In old-school video games -- and, we gather, in most new ones -- there are
levels of play. You get past one, and your reward is a whole 'nother one, as
we'd say back in Texas, that's even more difficult to conquer. There's not much
time for celebration moving up the ladder of success. Well, that's what business
is like these days for Salesforce.com, in case you were wondering just where
this was going. (We're not gamers here at RCPU, but your editor did spend a
few months working for a company that makes video games.)
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Posted by Lee Pender on September 19, 20070 comments
It's hugely popular in the
retail
channel
, anyway.
And speaking of productivity suites (dig that smooth transition), Jim not only
read Tuesday's entire newsletter entry on Google
and Capgemini, he took the time to write us about it:
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Posted by Lee Pender on September 13, 20071 comments
It was inevitable, really. Sun Microsystems finally acknowledged, fully and
completely, the power of Microsoft this week. Three years after making peace
with Microsoft, pocketing a nice little package of cash and opening up to interoperability
with Redmond, Sun has become a Microsoft OEM. The former rivals announced this
week that Sun will begin building x64 serves
with
Windows Server 2003 software installed
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Posted by Lee Pender on September 13, 20070 comments
Cuddly, cuddly! What a week for former Microsoft rivals to nuzzle up to Redmond.
Still-new friend Novell is teaming with Microsoft to
open
an interoperability lab
in Cambridge, Mass. (perhaps America's smartest
city), and there are
new
customers
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Posted by Lee Pender on September 13, 20070 comments
Just as the weather is cooling down (at least where we are),
VMware
is heating up
. We've heard the figure 10,000 bandied about in reference
to the number of attendees at this week's VMworld in San Francisco. We haven't
confirmed that number ourselves, but if it's accurate, it roams in the same
ballpark as Microsoft TechEd and Worldwide Partner Conference numbers. Maybe
even a bigger ballpark. VMworld is big. Let's just say that.
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Posted by Lee Pender on September 12, 20070 comments
On the west side of Paris (France, not Paris, Texas), contained within a sort
of bubble in the city limits, sits
La
Défense
, a skyscraper complex that would have all the earmarks of
a city of the future...if we were still living in 1985. Conceived in the 1950s
as a place outside of Paris's more enchanting "quartiers" to stick
vulgar commerce and keep the less charming, more corporate flow of Francs (now
Euros) away from the city's cafés and museums, La Défense is glass
and steel, brick and concrete, business suits and dress shoes. It's more Manhattan
than Paris, except without any of the things that makes Manhattan (New York
City, not Manhattan, Kan.) one of the most exciting places in the world.
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Posted by Lee Pender on September 11, 20073 comments
Even in the dog days of August, concerned readers took the time to contact
us on a couple of hot topics.
On the first, the infamous
Windows Genuine Advantage, David reports in fine British English:
"I have had problems with WGA on the install side -- firstly when
it was offered up as an update openly and it crashed my main PC. I was able
to restore the system once I'd realised the problem after a couple of hours
and set the update to not bother me again. A year or so later, it came through
as an update disguised as something else, causing the same problem, but due
to the subterfuge it took out the PC for the best part of a day. Eventually
I had to do a driver update to fix the problem and only later discovered the
cause.
"I complained both times to Microsoft and received a feeble response
the first time and nothing the second time! All this trouble to benefit MS
and no one else -- it really annoyed me that this had not been thoroughly
tested and was offered as a critical update. I have since advised all my clients
to be extremely wary of MS updates and never to leave them on automatic."
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Posted by Lee Pender on September 07, 20070 comments