Microsoft Unveils Small-Business Phone System Software Designed for Ease of Use

 Interesting times in unified communications

Today at the second annual Microsoft Small Business Summit, Microsoft Corp. unveiled a small-business Internet protocol (IP) phone system, code-named “Response Point,” designed for ease of use and manageability. The new system comes in an easy-to-install box, supports both voice over IP (VoIP) and traditional phone lines, and includes a voice-activated user interface.

[..]

In addition to “Response Point,” Microsoft delivers an extensible, software-based VoIP foundation through Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007. Microsoft will distribute the public beta versions of Communications Server 2007 and Communicator 2007 later this month. The Beta 2 release of “Response Point” is scheduled for early April.

Source: Microsoft Unveils Small-Business Phone System Software Designed for Ease of Use

Apple Opens Doors by Running Windows - WSJ.com

Of course, Microsoft probably makes more profit on corporate Macs these days than it does on Windows PCs, since many Macs in enterprises will have Mac Office, Windows XP, and Windows Office...

Apple is making small inroads in the professional market with its critically acclaimed line of Mac desktop and laptop computers, and even slight market-share gains can bring meaningful new business to the company. Last year, Apple accounted for 4.4% of all new PC shipments in the U.S. professional market, up from 3.6% in 2005 and 3.2% in 2004, according to the research firm Gartner Inc. Apple's share of total new PC shipments in the U.S. jumped to 5.4% last year from 4.5% the prior year, Gartner says. Nearly all of the rest of the market is Windows.

Over the holiday quarter, Apple sold 1.6 million Macs, 28% more than in the same period a year earlier and nearly five times the growth in global PC shipments overall in the period. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs this year said the company's research showed more than half of all people buying Macs were new to Apple computers.

Source: Apple Opens Doors by Running Windows - WSJ.com

MySpace Restrictions Upset Some Users - New York Times

Timely reality check 

Some users of MySpace feel as if their space is being invaded.

MySpace, the Web’s largest social network, has gradually been imposing limits on the software tools that users can embed in their pages, like music and video players that also deliver advertising or enable transactions.

Source: MySpace Restrictions Upset Some Users - New York Times

John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies - New York Times

Read this article (and perhaps the author's classic Go to: The Story of the Math Majors, Bridge Players, Engineers, Chess Wizards, Scientists and Iconoclasts who were the Hero Programmers of the Software Revolution) for insights on how Backus changed the world of software.  

John W. Backus, who assembled and led the I.B.M. team that created Fortran, the first widely used programming language, which helped open the door to modern computing, died on Saturday at his home in Ashland, Ore. He was 82.

Source: John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies - New York Times

Consumer electronics | Mind games | Economist.com

Timely reality check. 

HOW would you like to rearrange the famous sarsens of Stonehenge just by thinking about it? Or improve your virtual golf by focusing your attention on the ball for a few moments before taking your next putt on the green-on-the-screen? Those are the promises of, respectively, Emotiv Systems and NeuroSky, two young companies based in California, that plan to transport the measurement of brain waves from the medical sphere into the realm of computer games. If all goes well, their first products should be on the market next year. People will then be able to tell a computer what they want it to do just by thinking about it. Tedious fiddling about with mice and joysticks will become irritants of the past.

Source: Consumer electronics | Mind games | Economist.com

Good Morning Silicon Valley: Twitter twaddle

Probably not the sort of press Twitter was hoping for; see the article for more details

This is a post for the rest of you -- the ones who don't check Techmeme hourly or have a steady stream of A-listers' posts pouring into their RSS readers. While you were going about your normal lives this past week, the blogosphere has showcased a fascinating example of the compression of cycles. Just as technology has shortened development and product cycles, so too has it shortened the wired/tired arc for some products down to mere days.

Source: Good Morning Silicon Valley: Twitter twaddle

Google Buys Data Visualization Software - Forbes.com

Google's software product/team collection continues to expand... 

Stockholm-based non-profit Gapminder sold off its primary product to the search giant for an undisclosed amount. Trendalyzer, according to the company, “unveils the beauty of statistics by converting boring numbers into enjoyable interactive animations.” The Trendalyzer tream is moving to Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people )'s Mountain View campus to “make it freely available to those who seek access to statistics.”

Source: Google Buys Data Visualization Software - Forbes.com

Microsoft concedes: OneCare antivirus software 'not stellar'

Apparently ample room for continuous improvement... 

"The recent detection numbers were not stellar," Jimmy Kuo, a member of the Microsoft security research and response team, said in a company blog "We missed capturing a VB100 [Virus Bulletin 100] in the last test because we missed one virus. As a result, we have adopted new methodologies to ... look more closely at families of viruses that have been found to be 'in the wild,' [those] found actively spreading among users."

Source: Microsoft concedes: OneCare antivirus software 'not stellar'

Newbie's guide to Twitter | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

Useful snapshot 

If you're not using Twitter yet, you may feel as if you've missed out. Twitter has not only tipped the tuna (begun to peak in popularity), but by some estimations, it has already jumped the shark (devolved into inanity).

Source: Newbie's guide to Twitter | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

Is the Key to Creativity in Your Pillbox, or in Your PC? - New York Times

An interesting and timely debate 

“There’s a strong fantasy element in the idea of a pill that can make people smarter,” says Mitchell Kapor, a pioneer in information technology. (He helped create what was once the world’s most popular spreadsheet software, Lotus 1-2-3.) Ultimately, such pills might face digital rivals if current trends in computer science continue. Engineers are busy designing better search engines and “virtual worlds” online where we can test ideas and share experiences with others in ways perhaps not possible today. Mr. Kapor is an investor in Linden Labs, the creator of a virtual world called Second Life.

Source: Is the Key to Creativity in Your Pillbox, or in Your PC? - New York Times

Cisco to Buy WebEx for $2.9B

Hmmm... 

WebEx's "network-based technology is a natural extension of Cisco's vision for unified communications and collaboration. This vision is to give users inside and outside the workplace the ability to interact collaboratively over the open platform of the Internet," Cisco Chief Development Officer Charles Giancarlo told a conference call.

Cisco has announced a series of small acquisitions this year of niche technology companies. WebEx showed Cisco was open to bigger deals, and Giancarlo said there may be more.

"Webex looks like a large acquisition, but it's less than 2 percent of our revenue and market cap. So I think that we will start to see more of these," he told Reuters in a phone interview.

Source: Cisco to Buy WebEx for $2.9B

Collaborative Thinking: Cisco/WebEx: March Madness For Unified Communications

My Burton Group colleague Mike Gotta's take on Cisco/WebEx -- see the post for more details 

First, some history, many of the comments regarding WebEx and web conferencing are not the primary reason to do this deal. As I have told financial analysts for years while at Meta Group, the crown jewel of WebEx is the Media Tone Network. That distributed, P2P network architecture now belongs to Cisco who can either advance it, or use parts of it for its own application networking purposes. WebEx has data centers world-wide as well as research centers in China, etc.

Source: Collaborative Thinking: Cisco/WebEx: March Madness For Unified Communications

Nintendo's Wii Outsold Other Consoles in February - WSJ.com

 Interesting snapshot

According to preliminary retail figures for February from researcher NPD Group Inc., U.S. retailers sold 335,000 Wiis, 228,000 Xbox 360s and 127,000 Sony Corp. PlayStation 3s -- the three newest machines that are currently jockeying for their share of the games market. Those results mean Microsoft, which launched the Xbox 360 a year earlier than its rivals, is in first place among the latest generation of consoles with cumulative U.S. retail sales of 5.1 million consoles, followed by Nintendo with 1.9 million Wiis and Sony with 1.1 million PlayStation 3s, according to NPD estimates.

