Friday, May 16, 2008

Amazon.com: Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era: Mary Jo Foley: Books

I finished reading Mary Jo Foley's new book yesterday. I consider it required reading for anyone interested in Microsoft's past/present/likely future. It's an in-depth and, imho, refreshingly objective assessment from a top-tier tech journalist who has been closely tracking Microsoft for a couple decades.  Check it out at Amazon.com.

Amazon.com product description:

Microsoft 2.0 is about Microsoft's future, not its past. The coming years will be challenging ones for the Redmond software kingpin. Many of the executives currently leading the Microsoft charge are likely to go their own way. Technology will continue to advance at a breakneck pace. Microsoft will forge deals of the size and scope it previously never envisioned in order to keep pace. Foley doesn't claim to possess a crystal ball, allowing her to predict flawlessly what Microsoft plans to do in the next few years ? or even few months. But based on the many Microsoft executives, partners, customers and competitors with whom she converses regularly, she is sitting in a good spot to make some fairly educated guesses that will be most interesting to her readers.

This book describes the Microsoft people, products and strategies that will be key for the next-gen Microsoft. Foley uses her professional experience to piece the puzzle together in order to reveal a reasonable, educated guess as to what Microsoft 2.0 will look like as it enters the next decade and beyond.

Amazon.com: Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era: Mary Jo Foley: Books

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: My lawyers are freaking out

Hmm -- an interesting Fake Steve Jobs post...

Just got a nervous call from my lawyers who said they wanted to give me a "heads up" about a "situation" at Broadcom. See more about it here. Basically the feds are going after some Broadcom execs over some options backdating stuff. I'm like, So what? I don't work at Broadcom. They're like, Um, well, see, Broadcom did its own internal investigation and already cleared these guys, and the SEC isn't buying it apparently, and though the company itself has already settled the whole thing the SEC is still going after the executives as individuals. Now you do you see? Is this ringing any bells?

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: My lawyers are freaking out

Where is WinFS now? | Jon Udell | Perspectives

The WinFS dream continues -- read the full interview to understand how WinFS is not dead yet, at least in spirit...

WinFS was an ambitious effort to embed an integrated storage engine into the Windows operating system, and use it to create a shared data ecosystem. Although WinFS never shipped as a part of Windows, many of the underlying technologies have shipped, or will ship, in SQL Server and in other products. In this interview Quentin Clark traces the lineage of those technologies back to WinFS, and forward to their current incarnations.

Where is WinFS now? | Jon Udell | Perspectives

FT.com / Companies / US & Canada - Bare-knuckle fight begins for Yahoo

A stark Financial Times reality check

A week ago, Jerry Yang was trying to sound buoyant about the prospects for an independent Yahoo and insisting he was in it for the long haul. “This is not something I got into lightly last year,” he told the Financial Times, referring to his assumption of the chief executive’s title. “It’s too great a company for anyone who does not intend to be here long-term to do this job.”

For Mr Yang personally, the long term looks like it just got shortened considerably. Having spent much of the year fending off Microsoft ’s chief executive, Steve Ballmer, who had strived to stay scrupulously polite despite his mounting personal frustrations, the Yahoo boss on Thursday came under the far more caustic fire of Carl Icahn.

FT.com / Companies / US & Canada - Bare-knuckle fight begins for Yahoo

Press Release: SEC Proposes New Way for Investors to Get Financial Information on Companies; 2008-85; May 14, 2008

XBRL R Us (via Cover Pages)

The proposed rule would require all U.S. companies to provide financial information using interactive data beginning next year for the largest companies, and within three years for all public companies.

"This is all about bringing investors better, faster, more meaningful information about the companies they own," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. "It would transform financial disclosure from a 1930s form-based system to a truly 21st century model that taps the power of technology for the benefit of investors."

Press Release: SEC Proposes New Way for Investors to Get Financial Information on Companies; 2008-85; May 14, 2008

Microsoft Joins Effort for Laptops for Children - New York Times

More on WXP + OLPC

Windows will add a bit to the price of the machines, about $3, the licensing fee Microsoft charges to some developing nations under a program called Unlimited Potential. For those nations that want models that can run both Windows and Linux, the extra hardware required will add another $7 or so to the cost of the machines, Mr. Negroponte said.

