You, I'm sure, have heard that Sir Arthur C. Clarke
left
us last week at the age of 90. Clarke was a true renaissance man. Many forget
that he was a real scientist and technical visionary. He invented the idea of
orbiting satellites and later proposed them as a way to bring the Internet to
the Third World.
I was lucky enough to correspond with Sir Clarke for several years. Even though
he was way over in Sri Lanka, Clarke read AmigaWorld while I was editor
in chief. Clarke loved the Amiga and used it to explore Mandelbrots, geometrical
shapes that expand inward and out infinitely. The shapes they form also make
great hippy T-shirts. These fractals drove his novel The Ghost from the Grand
Banks.
Clarke would fax me his thoughts, along with clips of Mandelbrots carved into
corn fields in England as well as stories about the 25th birthday of HAL, the
computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I now have a prize collection of letters
and newspaper clippings from one of the world's greatest minds. Who says journalism
isn't cool?
Clarke more recently survived the tsunami and worked to find better ways to
predict these waves and warn coastal inhabitants.
What's your favorite Arthur C. Clarke work? Let us know by writing me at [email protected].
The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation
is also a good place to park some of your extra dough.
Posted by Doug Barney on March 24, 20080 comments
Call it Redmond Report Take 2. Last week, we launched a new Web site that's
so simple in concept, even I could've thought it up (but I didn't; my boss Henry
Allain did).
Redmond Report (yup, it shares its name with this here newsletter) is simply
a bunch of links from a bunch of sites to a bunch of stories about Microsoft.
Like I said, pretty dang simple. Already, the site has stories about Vista
Service Pack 1, a new Word exploit and advice about what company Microsoft should
buy (instead of Yahoo).
So click over to RedmondReport.com,
then write me at [email protected]
and let me know what you think.
Posted by Doug Barney on March 24, 20080 comments
VMware made news last month when Dell, HP and IBM
all
agreed to bundle a small, tight version of VMware with its servers. This
made it seem almost like VMware is the only game in town, the Microsoft of virtualization.
The reality is the field is far more complex and competitive.
It's not just the looming threat of Hyper-V, which will be huge as Microsoft
is making all the right moves with pricing and enticing developers. Citrix is
also playing big-time in this space with its acquisition of Xen. Sun is basing
its new xVM hypervisor on Xen, and last week HP
announced that it will embed a version of XenServer on HP servers -- just
like it's doing with VMware.
Like the early days of productivity software and even desktop operating systems,
this market is wide-the-heck-open. This is gonna be fun.
Posted by Doug Barney on March 24, 20080 comments
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last year famously remarked that in 10 years, all
media will be digital -- meaning print will be deader than a run-over Texas
armadillo. Maybe Steve really believes such an absurd idea (despite iPods and
CDs, the LP is the hot ticket for young music-philes). Or perhaps he's trying
to will it into happening so Microsoft can take over the publishing business.
Like Google and Yahoo, Microsoft isn't really planning on doing publishing
the traditional way -- the hard way -- where you actually hire journalists and
editors and produce content. No, Microsoft and its ilk want to monetize content
produced by others. They want advertisers to connect with Microsoft by advertising
on Microsoft sites, or for advertisers and publishers to use Microsoft as the
Web advertising go-between. Here's
a rundown of what Microsoft has to offer.
The company has a new
partner, Rapt Inc., which Microsoft is in the process of buying. Rapt helps
publishers forecast and does inventory management. The software will be added
to Microsoft's Atlas Publisher Suite.
Posted by Doug Barney on March 17, 20080 comments
Over the last few years, almost no one launched new computer magazines. Of course,
the exception is 1105 Media, which started
Redmond magazine in 2004,
Redmond Channel Partner in 2005, and broke out
Redmond Developer News
in 2006.
Later this month, 1105 lets loose with Virtualization Review, and I'm
lucky to be a part of it. The premiere issue includes profiles of VMware, Microsoft
and Citrix/Xen; a roundup of top PC virtualization tools; a treatise on the
state of storage virtualization; a peek at Hyper-V; and loads of industry news.
We already have a Web
site and blog
up and running. You can subscribe here.
And you can pick up our free newsletter here.
Posted by Doug Barney on March 17, 20080 comments
The ordinarily press-shy Ray Ozzie
recently
opened up to blogger Om Malik on cloud computing and the role of the desktop
OS.
After making the obvious statement that today's desktop has a '70s and '80s
feel (something other Microsoft execs likely agree with but cringe at hearing),
Ozzie pointed out that young developers, students and startups build for the
Web first, and this is the audience Microsoft must now address (Silverlight,
anyone?).
For its part, Microsoft pledges to build a more reliable cloud itself (for
MSN and Windows Live services), create better dev tools for mashups and develop
a model for cloud computing applications such that Microsoft remains a highly
profitable company.
Posted by Doug Barney on March 17, 20080 comments
Last week, Steve Ballmer jetted down to sunny Las Vegas for the MIX08 show,
where some 2,500 people went to learn what Microsoft is doing in Web development
tools.
