoo bundle. "

CTC 2005 - CTC 2005 wiki

CTC 2005 - CTC 2005 Nice use of a wiki for the CTC conference in NYC next week. Check out the Socialtext offer in the right-hand side of the main page.

Netscape co-founder eyes video blogs | CNET News.com

Netscape co-founder eyes video blogs | CNET News.com: "Do bloggers really work in their underwear? Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen is behind a company that may answer that question. "

The slow road to Windows XP | CNET News.com

The slow road to Windows XP | CNET News.com: "Windows XP use surged to 38 percent by the first quarter of this year, up from 6.6 percent in the third quarter of 2003. However, the popularity of Windows 2000 has remained high, with the venerable operating system still in use in 48 percent of business PCs during the first quarter of 2005, down just four percentage points from the third quarter of 2003.
...
The sustained use of Windows 2000 is particularly significant as Microsoft prepares to end mainstream support for it at the end of this month. The company will still patch any important security flaws, but most other updating of the OS will cease. Support calls on nonsecurity matters will also be handled only on a paid basis."

WSJ.com - Yahoo Buys Firm That Offers Calls From PC to Phone

WSJ.com - Yahoo Buys Firm That Offers Calls From PC to Phone: "Yahoo Inc. said it acquired Internet telephony company Dialpad Communications Inc., in a move that will allow it to offer calling between computers and standard telephones.
Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Closely held Dialpad, of Milpitas, Calif., has about 40 employees. It lets consumers make voice calls from their PCs that are routed over the Internet to the conventional telephone network, with unlimited calls within the U.S. and Canada currently costing $11.99 a month. A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to say whether Yahoo, of Sunnyvale, Calif., would change Dialpad's fees."

Okay so maybe not Skype (which probably has a self-estimated value of approximately $infinity at this point)...

WSJ.com - The Mossberg Solution: Taking the Mystery Out of Blog Creation

WSJ.com - The Mossberg Solution: "MSN Spaces gets our vote for the easiest way to create a blog -- regardless of technological know-how. Blogging doesn't have to be intimidating any more, and we think most users will be shocked by how easy it has become."

Read the entire review for details on MSN, Blogger, and Yahoo! 360; see http://ptech.wsj.com/solution.html for free access if you don't subscribe to wsj.com.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Microsoft Revamps Music Strategy to Compete with Apple

Microsoft Revamps Music Strategy to Compete with Apple: "Microsoft's tenacious competitive style could eventually wear on Apple's dominant digital music market position. But Apple is sitting pretty, at least for now. This year, the company's digital music offerings are set to outpace sales of its computer products for the first time, and Microsoft and its ilk are still a distant number two at best. Nothing suggests that customers are interested in abandoning Apple's simple, elegant products, regardless of Microsoft's plans. If history is any guide, Apple has nothing to fear--at least not for the next few years."

Read the entire post -- interesting perspective

Wired News: Live, Jobs Tells Stanford Grads

Wired News: Live, Jobs Tells Stanford Grads: "Steve Jobs told Stanford University graduates Sunday that dropping out of college was one of the best decisions he ever made because it forced him to be innovative -- even when it came to finding enough money for dinner."

More "think different" advice from Steve Jobs...

Bink.nu | Gentoo Linux founder joins Microsoft

Bink.nu | Gentoo Linux founder joins Microsoft: "The founder of the Gentoo Linux Project has taken up a job with Microsoft, according to the project's website.
Daniel Robbins joined the Redmond, Washington-based company on May 23. He had given up responsibilities as a Gentoo developer last April.
He will be helping Microsoft to understand Open Source and community-based projects, he said on the Gentoo Linux project website."

Exchange Security: Pod slurping?

Exchange Security: Pod slurping?: "From the 'sounds dirty, but isn't' department, the newest security threat to corporate America: pod slurping. Abe Usher wrote a small executable that can be run from an iPod connected to a PC. When run, slurp will find and copy all of the document files it sees in subdirectories of c:\documents and settings. I hate it when that happens. "

Ed Brill

Ed Brill: "With the 7.0 release of the products, we will be reverting to the Sametime and QuickPlace naming for our Domino instant messaging/Web conferencing and team space offerings. ...
We hope our decision to revert back to the original names gives an indication both of the value we place in feedback from our customers and business partners, as well as to serve as an indication of the continued importance these offerings play in our portfolio of collaboration software."