The laptops now cost about $200 each, and the project’s goal is to eventually bring the price down to about $100.

Microsoft Joins Effort for Laptops for Children - New York Times

Laptops for poor to run Windows XP - The Boston Globe

See the full article for more details on this timely reality check

The One Laptop Per Child Foundation, of Cambridge, will next month start distributing a version of its XO laptop that will run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system. While the move has long been expected, it represents a major shift for OLPC, which has relied on the free Linux operating system.

"It's not about the operating system, it's about the educational experience," said OLPC's chief executive, Chuck Kane. He said the foundation's Sugar suite of educational software is being modified to run atop Windows.

Laptops for poor to run Windows XP - The Boston Globe

Icahn applies pressure to Yahoo - The Boston Globe

The tension mounts...  See the full article for more details; apparently Yahoo's board has been much more responsive to Icahn than they were to Microsoft.

Icahn said in a letter to Yahoo's board that a combination with Microsoft "is by far the most sensible path" if the Internet company wants to take on Google Inc.

"The board of directors of Yahoo has acted irrationally and lost the faith of shareholders and Microsoft," said Icahn, 72. "I sincerely hope you heed the wishes of your shareholders and move expeditiously to negotiate a merger with Microsoft, thereby making a proxy fight unnecessary."

Icahn applies pressure to Yahoo - The Boston Globe

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Google adds real estate listings to Maps | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Sign of the times

Zillow, watch out.

Google Maps now can show real estate listings, presenting pushpins that show houses for sale.

To show real estate results, click "Show search options," then select "Real Estate" from the drop-down list. The Web site then shows a list of properties for sale on the left tied to pushpins on the map on the right.

Google adds real estate listings to Maps | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Charter Will Monitor Customers Web Surfing to Target Ads - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

Somehow I suspect this won't be popular...

Charter Communications, the fourth-largest cable system in the United States, has started telling its high-speed Internet customers that it is going to keep track of every site they visit on the Web.

The cable company will sell the data to a firm called NebuAd, which in turn will use it to show ads to Web-surfing Charter customers that are meant to be related to their interests. (Visit a knitting site yesterday and see yarn ads today.)

Charter Will Monitor Customers Web Surfing to Target Ads - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

Its Complaxtic: Comcast Buys Plaxo to Boost Video Sharing - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

More on the Plaxo acquisition (no WSJ subscription required for this one)

In simple terms, Comcast wants to be a sort of Facebook of video sharing. As Mr. Schwartz explained it, if you love an episode of “Lost,” you will eventually be able to use Plaxo’s multi-platform connection technology and Comcast’s video-licensing agreements to share it with your friends. “We can bring you the show,” he said.

Plaxo, based in Mountain View, Calif., had been looking for a buyer since at least January. Comcast was a natural partner since Plaxo was already providing the Philadelphia-based cable giant with software to help integrate its cable TV, phone and Internet services into a common platform.

Its Complaxtic: Comcast Buys Plaxo to Boost Video Sharing - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

O.K., Avatar, Work With Me - New York Times

See the full article for several perspectives on the utility of Wii Fit

Now Nintendo’s latest brainchild, Wii Fit, could send similar ripples through the home-fitness market. Scheduled to be released in North America next week, Wii Fit is not meant to replace a gym. But in a world of $3,000 elliptical machines and $150-an-hour personal trainers, it has at least a chance of becoming a global, affordable, mass-market interactive home-fitness system. (On its overseas debut last month, it became one of the fastest-selling games ever in Britain.)

O.K., Avatar, Work With Me - New York Times

Comcast to Acquire Web-Networking Partner Plaxo - WSJ.com

Hmm...

Comcast Corp. said on Wednesday that it will acquire networking Web site Plaxo, in an effort by the cable operator to broaden its range of services.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Plaxo, a closely held company based in Mountain View, Calif., offers technology that helps users more easily share contact information and media such as photos or personal Web-site information.

Comcast to Acquire Web-Networking Partner Plaxo - WSJ.com

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Kiwi airliners converted into giant iPod docks | The Register

Via Fake Steve Jobs

A generation of unprecedentedly large and fast iPod docks is now on offer, and it has now been announced that firm customer orders have been placed.