In an interview, David Hufford, a spokesman for Microsoft, said the company is pleased with its market position, pointing out that six out of the top ten best-selling games in February were titles for Xbox 360.

[...]

While Sony's PlayStation 3 -- at $500 to $600, the priciest of the newest consoles -- has lagged behind the sales of its competitors, the company's older game console, the PlayStation 2, continues to sell well because of its low price ($129 in most stores) and vast library of game software. The PlayStation 2 was the second best-selling console in February after the Wii, with 295,000 sold in U.S. stores.

Source: Nintendo's Wii Outsold Other Consoles in February - WSJ.com

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . The $7 TV Network | PBS

Always interesting Cringely -- read the article for a snapshot of Neokast 

Multicasting hasn't broadly succeeded before now primarily because it places a large burden on the routers, which are responsible for caching and retransmitting video. Multicasting is generally turned off in routers to save bandwidth and keep the network running as fast as possible. Cisco wanted to turn multicasting on for IPTV specifically so the routers would slow down and have to be replaced. With Cisco it always comes down to routers and how to get people to buy new ones. That's evident in Cisco's purchase this week of WebEx, where we can expect Cisco to strongly push video services on those two million WebEx customers, straining the system and forcing hardware upgrades. It's not about Microsoft; it's about the routers.

Source: I, Cringely . The Pulpit . The $7 TV Network | PBS

Technology Review: Could Al Qaeda Plunge England into an Internet Blackout?

 Single point of failure = bad...

According to an article by David Leppard, Scotland Yard has uncovered evidence that Al Qaeda operatives were going to blow up Telehouse Europe, a large colocation facility in Britain that is the country's largest Internet hub. Suspects who were recently arrested had conducted reconnaissance against Telehouse and had planned to infiltrate the organization and blow it up from inside.

Source: Technology Review: Could Al Qaeda Plunge England into an Internet Blackout?

News @ Cisco: Cisco Announces Agreement to Acquire WebEx

This move clarifies the "co-opetition" scenario between Cisco and Microsoft a bit... 

Cisco and WebEx today announced a definitive agreement for Cisco to acquire WebEx. WebEx is a market leader in on-demand collaboration applications, and its network-based solution for delivering business-to-business collaboration extends Cisco's vision for Unified Communications, particularly within the Small to Medium Business (SMB) segment.

Source: News @ Cisco: Cisco Announces Agreement to Acquire WebEx

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Freetards at MIT destroying perfectly good iPods

Sometimes Fake Steve is irresistible... 

If you've ever wondered why nothing useful has ever come out of Nicholas Negroponte's MIT Media Lab, see this video. Twenty years of letting wannabes and posers play at being computer geeks, all subsidized by U.S. tax dollars. Now their big project is installing some crapware on iPods that breaks the DRM code -- or, as one freetard puts it, "reconfigures the power relationship between you and your technology." Wow. Maybe you didn't realize you had a power relationship with your iPod.

Source: The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Freetards at MIT destroying perfectly good iPods

» SharePoint: The next big ‘operating system’ from Microsoft? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Indeed, I know of several ISVs that consider SharePoint a new platform. 

My favorite question during the Q&A session at the end of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's Convergence conference keynote address on March 15 sounded deceptively simple. I'm paraphrasing, but the questioner asked Ballmer something like this: "With all the hoopla here at the conference around SharePoint Server, is it correct to think of SharePoint as almost like an OS (operating system)"?

Bingo.

Source: » SharePoint: The next big ‘operating system’ from Microsoft? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Business & Technology | Microsoft to acquire speech-recognition developer Tellme | Seattle Times Newspaper

Small world... 

For Microsoft, Tellme is not a complete outsider. In fact, it was started by people from companies least likely to be found in the same room — rivals Microsoft and Netscape.

"Microsoft was our arch-nemesis, but one of the first guys we hired was Hadi Partovi," said Tellme co-founder Angus Davis. At the time, Partovi was helping lead the Internet Explorer effort at Microsoft, while McCue and Davis were doing the same at Netscape. The three stayed on similar paths, so when Partovi acted as a technical assistant to Microsoft attorneys during the company's landmark antitrust case, so were McCue and Davis at Netscape.

[...]

To solidify the Microsoft and Netscape connection, Partovi, McCue and Davis brought their bosses on board to fund the company. For McCue and Davis, that was Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale. Partovi brought Brad Silverberg, a senior executive who was just leaving Microsoft to start Ignition Partners, a Bellevue-based venture firm.

Source: Business & Technology | Microsoft to acquire speech-recognition developer Tellme | Seattle Times Newspaper

Microsoft Agrees to Buy Maker of Voice-Recognition Software - New York Times

Some Microsoft/Tellme details; see Mike Gotta's blog for analysis

Microsoft said yesterday that it had agreed to buy Tellme Networks to add voice-recognition software that lets users obtain a phone listing, order a pizza and search the Internet.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal was said to be worth more than $800 million, making it Microsoft’s biggest acquisition since 2002.

Source: Microsoft Agrees to Buy Maker of Voice-Recognition Software - New York Times

Google Is Reviving Hopes for Ex-Furniture Makers - New York Times

 More from the battle of the super-data centers...

Last month, the Internet search giant Google announced that it would take advantage of the area’s underused electric power grid, cheap land and robust water supply to build a “server farm” — a building full of computers that will become part of the company’s worldwide network.

Google says it hopes laid-off furniture workers, most of whom never graduated from high school, will be among the 250 employees at two facilities on the 215-acre site, much of which was once a lumberyard.

 

Source: Google Is Reviving Hopes for Ex-Furniture Makers - New York Times

Burton Group Institute Workshop to Provide Enterprise IT Strategies for Microsoft SharePoint 2007

 Check the links for more details -- hope to see you on 4/25

Burton Group, Inc. is hosting a one-day workshop in Boston that will provide enterprise technologists in-depth, technical strategies for organizations considering Microsoft SharePoint 2007.

The vendor-independent workshop, led by Burton Group collaboration and content management experts Peter O'Kelly and Homan Farahmand, will delve into the strategic SharePoint implications -- both positive and negative -- for enterprises to consider

Source: Burton Group Institute Workshop to Provide Enterprise IT Strategies for Microsoft SharePoint 2007

Google Watch - YouTube - 18 Reasons why Google and YouTube are Guilty of Copyright Infringement

A timely reminder: I'm glad I didn't opt to go to law school... 

Below, Viacom's argument as presented in their official complaint, filed in New York federal district court. I've taken the liberty of editing the language a bit and consolidating a few points, since they would be repetitive for anyone who follows Google or YouTube news. But I've also included direct quotes. If something's not clear, let me know in the comments and I'll fix.

Source: Google Watch - YouTube - 18 Reasons why Google and YouTube are Guilty of Copyright Infringement

FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Viacom seeks $1bn YouTube damages

There's another consideration, at least for me, in all of the "long tail" etc. discussions in this context: if I can catch highlights of shows such as Colbert Report over the Internet, I don't watch the commercial-overloaded TV versions -- i.e., there is a significant opportunity cost for the publishers in terms of advertising to which I'm no longer subjected.  This is serious business for Viacom et al.

Mr Dauman indicated on Tuesday that Viacom would continue to improve its own websites. It has also struck deals in recent months to supply its content to other internet groups such as Joost, a broadband television company started by the founders of Skype.