Adam Gartenberg via Ed Brill

Brian Jones: Office XML Formats : MS Office Open XML Formats and OpenDocument XML format

Brian Jones: Office XML Formats : MS Office Open XML Formats and OpenDocument XML format: "The primary question I’ve been getting is whether or not the two formats are the same. The two formats are very different even though they both use ZIP and XML because they use different schemas. The basis for the OpenDocument format work was the OpenOffice.org XML file format (http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/office/faq.php) that originated I believe with the StarOffice product, where the goal of that group was to create an open and interoperable format. Similarly, our goal in Microsoft has also been to create an open and interoperable format. That’s why we made such a big push to use both ZIP and XML, because they are already so widely in use. Actually a lot of other people in the industry also use XML with ZIP to create XML based formats, for example in the CAD industry it’s great because XML compresses so well with ZIP and provides an easy to use container. That wide use makes it easier for people to take our formats and build on top of them. This is where the similarity between the two formats stops though: Our primary goal at Microsoft was to create an open format that fully represented all of the features that our customers have used in their existing documents, documents that have been created using the existing Office products over the past couple decades."

Novell Continues WordPerfect Antitrust Battle Against Microsoft

Novell Continues WordPerfect Antitrust Battle Against Microsoft: "According to a report on Bloomberg News, a federal judge in Baltimore has given Novell the go-ahead to continue pursuing two antitrust claims against Microsoft. The claims involve WordPerfect, the word-processing software that Novell briefly owned in the mid-1990s. US District Judge Frederick Motz rejected four other Novell claims, however, noting that the company waited too long to pursue them.
According to Novell, Microsoft's anticompetitive behavior damaged Novell's ability to sell WordPerfect software. In 1990, Novell says, WordPerfect commanded 50 percent of the market. That market share was reduced to just 10 percent by 1996, when Microsoft Office Word seized a monopoly-level 90 percent of the market, a dominance that Office products continue to enjoy today. To support its claims, Novell cites various Microsoft email messages and other evidence that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) unearthed during its epic antitrust battle with the software giant."

WSJ.com - Microsoft Taps Xbox Leader For Music Fix

WSJ.com - Microsoft Taps Xbox Leader For Music Fix: "In digital music's battle of the bands, Microsoft Corp. and its orchestra of partners is being outplayed by Steve Jobs's one-man band.
Microsoft hopes a new conductor will help it fight back. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has quietly tapped a rising star, 43-year-old Senior Vice President Robbie Bach, to revamp Microsoft's digital-music strategy and compete better with Apple Computer Inc., people familiar with the matter say. Mr. Bach, who heads Microsoft's Xbox videogame unit, will take on the additional role in music and may oversee strategy for some other consumer markets, these people say.
Mr. Bach is expected to be given the authority to push for a range of changes, such as setting up a team focused solely on digital music, reorganizing product groups, or acquiring companies, the people familiar with the matter say. Mr. Bach's new role will add to his current responsibilities as co-chairman of an executive committee that steers consumer strategy. One immediate mission for him will be to make Microsoft's new Xbox a hub for handling digital music. A Microsoft spokesman says it is too early to discuss Mr. Bach's new role."

For now, I'm still very pleased with Yahoo! Music Unlimited, despite the fact that its beta Windows client crashes occasionally. Note that the service's main page now says "Over 1 million songs to go. $4.99/month. This price WON'T LAST." Hmmm...