Air New Zealand will equip eighteen of its airliners with in-flight entertainment rigs allowing iPod users to play their video on seatback screens, listen to audio through the aircraft system, and control their device via the plane's interface.The world's largest and fastest iPod dock

Kiwi airliners converted into giant iPod docks | The Register

Craigslist’s Countersuit Criticizes eBay’s Tactics - New York Times

With friends like these, ...

The countersuit exposes how the tension between the companies has been growing since shortly after eBay’s 2004 purchase of a 28.4 percent interest in Craigslist. Craigslist’s suit says eBay has continually tried to exert control over Craigslist, a privately held company in San Francisco that is widely known for its anticorporate philosophy.

It revealed that eBay acquired the shares by buying an option to acquire the shares of a minority shareholder of Craigslist, whom the company did not identify. The suit said that because eBay’s option prevented Craigslist from finding another buyer, Craigslist then repurchased the shares and issued new shares to eBay.

Craigslist’s Countersuit Criticizes eBay’s Tactics - New York Times

FT.com / Companies / IT - Small matter of the Big Blue challenge

A timely Financial Times reality check

For IBM, the king of the IT services business, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But if Hewlett-Packard thinks its purchase of EDS will immediately put it toe-to-toe with the market leader, IBM’s own long and difficult ride in services should make it think again.

IBM Global Services, which accounts for more than half of the Big Blue’s revenues, has rebounded to become the main driver of the company’s earnings since the middle of last year. After a period of negligible growth, it has taken a radical restructuring and new leadership to revive the business, lifting growth back to 9 per cent in the first quarter even before the benefit of currency fluctuations.

FT.com / Companies / IT - Small matter of the Big Blue challenge

utilitycomputing.itworld.com - Vertica moves BI database to Amazon's cloud

Interesting times

Database maker Vertica Systems is moving its technology to Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud infrastructure (EC2), hoping to score customers who want a hosted, pay-as-you-go model for data warehousing and BI (business intelligence), the company announced Monday.

utilitycomputing.itworld.com - Vertica moves BI database to Amazon's cloud

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

In a crowded market, Wetpaint's colors look solid | The Social - CNET News.com

Definitely one to watch -- go create a free wiki for yourself and check it out

Short version: Wetpaint might be one to watch.

Long version: TechCrunch's Michael Arrington has alerted us to a dark horse candidate in the race to dominate the land of wikis. It's Wetpaint, a Seattle-based service we haven't heard a whole lot from lately. The reason, Arrington says, is that it's positioning itself to be a player in niche social networks, not just mini-Wikipedias.

In a crowded market, Wetpaint's colors look solid | The Social - CNET News.com

Icahn Said to Prepare Fight at Yahoo - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds -- DealBook - New York Times

Looks like maybe Adam Smith's invisible hand is about to slap Jerry Yang...

The activist investor is considering beginning a proxy fight at the Internet media company, fewer than two weeks after it rebuffed a takeover offer from Microsoft, a person briefed on the matter told DealBook. Mr. Icahn began stockpiling a large stake in Yahoo, one as large as 50 million shares.

[...]

The move would be reminiscent of his role in orchestrating a deal between Oracle and BEA Systems last year. Then, Mr. Icahn took a position in BEA, an enterprise software maker that rejected Oracle’s advances. After a convoluted series of events, including some strong-arming by Mr. Icahn, BEA finally submitted to an Oracle takeover.

Icahn Said to Prepare Fight at Yahoo - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds -- DealBook - New York Times

FT.com / Home UK / UK - Google triumphant

A timely Financial Times reality check; read the full article

The eventual limits of the fast-growing search market, which accounts for almost half of all online advertising, are still impossible to discern, but it is already a business that stands comparison with the technology industry's most fabled success stories. On the current trajectory, Google's revenue - almost all of it coming from search - will probably surpass the income that Microsoft generates from the Windows operating system some time next year.

There is no guarantee that the search company will alight on another idea as powerful as its advertising system, says Mark Anderson, a veteran technology commentator. Yet that may not matter for some time, he and most other industry insiders say. "I think it's enough for the next 10 years," says Mr Anderson. "When God gives you a golden goose, you have to hold it tight."

FT.com / Home UK / UK - Google triumphant