Source: FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Viacom seeks $1bn YouTube damages

» Microsoft shows off its future business-app user interfaces | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

See the article for a link to a gallery of screen shots -- some impressive stuff 

For more than a year, Microsoft officials have been talking up the notion of "Office-centric" and "role-based" interfaces as the next big thing for its ERP and CRM wares. At the Convergence conference for its Dynamics customers and partners in San Diego this week, Microsoft showed off working examples and prototypes of what these kinds of interfaces might look like.

Source: » Microsoft shows off its future business-app user interfaces | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

SanDisk drops prices with new flash drive | CNET News.com

Amazing...  I want no moving parts in my next laptop... 

The flash memory maker's new flash drive sports 32GB of memory and is delivered in a package the same size and shape as a 2.5-inch diameter hard drive. Earlier this year, SanDisk released a 32GB drive in a 1.8-inch diameter package. Drives that size typically are used in MP3 players, while most notebooks come with 2.5-inch drives.

SanDisk is selling the 2.5-inch drive for $350 to large volume buyers. That's far more than a 32GB hard drive typically would cost. Still, it's less than SanDisk's previous 1.8-inch drive, which cost $600 more than a conventional 32GB drive, according to SanDisk.

Source: SanDisk drops prices with new flash drive | CNET News.com

Microsoft to Open Its Online Gaming Service to Windows Users - New York Times

An important milestone for Microsoft's Live strategy 

Microsoft announced yesterday that it was extending the online gaming service for its Xbox consoles to the millions of people who use Windows PCs to play games over the Internet, a move that could bolster the popularity — and profits — of video gaming.

[...]

While much of the $10 billion gaming industry has focused on next-generation game consoles like Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii, most games are still played on personal computers, which are far more numerous than dedicated gaming machines.

Source: Microsoft to Open Its Online Gaming Service to Windows Users - New York Times

Microsoft to Hold Teleconference Today: Executives will share news and answer questions.

Hmm -- that's a bit unusual (the lack of content/context-setting); I suspect there will be a major Redmond headline today. 

Executives will share news and answer questions.

Source: Microsoft to Hold Teleconference Today: Executives will share news and answer questions.

They've Got Your Number (and a Lot More) - WSJ.com

Another reason to think twice about posting anything... 

Since the dawn of the Internet, it's been possible to plug a name into a search engine to see what turns up. And for years, background-checking services have sold expensive online services for looking up personal information such as criminal records, marriage records, addresses and phone numbers.

But now, directory companies and several start-ups are offering new people-search services that are more comprehensive and useful than the classic Google search at a fraction or none of the cost of a traditional background check.

 

Source: They've Got Your Number (and a Lot More) - WSJ.com

Copyright war flares with suit vs. YouTube - The Boston Globe

Uh huh... 

Responding to the suit, Google issued a statement defending YouTube. "We are confident that YouTube has respected the legal right of copyright holders and believe the courts will agree," it said, adding that, "We will certainly not let this suit become a distraction to the continuing growth and strong performance of YouTube." Google's brief statement didn't address specific allegations in the Viacom suit.

Source: Copyright war flares with suit vs. YouTube - The Boston Globe

Viacom Sues Google Over YouTube Clips - WSJ.com

Inevitable... 

Viacom Inc. sued Google Inc. and its YouTube unit, claiming the popular video-sharing site engages in "massive intentional copyright infringement," in a move that could presage a broader war between Google and traditional media companies.

The suit is the first major legal challenge to YouTube, which aims to become a major distribution channel for movies and television shows on the Internet. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the suit seeks more than $1 billion in damages, as well as an injunction preventing Google and YouTube from further copyright infringement.

Source: Viacom Sues Google Over YouTube Clips - WSJ.com

Dynamics Gets its Own 'Duet' - Yahoo! News

"Co-opetition"...

Microsoft is set to unveil a new product designed to more tightly integrate its back-end Dynamics business applications with its desktop Office suite. It's an approach the vendor has already taken with applications rival SAP under their codeveloped Duet software.

"Duet was a good learning example," said James Utzschneider, general manager of Dynamics marketing at Microsoft. "What we're offering is a superset of what you get with Duet."

Source: Dynamics Gets its Own 'Duet' - Yahoo! News

Sources say Microsoft near deal to buy Tellme | CNET News.com

I suspect this is one in a long list of companies currently in play between Google and Microsoft 

Tellme was seen as a potential target for an initial public offering last year, though a stock deal never took place, nor did the company actually file registration documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a necessary precursor to going public. More recently, the company has been the subject of takeover rumors, including reports that it would be bought by Google or Microsoft.

The company, which is profitable, has raised more than $230 million through rounds of venture capital, the last of which came in October 2000.

Source: Sources say Microsoft near deal to buy Tellme | CNET News.com

Linux Starts to Find Home on Desktops - WSJ.com

Not dead yet... 

The Linux operating system, having made inroads into corporations' backroom server computers, is showing hints of inching into a much broader market: employees' personal computers.

The much-hyped notion that Linux would be viable software to run desktop and notebook PCs seemed dead on arrival a few years ago. But the idea is showing some new vital signs.

But...

Almost no industry experts expect Linux to make much of a dent against Microsoft on the desktop and laptop any time soon. Windows is still in some 92% of the PCs sold each year, according to IDC. Microsoft could cement its grip on the PC further through a strategy of tying it more closely with its various types of server software, a move that adds new capabilities to Windows PCs.

Source: Linux Starts to Find Home on Desktops - WSJ.com

Tech Companies Bleeding Red Ink Pursue IPO Gold - WSJ.com

A timely reality check 

A number of unprofitable tech companies have launched initial public offerings in U.S. capital markets since the beginning of 2006, and more than half the tech companies now in the IPO pipeline are in the red. The trend recalls the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, when deeply unprofitable tech concerns -- often with no clear business models -- were snapped up by eager investors as soon as they hit the market.

Profits never materialized for many of those tech companies, an outcome that helped fuel the Nasdaq stock-market meltdown in 2000. In the aftermath, thousands of tech workers were laid off, and several Wall Street firms were accused of misleading investors by boosting the dot-coms, leading to a string of market reforms.

Source: Tech Companies Bleeding Red Ink Pursue IPO Gold - WSJ.com

Watching the web grow up | Economist.com

Timely TBL reality check from The Economist; includes some "semantic web" analysis 

Sir Tim ought to be thrilled. After all, his original vision was for the web to be a two-way medium, in which writing information was just as simple as reading it—but as the web took off in the late 1990s, publishing tools failed to keep up with web browsers in ease of use, and it is only with the rise of blogs and wikis that the balance has been redressed. Yet Sir Tim is less excited by all this than you might expect. He regards Web 2.0 as just a fancy name for some useful, if still rather basic, web-publishing tools, and was not at all surprised by the emergence of “user-generated content”—since that was what he had intended all along. “The web was designed so every user could be a contributor,” he says. “That sort of participation was the whole idea and was there from the start.”

Source: | Watching the web grow up | Economist.com

Not so fast, broadband providers tell big users - The Boston Globe

 Another "unlimited" services that's not...

Feddeman declined to say where Comcast draws the line on too much Internet usage, instead saying the amount of data that could trigger a warning call would be roughly the equivalent of 13 million e-mail messages or 256,000 photos a month. Although those files vary in size, a typical photo file size is 1 to 2 megabytes, meaning that excessive users are downloading hundreds of gigabytes per month.

Source: Not so fast, broadband providers tell big users - The Boston Globe

Come for the Xbox, stay for the books - The Boston Globe

Meanwhile, back at the library... 