Monday, June 13, 2005

A View from Elsewhere : I’m Missing Something Here

A View from Elsewhere : I’m Missing Something Here: "All of this comes up because I’ve been playing with a bunch of AJAX programming frameworks for the last two weeks – AJAX.NET, Ruby On Rails, Sajax, and DWR. I wanted to see if a patzer like me could use them to build Web applications. My verdict: not quite yet. Yes, I could build things. I couldn’t build anything as sophisticated as Google Maps. I could build applications that worked better. I also found a host of irregularities in how different browsers render things. And I really wished I had a good set of tools to build the applications with.
I’m not sure if AJAX is an amazing transformational technology, or simply the pinnacle of what you can do with Javascript. Nor am I sure that I wouldn’t have been better off writing a ClickOnce Windows Forms app for most of what I was doing."

An AJAX reality check from Microsoft's John Montgomery. BTW, John: I had to use Firefox to excerpt from your blog; IE includes garbage characters -- e.g., "All of this comes up because I’ve been playing with a bunch of AJAX programming frameworks for the last two weeks â€...“

Always Thinking: Going from Wired to Unwired

Always Thinking: Going from Wired to Unwired: "We made a number of assumptions in the Messenger protocol based on the above, assumptions that have proven ill-advised. The most basic one is the one-to-one correspondence between user session and TCP/IP connection. Wireless networked devices – and I would include not just PCs but modern mobile phones that have GPRS or comparable packet-switched networking support – are requiring us to redesign our protocols to handle high-speed connections that are far more tenuous than the ones we originally designed for. Now we talk a lot about improving “session resiliency”, the notion that a user session in Messenger should be far more tolerant of state changes in the underlying network connectivity. Because it affects not just you but the people with whom you communicate, this change is fairly pervasive in the system, from the client UI all the way down to the lowest-level protocol goo on the client and server."

FTPOnline.com Tech•Ed: New Dev Tools Leverage Office

FTPOnline.com Tech•Ed: New Dev Tools Leverage Office: "In fact, that major announcement got short shrift in Monday's keynote: now VSTO includes support for building applications inside Outlook. Most information workers spend most of their time inside Outlook – so adding this capability will be a boon to enterprise developers. As Holtgrewe explained, "Technology is not there to keep a geek happy. It's there for the end user. People say they want apps that look like Word, Excel, Outlook – but we say even better to be in Word, Excel, or Outlook." "

Subtly significant -- simplifies creation of many useful app types.

For BlackBerry Maker, Anxiety Rises as a Deal Unravels - New York Times

For BlackBerry Maker, Anxiety Rises as a Deal Unravels - New York Times: "In a court filing that followed, the privately held NTP indicated that if the settlement cannot be revived, it plans to invoke an injunction banning sales of BlackBerries and their e-mail service throughout the United States.
That injunction, which was put on hold during R.I.M.'s appeal, has grown more powerful with time. After years of having the wireless e-mail market more or less to itself, R.I.M. now faces competition from hardware makers like Palm Computing and software vendors including Seven Networks, Good Technology and the Visto Corporation.
For now, a shutdown of Research in Motion in the United States, where the company gets about three-quarters of its revenues, is far from certain. But the renewed legal uncertainty is almost toxic for some members of the investment community."

Some Cafe Owners Pull the Plug on Lingering Wi-Fi Users - New York Times

Some Cafe Owners Pull the Plug on Lingering Wi-Fi Users - New York Times: "Victrola started providing free wireless access two years ago after customers asked for it. As in hundreds of other cafes, the owners hoped it would encourage regulars and infrequent patrons to buy more food and drinks. But there was also a disadvantage, staff members said: the cafe filled with laptop users each weekend, often one to a table meant for four. Some would sit for six to eight hours purchasing a single drink, or nothing at all.
Even worse, when lingerers were confronted, they were bellicose. 'We get yelled at by people who feel it's their right' to use Victrola's Wi-Fi without making a purchase, Ms. Strongin said. Tony Konecny, the shop's head roaster, added, 'It's rarely a pleasant interaction.'
But Ms. Strongin and her staff said they were more concerned that the cafe, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, had turned into a place devoid of sound except the light clack of keys, not the focus of lively interaction that she and her husband, Chris Sharp, had intended.
So last month the cafe discontinued the free service on Saturdays and Sundays - and so far it has proved to be a sound business move. Weekend revenue is up and more seats are filled. "

