Sun may not get the same attention in the virtualization space as, say, a Microsoft
or a VMware, but like IBM on the mainframe, Sun is no stranger to virtualization.
Sneaking its message in just before VMworld, Sun announced that its new hypervisor,
xVM Server, and its management platform for virtualization, Ops Center 2.0,
are
both
now ready
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Posted by Doug Barney on September 16, 20080 comments
Yesterday I got up early, kissed the family goodbye and made the monstrous
multi-stop airplane journey to Las Vegas. You might think the author of a prestigious
newsletter such as Redmond Report would travel in style, but like many of you
I'm purely a coach potato. Traveling in that crowed stockade they call a fuselage
makes me appreciate where I'm going.
And that is VMworld, where I was instantly joined by 10,000 to 14,000 other
virtualization freaks. Today and the rest of the week I'll give you hands-on
reports from the show, along with a smattering of what's going on in the rest
of the computing universe.
Posted by Doug Barney on September 16, 20080 comments
I like things feisty. Lance Armstrong, Bill Parcells and Vince K. McMahon are
all well-known jerks, but I love 'em anyway. That self-centeredness, that will
to succeed, is what makes them great. Microsoft is that kind of company. On
the eve of VMworld (actually, the week before) Microsoft had a massive product
launch for Hyper-V where it lowered the price to...
free!
More
Posted by Doug Barney on September 16, 20080 comments
Chrome may be based on Mozilla, Safari and a huge dose of Google code, but at
least
one
chunk is pure Microsoft
. Chrome uses the Windows Template Library (WTL),
a technology for running small programs that Redmond donated to the open source
community, according to Microsoft's Scott Hanselman.
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Posted by Doug Barney on September 15, 20080 comments
Ever since Netscape died (Did it die on its own or was it murder? Verdicts welcome
at
[email protected]
),
IE has been the standard in browsers. IE worked fine for me, but security worries
and the desire for something new led me to Firefox.
Unlike some, I don't find Firefox fun or particularly cool. It is, however,
very good -- and through add-ons, nicely extensible. Foxmarks is great for keeping
bookmarks, and the browser blocks ads awfully well (it does crash a lot, though;
should I blame XP or Mozilla?). But there's nothing truly killer about Firefox.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on September 15, 20080 comments
How much would you pay for a new laptop with 1GB of flash memory, Ethernet,
Wi-Fi, three USBs and built-in word processing?
How
about $98?
That's what Chinese company HiVision hopes to charge for its
new little beauty.
At this price, it could be a nice little toy or a machine just for travel.
If you have enough of your files in the cloud, you could get all your work done
cheaply. And if it gets lost or stolen, a new machine is only a Benjamin away.
Posted by Doug Barney on September 15, 20080 comments
Doug thought the recent Microsoft-Seinfeld ad
was
a flop
, but a couple of you didn't think it was all bad. Readers share their
mixed reactions:
You are absolutely right. It is a total bomb. When I saw it, my reaction
was, "And?" I think it is about as big a non-ad as has ever wasted
money and time. I've been a Windows user almost since Day One. That would
be when I stopped using CP/M. I look for much more in my operating system
and I want to see good ads, too. I am totally disappointed.
-John
I enjoyed the TV ad and thought that Gates was as good a comic straight-man
as some well-established comics. IMO, Gates trumped Seinfeld, indeed.
-Ron
It made me want to go out and buy a pair of Conquistador shoes with Windows
in the toes!
-Charles
That commercial makes as much sense as the first release of Vista. Of
course it's Microsoft's money, so if you don't like it, don't buy the stock.
-Geo
I've heard and read a lot about the commercial being a flop, but I'm not
so sure. I agree that the jokes were a bit flat. However, I think the ad brought
a bit more human-ness to Gates and, with Seinfeld in the mix, makes Microsoft
appear a lot more accessible/friendly to the general populace. To the audience
it was geared (average Windows consumer), I believe it can probably be considered
a success.
The simple image of Gates wiggling his rear end is something I could
have gone without. The "good" of the commercial is that it is memorable;
I won't forget Gates trying on shoes in a discount shoe store.
-Kevin
The moist cake is a reference to the Drake's Coffee Cake from the "Seinfeld"
show. Same with the showering with clothes on; Kramer made his meals in the
shower in one episode. For those that watched "Seinfeld," it was
a great commercial. Bill Gates was funny, too.
-Anonymous
I normally do not comment about anything that I see on the Web, even
when asked. But I actually viewed that ad and have never seen anything more
stupid in my life in regard to an advertisement for anything relating to a
computer -- whether hardware or software. It was a better ad for shoes than
anything else.
-Anonymous
The commercial was horrible and was painful to watch, and I really did
not get the point. I never thought Seinfeld was funny in the first place.
That being said, I don't find the Mac commercials funny either (only dorky
Mac users find them funny), but I must admit that they are very clever and
are effective in giving PCs (and of course Windows) a perception that they
are inferior to the Mac. Microsoft should probably hire the same people who
market for Apple, whom I must admit have been very good at selling a "perception."
-Asif
As for the ad, it's definite NYC humor, and since I'm from the other side
of the Hudson, I get it. Friends in England and Ireland don't have a clue,
but to them I just say, "NO SOUP FOR YOU."
-Anonymous
A complete, total, stunning waste of money, time and talent. Pointless.
-Lin
I would just like to say, "Where is the message?" What a waste
of talent and money!
-Harry
I thought it was really bad. I saw it twice before I even figured out
what it was for. I thought maybe after Bill stepped down he needed a little
extra cash so he moved to doing commercials.
-Anonymous
I thought the ad was amateurish at 1:30 minutes. But I'll bet it will
rock at 30 seconds once the lame parts are removed.
-Dan
Since I'm not a fan of Seinfeld, my approach to the campaign is a great,
big yawn. I am neither excited nor disappointed. To put it another way, I
couldn't care less.
-Charlie
Clinical psychologists learn a lot about their patients by discerning
what the patient finds funny or sad. I cannot understand what the fuss is
all about.
-Roger
More
Posted by Doug Barney on September 11, 20080 comments
Seven years ago, I was in Atlanta at NetWorld+Interop to judge the show's product
awards when the news of a plane hitting the World Trade Center broke. It seemed
like a crazy accident. Then another hit. Then the buildings fell. And there
were still planes in the air, still more potential targets.
We were sitting in a building with over 10,000 people directly across from
the CNN center. We could have been a target. Wisely, we left the building and
went back to our hotels, walking past hundreds of shocked Atlantans.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on September 11, 20080 comments
VMware last week released a list of holes in its software, holes that support
elevated privilege attacks, denial of service exploits and remote code execution.
Ultimately, holes
in a hypervisor are more dangerous than a hole in an OS or application,
as a single hypervisor supports many operating systems and applications.
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Posted by Doug Barney on September 11, 20080 comments