Welcome to the teen section of your local library. In an effort to lure teens and build a base of lifelong patrons, libraries are leaving behind their humdrum ways and getting the party started, stocking up on everything from video-game collections to radio edits of Ludacris CDs. Branches in Santa Clara, Calif., and Sewickley, Pa., are hosting Dance Dance Revolution video game tournaments, and in Charlotte, N.C., there's a blue screen studio where teens can produce their own cartoons, claymation, and live action films. And, oh yeah, they still have books.

Source: Come for the Xbox, stay for the books - The Boston Globe

History, Digitized (and Abridged) - New York Times

Another perspective on Google's scanning plans 

"There's an illusion being created that all the world's knowledge is on the Web, but we haven't begun to glimpse what is out there in local archives and libraries," said Edward L. Ayers, a historian and dean of the college and graduate school of arts and sciences at the University of Virginia. "Material that is not digitized risks being neglected as it would not have been in the past, virtually lost to the great majority of potential users."

Source: History, Digitized (and Abridged) - New York Times

Open-source ID project awaits Microsoft's blessing | CNET News.com

 A key milestone...

"Microsoft gave us the first round, which was great. We just need a next round to have people be able to ship systems equivalent to CardSpace," said Anthony Nadalin, IBM's chief security architect. IBM and Novell are Higgins' main backers.

The Higgins project wrote a formal request to Microsoft in November. There have been discussions and some progress has been made, but Microsoft remains a hurdle, the Higgins developers said.

Source: Open-source ID project awaits Microsoft's blessing | CNET News.com

Curriculum of MIT to be online for free - The Boston Globe

Cool... 

MIT intends to reach an epic milestone soon: By the end of the year, its entire curriculum should be available online for free.

Scholars -- and amateur scholars -- are coming in droves; this month, the site could receive 1.5 million visits.

[...]

"During the dot-com era, people thought about to how to make money on the Internet," Margulies said. "Today we think knowledge should be in the public domain."

Source: Curriculum of MIT to be online for free - The Boston Globe

Google’s Buses Help Its Workers Beat the Rush - New York Times

Smart -- see the post for details 

The perks of working at Google are the envy of Silicon Valley. Unlimited amounts of free chef-prepared food at all times of day. A climbing wall, a volleyball court and two lap pools. On-site car washes, oil changes and haircuts, not to mention free doctor checkups.

But the biggest perk may come with the morning commute.

Source: Google’s Buses Help Its Workers Beat the Rush - New York Times

Business & Technology | With McCaw, you can bank on raising money | Seattle Times Newspaper

More ClearWire details -- the article includes a summary of Craig McCaw's business history 

Founded in October 2003, the company already is valued at more than $4 billion, making it slightly bigger than Puget Energy but smaller than Expedia.

Source: Business & Technology | With McCaw, you can bank on raising money | Seattle Times Newspaper

Start-Up Aims for Database to Automate Web Searching - New York Times

Danny Hillis takes a run at the "semantic Web" 

A new company founded by a longtime technologist is setting out to create a vast public database intended to be read by computers rather than people, paving the way for a more automated Internet in which machines will routinely share information.

The company, Metaweb Technologies, is led by Danny Hillis, whose background includes a stint at Walt Disney Imagineering and who has long championed the idea of intelligent machines.

Source: Start-Up Aims for Database to Automate Web Searching - New York Times

Palm Responds to the iPhone - New York Times

See this page for a Designing Interactions interview with Paul Mercer 

Palm Inc., the maker of hand-held computers, has hired a top Silicon Valley software designer as it seeks to respond to the challenge posed by Apple’s new iPhone.

The designer, Paul Mercer, a former Apple computer engineer, began work three weeks ago at Palm on a line of new products, a company spokeswoman said, but she declined to comment further on the project

Source: Palm Responds to the iPhone - New York Times

Technology Review: Sociology at Microsoft

Timely snapshot 

TR: How is the Internet changing sociology?

MS [Marc Smith, the senior research sociologist at Microsoft Research]: It's not that you collect data from the world and run it through a computer; it's that most of the world runs through a computer. It's a revolutionary thing. It's a shift from an ephemeral society to archival society. Six or seven billion humans have come and gone over the course of history, and most of them didn't leave a trace. In the not too distant future, it's likely that one to two billion will leave 5 to 10 terabytes, and in those bytes will be the fine-grain details of their lives: the pictures they've taken, the words they've typed, and the people they've been with. This brings up a whole new set of issues. What will privacy look like? How will sovereignty be asserted on this stream of data?

The role of Microsoft Research is to get to the future first, cut our fingers on the rough edges, and figure out how to sand the future down so it's smooth and ready for the rest of us. It's naive to think that they're only going to be positive results.

Source: Technology Review: Sociology at Microsoft

Technology Review: Build Your Own Social Network

Read the full article for more Ning details 

Mainstream social-networking sites such as MySpace and LiveJournal have long given users the ability to create and join specialized groups. More than 5,000 people belong to the black-and-white photography group on MySpace, for example. But Ning's custom social networks come with communications tools such as live chat rooms that aren't available on LiveJournal and other platforms. And Ning's networks seem to occupy a previously unfilled niche in the social-computing ecosystem: they provide an outlet for expression and communication that's more social than a solo blog yet less cacophonous than the forums afforded by the giant social-networking sites.

Source: Technology Review: Build Your Own Social Network

The Web 2.0 Bubble

Interesting reality check from Atlantic Monthly 

Why the social-media revolution will go out with a whimper

[...]

In the Web hype-o-sphere, things matter hugely until, very suddenly, they don’t matter at all. Thanks to the unprecedented growth of MySpace and Facebook, “social media” matters hugely right now, but it is likely only another in a long string of putatively disruptive, massively hyped technologies that prove just one more step in the long march. Like “push,” “social media” is a functional advance pimped out as a revolution.

Source: The Web 2.0 Bubble

FT.com / World / Europe - Turkish court shuts down YouTube

Yikes 

Turkey’s largest internet services provider shut down access to the YouTube video-sharing web site on Wednesday after a court ruling that some of its content insulted Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

The decision followed days of furious insult-sharing among Turkish and Greek users of the popular and controversial site.

Source: FT.com / World / Europe - Turkish court shuts down YouTube

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google helps terabyte data swaps

Sneakernet 2.0? 

The firm's open source team is working on ways to physically transfer huge data sets up to 120 terabytes in size.

"We have started collecting these data sets and shipping them out to other scientists who want them," said Google's Chris DiBona.

Google sends scientists a hard drive system and then copies it before passing it on to other researchers.

Source: BBC NEWS | Technology | Google helps terabyte data swaps

The Hard Drive as Eye Candy - New York Times

See the article for some photos and more details 

Strong demand for external hard drives was one of the highlights in consumer electronics last year. Americans spent $600 million on external hard drives in 2006, an increase of 53 percent over 2005, according to NPD, a market research firm. Put another way, consumers bought 739.7 million gigabytes of hard-drive storage space last year, more than 11 times as much as they did in 2003.

Source: The Hard Drive as Eye Candy - New York Times

News @ Cisco: IBM and Cisco Unveil Platform for Developing Unified Communications and Collaboration Solutions

Major milestone for IBM's Sametime platform 

At the core of the unified communications and collaboration (UC2) Client Platform will be an open set of application programming interfaces (APIs) offered by IBM as a subset of Lotus Sametime collaboration capabilities along with communication APIs provided by Cisco to access communications functionality such as voice and video services. The Lotus Sametime collaboration capabilities are built on IBM's Lotus Expeditor, which contains open technologies from OSGi and Eclipse. This allows customers and partners to build new classes of applications and services that are easily managed and run across desktops, laptops, web browsers, and mobile devices.