WSJ.com - Portals: Prices of Tech Items Seem to Keep Falling -- With a Few Exceptions

WSJ.com - Portals: Prices of Tech Items Seem to Keep Falling -- With a Few Exceptions: "How low can they go? Over the past few weeks, personal computers reached a significant milestone: The price for an entry-level but fully loaded system fell below $300.
Dell -- which wasn't even the first PC maker to take the step -- last week was offering for $299 a Windows computer that had most of what a beginning user would want. That list includes a 17-inch monitor, a 2.4 gigahertz Celeron processor, 256 megabytes of RAM and a 40-gigabyte hard drive.
A nearly identical system a year ago cost $499, and while it had only half as much RAM, it did provide speakers. The newer, cheaper model doesn't have any, but you can add a pair for $20."

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Microsoft's Hejlsberg touts .Net, C-Omega technologies | InfoWorld | News | 2005-06-10 | By Paul Krill

Microsoft's Hejlsberg touts .Net, C-Omega technologies | InfoWorld | News | 2005-06-10 | By Paul Krill: "InfoWorld: What's the user base of C# as opposed to Visual Basic or C++?
Hejlsberg: It depends on how you count. If you count in Visual Basic, VB6 and VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) and VB.Net and whatever, it's obviously an enormous user base that dwarfs practically everything else. If you look at C# vs. VB.NET vs. C++, [managed] C++ on the .Net run time, I'd say C# and VB are about neck and neck. I believe they're about 45 and 45 percent and then managed C++ is the remaining 10 percent or something like that, I think. But that's just if you look at who runs their code on .Net. I don't even think I have numbers in my head about how many VB6 programmers there are in the world, but it's in the millions, and the same is true for C++. "

Saturday, June 11, 2005

What's Really Behind the Apple-Intel Alliance - New York Times

What's Really Behind the Apple-Intel Alliance - New York Times: "Now that Mr. Jobs has broken with I.B.M., however, Apple is free to pursue a potentially intriguing consumer electronics strategy with Intel.
Intel has been looking for ways to get its chips into devices that can compete with game consoles as living-room entertainment hubs. In fact, all three next-generation video game machines made by Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony are based on I.B.M. chips. And analysts say that both Microsoft's Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3, scheduled to arrive next spring, will be positioned as home media hubs in addition to being video game machines - and priced far lower than the Intel-powered, Windows Media Center PC's that are also aimed at the living room.
Should the new consoles find wide acceptance as broad-based entertainment engines, Intel will need to respond - and one attractive alternative would be an inexpensive Macintosh Mini based on an Intel processor, able to run the vast library of PC games."

Skype in merger talks with Yahoo? - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Skype in merger talks with Yahoo? - Engadget - www.engadget.com: "It's sort of early in the game on this, but word on the street is that Skype and Yahoo are in 'close contact,' as in, snuggly enough to talk about a possible buyout. It makes sense from the standpoint that Yahoo already wants to add voice to their Yahoo! Messenger platform, and Skype would be an attractive acquisition in terms of merging IM with VoIP."

Via Dave Winer

That would be a bold and potentially brilliant move

Friday, June 10, 2005

Apple and Intel | New best friends | Economist.com

Apple and Intel | New best friends | Economist.com: "A far more strategic, but very unlikely, change would be for Apple to use the Intel alliance to reconsider its basic philosophy about combining hardware and software. Tom Berquist, an analyst at Citigroup, reckons that it could try to sell its operating system “shrink wrapped” to owners of other Intel-powered computers, thus attacking the huge installed base of machines running Microsoft's Windows. As it happens, Apple's migration to Intel chips will coincide with the launch of a new version of Windows, code-named “Longhorn”, that will force many users to upgrade anyway. The main implication, however, is that the old certainties are gone. Just as Apple is embracing Intel and firing IBM, Microsoft has abandoned its old ally Intel in favour of IBM (for its consoles, that is). Suddenly, it seems, everybody is getting into bed with everybody. Think of consumer-electronics giants such as Sony, cable companies such as Comcast, or new internet powers such as Google or Yahoo! and one can imagine a lot more hugging to come."