At first, I was going to write this entire item based on what Redmond
Developer News writer Jeff Schwartz put in his terrific 1,252-word
article. Then I ran into Kate Richards, another Redmond Developer News
writer who just got back from MIX08, at the coffee machine.
I'm not sure if it was the Las Vegas memories or the stirring keynotes and
sessions, but Kate was pretty impressed. Topping her list was Silverlight,
the semi-new Web dev tool that has more downloads than a .JPEG of the Kardashian
sisters (these are the girls famous for having a father that [allegedly] got
rid of O.J.'s bloody evidence, for being Bruce Jenner's stepchildren and for
having a videotape I'd rather not describe). Microsoft also previewed some rather
stunning work it's doing for NBC's Beijing Olympics Web site.
But the real excitement came during Steve Ballmer's keynote, a real baring-of-the-soul
affair. Ballmer admitted that Vista didn't come out quite as well as he had
hoped, and that he wished Internet Explorer had been updated more frequently.
Ever optimistic, Ballmer believes that the Vista service pack will fix many
of the compatibility issues.
I have no clue why Microsoft agreed to this, but Ballmer then sat down for
a Q&A
with Apple bigot and self-centered venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki. Kawasaki
rudely sported a new MacAir (only VCs can afford this creation) and asked a
rash of Apple-focused questions. (Kawasaki worked for Apple over 20 years ago
when the Mac was black and white, single-tasking and -- just like today -- horribly
expensive.) Ballmer kept his composure and answered Kawasaki's random questions
as best as he could.
Here's a crazy idea I'm pitching in my next print editorial: Microsoft should
buy the Mac OS. Am I nuts or on to something? Let me know at [email protected]!
Posted by Doug Barney on March 10, 20080 comments
TechCrunch, a blog which everyone says is cool but isn't actually read by anyone
I know, is reporting that Google and Microsoft may be
fighting
over Digg.com. Apparently, Google is willing to pay up to $225 million,
while Microsoft, saving its big bucks for Yahoo, is coming in a bit lower.
I gotta tell you, Digg these days is far cooler than Yahoo. People who don't
need to show an ID to get a senior citizen discount use Yahoo, while the Red
Bull and pimple cream set flocks to Digg. Which do you think has more of a future?
Posted by Doug Barney on March 10, 20080 comments
Let me keep this short and simple. Tomorrow is Patch Tuesday, and this one has
a fairly
normal
number of fixes, tweaks and repairs. And, like most patch cycles, these
fixes largely focus on remote execution exploits (is there any other kind of
exploit these days?).
Unlike most months where Windows and IE get corrected, these patches are mostly
for Office and Outlook.
Posted by Doug Barney on March 10, 20080 comments
Like any community of vendors, the storage industry pumps out more hype than
a Hollywood premiere. Jon William Toigo has seen it all, but as a true storage
expert he easily separates fact from fiction, wheat from chaff, truth from marketing
hooey.
This
article he wrote is a fairly long read, but well worth it. Here are a few
highlights for those with tight schedules:
Toigo, in mentioning the 10-year anniversary of the SAN, goes on to predict
the death of fibre channel. I won't shed any tears. It never made sense to me
to network storage with fibre and computers with Ethernet.
Toigo also predicts that Microsoft will have huge success in the virtualization
market, and will "win the day over third-party virtualization wares."
Mr. Toigo sure ain't shy with his opinions!
Posted by Doug Barney on March 03, 20080 comments
Microsoft last week disclosed plans to
cut
the price of boxed versions of Vista by up to nearly 50 percent.
Conspiracy theorists see a connection between this and the class-action suit
claiming that machines labeled as Vista Ready are less prepared than a narcoleptic
Boy Scout. I fail to see that connection, and instead believe that Microsoft
simply wants to build a little Vista momentum. To me this move has very little
meaning. I've argued from the start that users shouldn't upgrade existing systems
to Vista, but should wait 'til they need to buy a new PC.
All the letters
I've received from Redmond Report readers prove that point. Most of today's
machines don't take kindly to the upgrade, and a lot of new machines with Vista
fail to run Vista well. The advice from readers is to carefully spec out your
Vista machine. Pick solid high-end hardware and you may just have a joyous Vista
experience.
Just to keep things from being too easy, Microsoft actually has two logos:
Vista Capable for low-end machines, and Vista Ready for higher-end units. I
think I'll opt for Vista Ready!
Posted by Doug Barney on March 03, 20080 comments
Rumors started
this weekend that Microsoft is set to make a major Software as a Service (SaaS)
announcement soon, perhaps detailing how nearly its entire portfolio of apps
-- from ERP to Office -- will adapt to the Web.
The company may also detail plans to build a bunch of huge new datacenters,
an announcement that seems geared toward Wall Street as much as IT.
And, in fact, it appears today that the rumors might be starting to come true:
Microsoft this morning announced a new step forward for its SaaS initiative,
Microsoft
Online Services, with online betas of Exchange and SharePoint Servers.
Are you using SaaS? If so, for what and how is it working out? If not, what
would it take for you to make the move? Write me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on March 03, 20080 comments