Source: News @ Cisco: IBM and Cisco Unveil Platform for Developing Unified Communications and Collaboration Solutions

Scheduled Improvements @ salesforce.com

I guess different rules apply in SaaS-land.  At least Salesforce.com warns its customers before it goes dark; I saw this notice when I logged in this morning. 

Friday March 09, 09:00 PM EST
to
Saturday March 10, 05:00 AM EST

Please be advised that salesforce.com will be performing scheduled maintenance during the above time period.
Salesforce will not be available during this period. Please plan accordingly. We apologize for any inconvenience to you and your business.

Source: Scheduled Improvements @ salesforce.com

Microsoft Office finds its voice - page 2 | CNET News.com

More unified comms market dynamics 

Cisco isn't just working with Microsoft. On Wednesday it will also announce that it has deeply integrated its unified communications software with IBM desktop applications. Specifically, Cisco and IBM have created a tool based on open development technologies Eclipse and OSGi to help software developers easily include communication and collaboration features into custom-built business applications.

"About half of our enterprise customers use Microsoft at the desktop," O'Sullivan said. "But the other half is still using IBM desktop applications, so we need to integrate with both."

Source: Microsoft Office finds its voice - page 2 | CNET News.com

Microsoft Set to Deliver Enhanced VoIP Solutions, Lead Unified Communications Shift to Software

Enterprise unified communications competition is going to the next level this week at VoiceCon; see this post for a summary of the Microsoft perspective 

In a keynote address at VoiceCon Spring 2007, Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft Corp.’s Business Division, today predicted that in just three years, the average voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) solution for business will cost half what it does today, as VoIP systems move from hardware to software. Raikes also predicted that in the same time frame, 100 million people — twice the number of current business VoIP users — will have the ability to make phone calls from Microsoft^® Office applications.

Source: Microsoft Set to Deliver Enhanced VoIP Solutions, Lead Unified Communications Shift to Software

One Tiny Town Becomes Internet-Age Power Point - WSJ.com

Mixed blessing for a small town 

While much of the U.S. frets over a residential real-estate slump, this small farming town on Washington State's plains has the opposite worry: A boom-town economy is inflating housing prices.

Quincy has the Web to thank -- or to blame. The town's economic boom began with the arrival of three high-profile neighbors: Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and Intuit Inc. In 2006, the tech giants separately announced plans to build new computer-data centers here.

Source: One Tiny Town Becomes Internet-Age Power Point - WSJ.com

Google, Old Media Diverge on Video - WSJ.com

Yeah, that'll help in the negotiations... 

Mr. Schmidt said the Internet giant continues to pursue deals that will let it show media companies' copyright content on YouTube but said there is a "genuine disagreement." Traditional media argue their content has a certain intrinsic value, while Google says "prove it," he said, speaking at a Bear Stearns investor conference yesterday. "That's often a difficult conversation."

Asked by a member of the audience whether Google is "arrogant," as charged by some in traditional media, Mr. Schmidt said, "I'm sure we're arrogant." But he chalked up such complaints to a negotiating tactic, grousing that one of the ways traditional media negotiate is by leaking details of deal negotiations to the press and then threatening to sue.

Source: Google, Old Media Diverge on Video - WSJ.com

Mobile Devices - MS Office Coming Soon to Windows Mobile

 Moving far beyond file viewers for non-PC devices; see the article for more details

Business users will also be pleased with the inclusion of mobile versions of the .Net Compact Framework and SQL Server in order to access a company's standard line of business applications remotely.

The Office applications are the most robust to date for the limited capacities of a cell phone. Spell checking in Word, though, is not included.

E-mail viewing will be easier on the eye with formatting, tables, and pictures viewable as originally generated.

One-click options for e-mail, such as "reply all", moving a message to a subfolder and "delete" have been added to accommodate the restricted functionality of a small device.

Windows Vista users on the desktop will be able to swap music, pictures, movies and Outlook information between the Vista PC and the mobile device.

Source: Mobile Devices - MS Office Coming Soon to Windows Mobile

Reality Check: Microsoft Showed Practicality, Compassion for Mac at Apple's Lowest Point

A Paul Thurrott reality check on the recent Mac Office blog-meme; read the full post 

More important, we have that email record that everyone is so excited about. What it shows to me is a company dedicated to making great products and, yes, supporting then-struggling Apple with the best version of Office Microsoft had yet created. Don't believe me? You can read it yourself. My guess is you'll come away with a less dramatic version of history than the Mac pariahs are pushing.

Moving Forward with Mac Office 97 (Microsoft email exchange) (PDF format)

Source: Reality Check: Microsoft Showed Practicality, Compassion for Mac at Apple's Lowest Point

Technology Review: Connecting Your Brain to the Game

 We are Borg...

Emotiv Systems, an electronic-game company from San Francisco, wants people to play with the power of the mind. Starting tomorrow, video-game makers will be able to buy Emotiv's electro-encephalograph (EEG) caps and software developer's tool kits so that they can build games that use the electrical signals from a player's brain to control the on-screen action.

Source: Technology Review: Connecting Your Brain to the Game

Searching for Michael Jordan? Microsoft Wants a Better Way - New York Times

Timely snapshot  

Despite a lack of visible progress in catching up with Google, the leader in Internet search engines, Microsoft says it still believes that it will eventually turn the tables by improving the quality of its search results and by changing the way computer users search.

It is all part of an arms race for search supremacy that has engaged top researchers at both companies.

Source: Searching for Michael Jordan? Microsoft Wants a Better Way - New York Times

Google Operating System: How Google Desktop Ranks Search Results

Interesting 

A patent application recently filed by Google ("Temporal ranking scheme for desktop searching") gives some idea about how Google Desktop indexes and ranks files. The main criteria for ranking files is how likely a file will be accessed in the future. To estimate this value, Google Desktop tries to find different hints about the importance of a file.

Source: Google Operating System: How Google Desktop Ranks Search Results

Cisco buys 'select' Utah Street assets - Boston.com

Cisco social software clarification 

The purchase does not include the Tribe.net site, and the company did not provide financial terms.

Cisco said it will integrate the software infrastructure Utah Street uses to create and maintain online communities on the Tribe Web site into its media solutions group.

Source: Cisco buys 'select' Utah Street assets - Boston.com

Tech Researchers Calculate Digital Info - New York Times

Yow 

Add it all up and IDC determined that the world generated 161 billion gigabytes -- 161 exabytes -- of digital information last year.

That's like 12 stacks of books that each reach from the Earth to the sun. Or you might think of it as 3 million times the information in all the books ever written, according to IDC. You'd need more than 2 billion of the most capacious iPods on the market to get 161 exabytes.

Source: Tech Researchers Calculate Digital Info - New York Times

Full Speech Text: 'The Wrong Path' - WSJ.com

Excerpt from the speech referenced in the next post 

The stated goal of Google's Book Search project is to make a copy of every book ever published and bring it within Google's vast database of indexed content. While Google says that it doesn't currently intend to place ads next to book search results, Google's broader business model is straightforward -- attract as many users as possible to its site by providing what it considers to be "free" content, then monetize that content by selling ads. I think Pat Schroeder put it best when she said Google has "a hell of a business model -- they're going to take everything you create, for free, and sell advertising around it."