(Economist subscription required to read full article; sorry...)

Good Morning Silicon Valley: Quoted

Good Morning Silicon Valley: Quoted: "'John Lennon said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. No argument, it was true, they were. Well, even though the vast majority of people have never heard of Steve [Gillmor] or myself, we're more influential than John Lennon or Bob Dylan ever were. We're media hackers.'
-- Blogger Dave Winer's last words before his ego exploded."

Platformonomics: Charles Fitzgerald's Weblog

Platformonomics: Charlles Fitzgerald's Weblog "To state the obvious, I am finally doing a blog. I’ve wanted to do it for a long time but have held off for fear that the intervals between posts would be measured in geologic time. Microsoft’s guidance on blogging is “don’t be stupid” but says nothing about frequency. Hopefully the pressure of having leapt off the cliff will keep me from embarrassing myself too much."

Welcome, Charles!

CTC 2005 | CollabLog: Wikis for Group Collaboration

CTC 2005 | CollabLog: Wikis for Group Collaboration "The average Fortune 1000 employee spends 4 hours in email everyday, where email captures 75% of knowledge and 90% of collaboration time. So, email carries with it a lot of inefficiencies in productivity and, by its archiving system and inconsistent sending lists, does not foster group memory. My email archive is different from those in my project team - my memory of the project is just one of many isolated threads of the overall picture - our group memories are disrupted, and there is no way to easily share them with new group members.
Wikis, when used for project communication instead of group emails can help solve these issues. Socialtext has found that time savings and shared understanding through access to information can reduce the project cycle by 25%. Group emails create occupational spam; with a wiki, you can choose which material you are notified of, how often, and in what form (email, RSS). This type of asynchronous communication gives you the control."

Comments from Socialtext CEO Ross Mayfield

WSJ.com - Glass Lewis Recommends Against Symantec-Veritas Merger

WSJ.com - Glass Lewis Recommends Against Symantec-Veritas Merger: "Shareholders should reject Symantec Corp.'s (SYMC) proposed merger with Veritas Software Corp. (VRTS), proxy research firm Glass Lewis & Co. said Thursday.
In a 22-page report laying out its objections, Glass Lewis called the combination, valued at $13.5 billion when it was announced in December, too expensive and not strategic enough for the security software vendor.
'It is unusual for us to oppose a deal,' says Kevin Cameron, Glass Lewis's president. But the combination 'is rich even by technology (merger) standards.'
...
Investors fear Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) move into the anti-virus software market will hurt Symantec's business. For that reason, the company is trying to diversify its revenue.
But "we believe that a combined security/storage solution would offer no competitive advantage against Microsoft in the consumer anti-virus market," Glass Lewis said."

PBS | I, Cringely . June 9, 2005 - Going for Broke

PBS | I, Cringely . June 9, 2005 - Going for Broke "Enter Apple. This isn't a story about Intel gaining another three percent market share at the expense of IBM, it is about Intel taking back control of the desktop from Microsoft.
Intel is fed up with Microsoft. Microsoft has no innovation that drives what Intel must have, which is a use for more processing power. And when they did have one with the Xbox, they went elsewhere.
So Intel buys Apple and works with their OEMs to get products out in the market. The OEMs would love to be able to offer a higher margin product with better reliability than Microsoft. Intel/Apple enters the market just as Microsoft announces yet another delay in their next generation OS. By the way, the new Apple OS for the Intel Architecture has a compatibility mode with Windows (I'm just guessing on this one).
This scenario works well for everyone except Microsoft. If Intel was able to own the Mac OS and make it available to all the OEMs, it could break the back of Microsoft. And if they tuned the OS to take advantage of unique features that only Intel had, they would put AMD back in the box, too. Apple could return Intel to its traditional role of being where all the value was in the PC world. And Apple/Intel could easily extend this to the consumer electronics world. How much would it cost Intel to buy Apple? Not much. And if they paid in stock it would cost nothing at all since investors would drive shares through the roof on a huge swell of user enthusiasm.
That's the story as I see it unfolding. Steve Jobs finally beats Bill Gates. And with the sale of Apple to Intel, Steve accepts the position of CEO of the Pixar/Disney/Sony Media Company.
Remember, you read it here first."

Fun analysis, but review the questions in the article, consider the odds of an Intel/Apple acquisition, and press the recalc button...

A Look Inside Microsoft's 'Metro' Document Format

A Look Inside Microsoft's 'Metro' Document Format: "PDFzone: Which format do you see as being more viable, PDF or Metro?
Ford: From the Global Graphics perspective, we see segments and markets where both these formats are going to be very important and where they have specific strengths either in the format itself or in the platform that supports that format. From our business point of view, we see having to supply technology that supports both platforms across pretty much all markets. There are things that Metro will provide say a corporate user or environment, for example, and there are a number of things that the whole of the Metro initiative -- not just the format, but the bits that go with it -- will provide that PDF doesn't and will solve problems that PDF doesn't solve. And there are things that PDF provides that Metro won't."

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Oracle adds to database portfolio with TimesTen | CNET News.com

Oracle adds to database portfolio with TimesTen | CNET News.com: "For example, TimesTen's software is used by wireless operators to make several calculations during a call, such as the caller's balance and the right tariff to use, explained Groff.
The company has about 1,500 customers.
Venture-backed TimesTen, which was spun off of Hewlett-Packard, is already aligned with Oracle's database technology. The company's database caching product, for example, only works with Oracle's database, which is widely used in large corporations.
...
Competitors of TimesTen include embedded database vendors and specialized, privately backed companies, said Groff. Database luminary Michael Stonebraker, for example, founded a company called StreamBase for real-time data management."

IBM Software - IBM Workplace Client Technology, Rich Edition

IBM Software - IBM Workplace Client Technology, Rich Edition: "IBM Workplace Managed Client, formerly IBM Workplace Client Technology, Rich Edition, delivers fully integrated server-managed collaboration to the end user's desktop. It provides flexibility and portability of client-side applications, combined with server-side control and cost savings traditionally associated with Web-based computing -- for the best of both worlds. IBM Workplace Managed Client capabilities include online and offline access to messaging, documents, instant messaging, Activity Explorer, productivity tools, and data access. "

Note the name change.

Oracle and TimesTen

Oracle and TimesTen: "On June 9, Oracle announced that it is acquiring TimesTen, Inc., a leading provider of real-time data management software, to extend Oracle Database and Oracle Fusion Middleware. We would like to welcome TimesTen customers to Oracle.
This site will help you learn more about Oracle's acquisition of TimesTen, and what it will mean to our customers and partners."

Another DBMS market consolidation milestone...

The brains behind Apple's Rosetta: Transitive | CNET News.com

The brains behind Apple's Rosetta: Transitive | CNET News.com: "A Silicon Valley start-up called Transitive is supplying Apple Computer with a crucial bridge to enable the move to Intel-based computers, but skeptics worry about performance problems that have plagued similar products.
Transitive is providing the engine used in Apple's Rosetta software, which translates software for its current machines using PowerPC processors so it can run on forthcoming Intel-based Macintoshes. 'We've had a long-term relationship with them,' Transitive Chief Executive Bob Wiederhold said Tuesday."

Has Apple actually created something on its own since 1983?...

WSJ.com - TiVo Is Extending Its Mobile Service To More Devices

WSJ.com - TiVo Is Extending Its Mobile Service To More Devices: "TiVo Inc. said it expanded its mobile service to include pocket personal computers and mobile phones running on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software.
The digital-video-recording pioneer rolled out the mobile service, TiVoToGo, earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show, allowing customers to transfer video content from their TiVo boxes onto their laptops. Expanding the capability to additional mobile devices is 'a natural progression,' said Jim Denney, TiVo's director of product marketing.
The service is available to any of the three million TiVo customers with the Series2 box. Content can be pushed onto any of the newer Smartphones or Pocket PCs that use Windows Mobile."