To accomplish its book search goals, Google persuaded several libraries to give it unfettered access to their collections, both copyrighted and public domain works. It also entered into agreements with several publishers to acquire rights to certain of their copyrighted books. Despite such deals, in late 2004 Google basically turned its back on its partners. Concocting a novel "fair use" theory, Google bestowed upon itself the unilateral right to make entire copies of copyrighted books not covered by these publisher agreements without first obtaining the copyright holder's permission.

Source: Full Speech Text: 'The Wrong Path' - WSJ.com

Microsoft Hits Google's Use of Books - WSJ.com

Google is clearly Microsoft's primary competitive focus these days... 

A top attorney at Microsoft Corp. plans to fight rival Google Inc. for its use of books online and certain advertising, decrying what he sees as Google's "cavalier approach to copyright."

In a speech scheduled to be delivered today to the Association of American Publishers, Thomas Rubin, associate general counsel at Microsoft, adds to recent criticisms of Google over its use of other companies' copyrighted creations.

Source: Microsoft Hits Google's Use of Books - WSJ.com

Print - WinInfo Daily UPDATE, March 5, 2007: Numbers Prove that Microsoft's Online Push Is Faltering

Stark reality check from Windows IT Pro 

Despite a huge push with its Windows Live and Microsoft Office Live services, Microsoft's online services are "massively underperforming" compared with its online competitors, such as Google and Yahoo!. Heather Bellini, an analyst with UBS Investment Research, notes that Microsoft's online services are failing in every measurable way.

Source: Print - WinInfo Daily UPDATE, March 5, 2007: Numbers Prove that Microsoft's Online Push Is Faltering

A Note From Jeff Hawkins - Software - numenta.com

Numenta reaches a no-charge "research release" milestone 

Numenta was formed to develop and promote a technology called Hierarchical Temporal Memory, or HTM. We are confident that the principles underlying HTM are the same principles that govern much of the operation of the human neocortex; thus, HTM enables the creation of machines that have some of the capabilities of the human brain. We see HTM as a fundamental new computing methodology able to solve longstanding problems in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Be sure to read the white paper on our web site that describes the basics of HTM and what it can do.

Source: A Note From Jeff Hawkins - Software - numenta.com

Open Call From the Patent Office - washingtonpost.com

Glad to see this 

The government is about to start opening up the process of reviewing patents to the modern font of wisdom: the Internet.

The Patent and Trademark Office is starting a pilot project that will not only post patent applications on the Web and invite comments but also use a community rating system designed to push the most respected comments to the top of the file, for serious consideration by the agency's examiners. A first for the federal government, the system resembles the one used by Wikipedia, the popular user-created online encyclopedia.

Source: Open Call From the Patent Office - washingtonpost.com

The 50 Most Important People on the Web - Yahoo! News

Microsoft rates one entry -- at #22 

Despite what Time magazine would have you believe, you are not the most powerful or influential person on the Web. At PC World we love online personals, social networks, and videos of people falling on their keisters as much as the next person, but without the folks who create the Craigslists, MySpaces, and YouTubes of the world, much of the Web's potential would be lost among spam sites and other online detritus.

So who's making the biggest impact online? We considered hundreds of the Web's most noteworthy power brokers, bloggers, brainiacs, and entrepreneurs to figure out whose contributions are shaping the way we use the Web.

Source: The 50 Most Important People on the Web - Yahoo! News

The Real Google Phone « HighContrast

 Interesting speculation -- see the post for details and an allegedly leaked photo

Andy Rubin has a team of about 100 people at Google working on the Google Phone. So people have been paying attention. Andy was the founder of Danger and later Android, which he sold to Google in August of 2005. Andy is a systems guy and so it’s a good bet that he’s working on an OS for the famed Google Phone.

Source: The Real Google Phone « HighContrast

A cozy book club, in a virtual reading room | CNET News.com

Read all about it... 

Social networks that tap the interests and buying power of traditionally reserved groups like the bookish are a small but growing force on the Web. Havemann, for example, is among the 150,000 or so members of LibraryThing, a site that lets people create detailed online book catalogs, learn about the collections of other members, discover shared favorites and swap recommendations.

Source: A cozy book club, in a virtual reading room | CNET News.com

A Contributor to Wikipedia Has His Fictional Side - New York Times

Visibility and information literacy are your friends... 

The Essjay episode underlines some of the perils of collaborative efforts like Wikipedia that rely on many contributors acting in good faith, often anonymously and through self-designated user names. But it also shows how the transparency of the Wikipedia process — all editing of entries is marked and saved — allows readers to react to suspected fraud.

Mr. Jordan’s deception came to public attention last Monday when The New Yorker published a rare editors’ note saying that when it wrote about Essjay as part of a lengthy profile of Wikipedia, “neither we nor Wikipedia knew Essjay’s real name,” and that it took Essjay’s credentials and life experience at face value.

Source: A Contributor to Wikipedia Has His Fictional Side - New York Times

Facing More Competition, Palm Explores Options - WSJ.com

 An unhappy milestone for Palm, in the grand scheme of things

Palm Inc., maker of the Treo smart phone, is working with investment bankers to explore its strategic options. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company is working with Morgan Stanley to evaluate options ranging from a sale, an investment by private equity or a purchase of its own, people familiar with the matter say.

A Palm spokeswoman said the company doesn't comment "on rumor and speculation."

Source: Facing More Competition, Palm Explores Options - WSJ.com

Shelfari: Social bookmarking for books | Webware : Cool web apps for everyone

Hmm 

Shelfari is a social network and recommendation service that lets you flaunt your book collection to others, and discover new titles worth reading. Yesterday Shelfari announced a round of funding, with Amazon.com being the top contributor.

If you've ever seen Delicious Monster, Shelfari is visually similar, with virtual bookshelves that house your collection as long as you're willing to manually input all your titles. The result is a slick-looking listing to share with others on your blog or Web site (see below), and make friends with people who have similar tastes to swap recommendations.

Source: Shelfari: Social bookmarking for books | Webware : Cool web apps for everyone

In High-Tech World, Access To Students Still Difficult - washingtonpost.com

Interesting snapshot -- see the article for more details.  This is probably a leading indicator of what's coming next inside other organization types. 

College students now are wired, wireless, Sidekicked, Facebooked, YouTubed and bleeping with instant messages and text messages. But try getting an important announcement out to everyone on campus.

It's the flip side of all the technology: Students are more connected than ever -- but surprisingly tricky for administrators to reach.

Land lines are all but obsolete. Cellphone numbers are slippery. And e-mail gets lost, overlooked, erased or ignored.

Source: In High-Tech World, Access To Students Still Difficult - washingtonpost.com

Bringing TV to the Web -- TIME

Joost coverage in Time 

For years, Microsoft and others have tried, and failed, to bring the Net to TV screens with duds like WebTV. But the Venice Project, renamed Joost (as in juiced), is doing the opposite: moving TV to the Internet. And unlike Apple TV, Slingbox and other hardware offerings, Joost requires nothing more than software.

Source: Bringing TV to the Web -- TIME

The Face of the $100 Laptop

BusinessWeek snapshot; see the link below for a slide show and more details 

The so-called $100 laptop that's being designed for school children in developing nations is known for its bright green and white plastic shell, its power-generating hand crank, and for Nicholas Negroponte, the technology futurist who dreamed it up and who tirelessly promotes it everywhere from Bangkok to Brasilia. What has not received much attention is the graphical user interface—the software that will be the face of the machine for the millions of children who will own it. In fact, the user interface, called Sugar, may turn out to be one of the more innovative aspects of a project that has already made breakthroughs in mesh networking and battery charging since Negroponte unveiled the concept two years ago.