WSJ.com - BEA Launches AquaLogic In Bid To Halt Software Slide

WSJ.com - BEA Launches AquaLogic In Bid To Halt Software Slide: "BEA Systems Inc. (BEAS) Thursday launched a new product family called AquaLogic, which enables the creation of Web services, in a bid to turnaround its flagging software sales and ride a software industry trend.
The San Jose, Calif., software maker, one of the dominant players in the $6 billion application server market, has a lot at stake with AquaLogic.
BEA's software sales, anchored by its WebLogic application server, have been slipping for more than a year as competition increases. In the fiscal first quarter, BEA's license sales fell 3% continuing the trend from the previous fiscal year, when new software sales slumped 7%."

WSJ.com - Personal Technology: What the Apple Plan To Switch to Intel Chips Means for Consumers

WSJ.com - Personal Technology: What the Apple Plan To Switch to Intel Chips Means for Consumers: "Will users be able to install and run Microsoft Windows on the new Intel-based Macs?
Apple's official position is that it won't block the use of Windows on its new machines. Unofficially, however, the company says people won't be able to just buy a copy of Windows XP and install it on an Intel-based Mac. That's because Apple is unlikely to build in all the standard under-the-hood hardware pieces that Windows is designed to mate with. And it won't supply any special software called 'drivers' to help Windows use the unique under-the-hood hardware Apple will use.
However, I expect some third-party company to supply the missing drivers and otherwise make it possible to run Windows on an Intel-based Mac. Microsoft itself might even do this. That would allow Mac users to run Windows programs that lack Mac equivalents at speeds comparable to a Windows computer's.
Will Mac prices fall due to the switch to Intel?
There's no way to tell now, but I doubt it. Apple's lower volumes, higher quality and unusual designs will likely keep it out of the very basement of the market."

Scripting News: 6/9/2005

Scripting News: 6/9/2005: "Okay, Steve Gillmor is going to like this chain of logic. John Lennon said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. No argument, it was true, they were. Well, even though the vast majority of people have never heard of Steve or myself, we're more influential than John Lennon or Bob Dylan ever were. We're media hackers. It's true they led a media revolution in the 1960s. But we're hacking media in the 21st century. How do I know? Well who's the biggest podcaster? (Okay for sure you think I'm going to say Dave Winer, but I'm not.) The biggest podcaster is, sad to say Rush Limbaugh, and he knows it too. But that's only temporary. Limbaugh is a radio star. We're going to have our own stars. Limbaugh is good for this medium, much better than the other guy who every one thinks is number one. Rush is a star, the other guy is a DJ. But Limbaugh ain't Dylan or Lennon or even Jesus. "

I think somebody needs an extensive vacation...

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Brian Jones: Office XML Formats : Office 12 Buzzsite

Brian Jones: Office XML Formats : Office 12 Buzzsite: "The Office 12 buzzsite is now up and running. It's the best place to sign up for future updates on product news, and currently has some great resources around the XML formats. The two whitepapers that I've already linked to are there, as well as Q&A and information guide. Between my blog and that site, you should be pretty well covered for new around the next version, and especially around the new formats."

Ballardvale Blog: Microsoft's XML Move

Ballardvale Blog: Microsoft's XML Move: "Regarding Microsoft's dominance of the office market, it will continue. True, non-proprietary formats make it easier for IT departments to urge switching to alternatives such as Open Office -- but IT is the tail here, not the dog. What will prevent companies from switching is not the IT costs but the training costs. People are creatures of habit, and after you've become used to the Microsoft way of doing things, everything else looks difficult. If solutions like Open Office want to convert people, they should take a page out of Microsoft's book: it lured Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect customers with extensive Help and compatibility macros.
Microsoft now views Office as a platform (pay attention carefully to the terms used -- five years ago, Windows was a platform, and Office was an application). It will defend Office with its life. I'm sure the XML decision was debated long and hard within Microsoft's halls. And in my mind, it's the correct decision."