Source: The Face of the $100 Laptop

Goodbye To Office? Not Yet

Timely BusinessWeek snapshot 

The notion that cheap or free Web-based word processing or spreadsheet programs could replace traditional software like Microsoft Office is becoming more realistic all the time. Outfits like Google (GOOG ), ThinkFree, and Zoho have new and better services every day. And now startup Transmedia has come out with Glide OS 2.0, a package that aims to replace nearly all the software on your computer.

Source: Goodbye To Office? Not Yet

YouTube Struggles Despite Dominance - washingtonpost.com

So maybe not all the content that's fit to stream... 

But at least one partner has expressed unhappiness with its YouTube deal. Last month, NBC, which promoted its fall lineup on the site, demanded that YouTube take down some unauthorized videos. And now more media companies are flirting with smaller YouTube competitors, such as Revver and iFilm. Last month, one upstart, Joost, signed a content deal with Viacom, which owns MTV and Comedy Central.

Without a deal with Viacom, YouTube is left without some of its most popular clips from Comedy Central's "South Park" and "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart." Viacom, which walked away from a YouTube deal last month, claims that traffic to its Web sites such as Comedycentral.com and MTV.com has increased since it put more video there, allowing visitors to embed clips on their own blogs or other Web sites.

Source: YouTube Struggles Despite Dominance - washingtonpost.com

Google Courts Small YouTube Deals, and Very Soon, a Larger One - New York Times

Eventually all the content that's fit to stream?... 

And on Friday, YouTube is to announce a partnership with a larger company, the BBC, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations. Under the multiyear deal, the BBC will create two entertainment channels and one news channel on YouTube. Two of the channels will include ads placed by Google’s advertising system, known as AdSense.

But most of YouTube’s licensing deals have been done quietly. It says it has firmed up more than 1,000 partnerships with content owners ranging from the Sundance Channel to small independent video producers.

Without specifying how many of those deals have been signed since their site was acquired by Google last fall, YouTube officials say they are adding more than 200 media partners a quarter.

Source: Google Courts Small YouTube Deals, and Very Soon, a Larger One - New York Times

Social Networking’s Next Phase - New York Times

Interesting shift for Cisco

Next week Cisco Systems, a Silicon Valley heavyweight, plans to announce one of its most unusual deals: it is buying the technology assets of Tribe.net, a mostly forgotten social networking site, according to people close to the companies’ discussions.

[...]

But along with the recent purchase of a social network design firm, Five Across, the deal will give Cisco the technology to help large corporate clients create services resembling MySpace or YouTube to bring their customers together online. And that ambition highlights a significant shift in the way companies and entrepreneurs are thinking about social networks.

Source: Social Networking’s Next Phase - New York Times

Wired 15.03: The Thinking Machine

More Numenta press coverage -- read the full article for historical context etc. 

It’s this fascination with the human mind that drove Hawkins, in the flush of his success with Palm, to create the nonprofit Redwood Neuroscience Institute and hire top neuroscientists to pursue a grand unifying theory of cognition. It drove him to write On Intelligence, the 2004 book outlining his theory of how the brain works. And it has driven him to what has been his intended destination all along: Numenta. Here, with longtime business partner Donna Dubinsky and 12 engineers, Hawkins has created an artificial intelligence program that he believes is the first software truly based on the principles of the human brain. Like your brain, the software is born knowing nothing. And like your brain, it learns from what it senses, builds a model of the world, and then makes predictions based on that model. The result, Hawkins says, is a thinking machine that will solve problems that humans find trivial but that have long confounded our computers — including, say, sight and robot locomotion.

Source: Wired 15.03: The Thinking Machine

Review: Windows Home Server nearly ready for prime time

Detailed WHS review; see this page for the single page/print view version 

Enter Windows Home Server (WHS), announced at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in January. WHS is a platform for storing, sharing and protecting data from multiple home PCs. Additionally, it can stream media, provide remote access and monitor PCs on a home network. The basic concept is simple and logical, and any household with more than one PC already wants one...though they may not know it yet.

I've been part of the WHS beta for a couple weeks and am super-impressed so far.

Source: Review: Windows Home Server nearly ready for prime time

Novell sees hope as Microsoft deal starts to pay off - The Boston Globe

Still not a happy quarter overall, however; see the full article for details

Waltham software vendor Novell Inc. credited its controversial deal with Microsoft Corp. for fueling interest in its Linux operating system software in its fiscal first quarter.

Novell said that Linux sales rose 46 percent to $15 million over the same period last year. In the period ended Jan. 1, the company racked up additional Linux invoices worth $91 million, a 659 percent increase from the previous year. Revenue from these invoices will be recognized in future quarters.

Source: Novell sees hope as Microsoft deal starts to pay off - The Boston Globe

EU threatens Microsoft with huge fines in antitrust case - The Boston Globe

 Microsoft + lawyer = job security...

The European Union escalated its trans-Atlantic fight with Microsoft Corp. yesterday , threatening huge new fines against the software maker over claims it is asking rivals to pay too much for information that would help their servers work with Windows.

In response, Microsoft charged that the treatment it received from the EU is unprecedented and harmed its efforts to become a thriving high-tech economy.

Source: EU threatens Microsoft with huge fines in antitrust case - The Boston Globe

Technology Review: Netscape co-founder tries to build online communities

Marc Andreessen 2.0?... 

Ning hopes to make money through a combination of advertising and fees for premium services like extra storage space or bandwidth.

Since he got rich in 1999 when AOL bought Netscape for $10 billion, Andreessen has been scouring for the next big thing with little success so far. He has invested in variety of startups and still serves as chairman of Opsware Inc., a software support provider that has been growing rapidly in recent years but still has accumulated nearly $500 million in losses since its 1999 inception.

Source: Technology Review: Netscape co-founder tries to build online communities

Technology Review: Review: PlayStation Network a work in progress

Yet another stark PS3 reality check 

It's easy to praise the PlayStation 3 for its crisp graphics and multimedia capabilities: pretty much every PS3 video game features some of the best-looking visuals around.

But there's one area where Sony Corp. definitely has some catching up to do -- online gaming.

The PlayStation Network is painfully behind Nintendo Co.'s Virtual Console for the Wii and Xbox Live for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360.

Source: Technology Review: Review: PlayStation Network a work in progress

News Release - Oracle To Acquire Enterprise Performance Management Leader Hyperion

 Nice stock pop this morning for HYSL (up ~20% at the moment).  It'll be interesting to see how this plays out for Business Objects (BOBJ), Cognos (COGN), and SAS (privately held).  BOBJ and COGN are in the same mkt cap ballpark as HYSL (~$3.3B for both, the same amount Oracle bid for HYSL), and there's going to be a natural tendency toward further market segment consolidation, with Microsoft and Oracle both including broad BI capabilities in their respective superplatform offerings. 

Hyperion (Nasdaq Global Select: HYSL), a leading global provider of performance management software solutions today announced that it has agreed to be acquired by Oracle Corporation through a cash tender offer for $52.00 per share, or approximately $3.3 billion.

"Requirements for Performance Management and Business Intelligence solutions are increasingly converging," said Hyperion Chief Executive Officer Godfrey Sullivan. "Given the critical need for managers across the enterprise to align operational decisions with strategy, now is the right time for Hyperion to combine with a strategic partner like Oracle to deliver the first, integrated end-to-end Enterprise Performance Management System."

Source: News Release - Hyperion

Traction Software, Inc. | Blog372: What is a Blog? A Wiki?

Timely snapshot from Jordan Frank of Traction Software. 

Despite years of debate, constructive discussion and an occasional flame war as well as scores of wikipedia edits, there remains ambiguity and disagreement on "what is a blog" and "what is a wiki." In a series talks at KMWorld, Burton Group’s Catalyst Conference, IQPC’s IntranetWeek and others over the last year, I've offered my own definition. So, here goes my attempt at a baseline set of definitions, with a bit of historical context.

Read the full post for historical context and insights.  Jordan eventually notes:

And that, finally, brings me to a baseline definition for both blogs and wikis:

A system for posting, editing, and managing a collection of hypertext pages (generally pertaining to a certain topic or purpose)...

Blog: ...displayed as a set of pages in time order...

Wiki: ...displayed by page as a set of linked pages...

...and optionally including comments, tags or categories or labels, permalinks, and RSS (or other notification mechanisms) among other features. Both "blog" and "wiki" style presentations can make pages editable by a single individual or editable by a group (where group can include the general public, people who register, or a selected group). In the enterprise context, more advanced version control, audit trail, display flexibility, search, permission controls, and IT integration hooks may also be present.

I agree with many of Jordan's points, but I think the fundamental model for both blogs and wikis starts with (collections of) information items, not hypertext pages.  I also think the primary difference between a blog and a wiki is that a blog is an asynchronous communication channel, while a wiki is a workspace designed to facilitate content-based asynchronous collaboration (joint, purposeful activity).  The boundaries are increasingly blurry, however, e.g., with blog tools that support in-context discussion/comment threads, and wiki tools that offer XML syndication (RSS and/or Atom) views, including time-ordered views of information item activity in the wiki (views which tend to look a lot like blogs...).

Source: Traction Software, Inc. | Blog372: What is a Blog? A Wiki?

Designing Interactions: Doug Engelbart Interview

Block some time to explore the interview vidoes and other resources on this web site, and then buy the book. 

Doug tells the story of inventing the mouse, and confirming that it was the best device for pointing and clicking by testing a prototype against a range of alternative options.

A couple other classic micro-interviews: Jeff Hawkins; Sergey Brin and Larry Page

Source: Designing Interactions

Designing Interactions: Bill Atkinson interview

From the web site companion to the incredible Designing Interactions book. 

In 1978 Bill was a graduate student in neuroscience at the University of Washington when he got a call from Apple, suggesting that he visit. Steve Jobs persuaded him to join, saying, “If you want to make a dent in the world, you have to come to the place where it’s happening!” He was hired as the “Application Software Department,” and went on to lead the development of the software for Lisa and Macintosh, and to design MacPaint and HyperCard. He was a leader and inspirational designer at Apple for twelve years, during which time Apple grew from thirty people to fifteen thousand. Bill Atkinson designed several of the interactions that define the desktop.

Atkinson's current focus: Numenta.

Source: Designing Interactions

Lotus Rock Star | Quickr notes - so what about Domino.Doc?

See the post for more details 

Quickr is the pillar that addresses team collaboration and document management, so the natural assumption is that Domino.Doc is part of Quickr, right?   Right.  Just not yet.  Domino.Doc (and yes I do know the full name) won't be subsumed into Quickr until 9.0.  There just wasn't enough time for engineering to do it for 8.0.  The NSF side of Quickr is already approaching a managed beta of some kind, and the various parts that comprise the J2EE side are still being Steve-Austin-ed.

 

Source: Lotus Rock Star | Quickr notes - so what about Domino.Doc?

Google says advertisers face minimal click fraud - Yahoo! News

Coincidentally, I received a sternly-worded warning email message from Google yesterday on this topic.  Pretty responsive -- I clicked on a couple ads on my own blog page yesterday, and apparently that's a no-no.   Whatever...

Google, on Wednesday disclosed data showing that while its pay-per-click Web advertising system is under regular attack from fraudsters, virtually all such tricks are automatically detected, rebuffing critics who say its online ads are a magnet for fraud.

Click fraud can occur when Web site publishers attempt to trick Google's ad system into counting ads never seen by real users, or when competitors use automated programs to create fake clicks, driving up charges per click and rivals' ad rates.

Source: Google says advertisers face minimal click fraud - Yahoo! News

IBM To Pipe Google Gadgets Into Company Sites - Yahoo! News

Intriguing development in the "co-opetition" zone 

IBM has reached a deal with Google Inc. to bring the consumer Internet into the office by piping YouTube and thousands of other Web programs into IBM software used by millions of office workers.

The pact brings together Google, one of the world's most popular consumer Web technology companies, and IBM, the biggest supplier of employee portal software which big businesses use to offer a kind of personalized home page for office workers.

Source: IBM To Pipe Google Gadgets Into Company Sites - Yahoo! News

Rob Pegoraro - Aiming for Innovation, HP Fails for Usual Reasons - washingtonpost.com

 More negative impressions from the TouchSmart IQ770; see the link below for the full review 

This is an overdue development. Science fiction, from "Star Trek" to "Star Wars," has taught us to tap the screen of a computer to make things happen -- a lesson reinforced by the touch-sensitive screens we use daily at ATMs, gas pumps and airport check-in kiosks.

But the $1,800 TouchSmart doesn't just allow its users to do what comes naturally.

Source: Rob Pegoraro - Aiming for Innovation, HP Fails for Usual Reasons - washingtonpost.com

$499 phone to fly off shelves, Apple says: Business & Technology: The Seattle Times

 Should be simpler than, say, establishing a trillion-dollar Newton business...

Apple predicted that 10 million customers will pay at least $499 to buy an iPhone next year because they realize most free mobile phones are worthless.

"A lot of people pay zero for the cellphone. Guess why? That's what it's worth," Apple Chief Operating Officer Timothy Cook said Wednesday at a conference in Las Vegas. Some wireless providers win customers by offering phones that lack the latest features free with service contracts.

Source: $499 phone to fly off shelves, Apple says: Business & Technology: The Seattle Times

Personal Technology -- It's Not All YouTube -- The Web Is a Trove Of Watchable Videos

 Timely update from Walt Mossberg (the link below is the no-subscription-required version of the story)

I love YouTube. As a pop-culture junkie, I watch its videos daily, whether goofy amateur productions or clips -- often of dubious legal status -- lifted from TV shows or movies.

But, while YouTube is sometimes seen as synonymous with the Internet video revolution, there is a lot more to Web video. In fact, some of the most interesting video on the Web isn't even the type of stuff that's most popular on YouTube -- short, one-off clips.

Source: Personal Technology -- Personal Technology from The Wall Street Journal.

Oracle Extends Acquisitions Spree, To Buy Hyperion for $3.3 Billion - WSJ.com

Done deal, apparently 

The deal, expected to be announced Thursday, would carry a premium of about 21% over the closing price of Hyperion's shares Wednesday.

Oracle has been in talks for months with Hyperion, a Santa Clara, Calif., company that competes in a market known as business-intelligence software, as well as with rivals in the field that include Cognos Inc. and Business Objects S.A., these people said. Oracle, of Redwood Shores, Calif., was looking for the best fit with its own business-intelligence products, which help companies collect, analyze and share data about how their businesses are performing.

Source: Oracle Extends Acquisitions Spree, To Buy Hyperion for $3.3 Billion - WSJ.com

Oracle Deal for Hyperion Is Expected - New York Times

Another mega-deal for Oracle 

Oracle is near a deal to acquire Hyperion Solutions, which makes software that allows corporations to analyze and track their performance, for more than $3.1 billion, according to people briefed on the deal.

The acquisition is expected to be announced as early as today, these people said.

Source: Oracle Deal for Hyperion Is Expected - New York Times