If you're singing the old REM song in your head now, we're sorry, but the noise 
  of Michael Stipe blurting out semi-random words might just help drown out that 
  crashing sound coming from Wall Street.
Before we even get into this (again), 
  here's our obligatory caveat: By the time you read this, the Dow Jones Industrial 
  Average might be back up 500 points, or 700, or 1500, or whatever, and Congress 
  might have passed a package that will save our very mortal souls -- or at 
  least drag the country out of a mess the likes of which we haven't seen in decades. 
  So there you go.
 More
	Posted by Lee Pender on September 30, 20082 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    jQuery sounds to us like the nerdiest rap name ever, but apparently the fact 
  that Microsoft is going to 
ship 
  it with Visual Studio
 signals a further move on Redmond's part toward embracing 
  open source, at least a little bit.
 
	
Posted by Lee Pender on September 30, 20081 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    Visual Studio and .NET might seem a touch mundane as topics in comparison to 
  the end of Western Civilization and the collapse of the global economy -- but, 
  hey, somebody's bound to be really excited about 
this 
  stuff
.
 
	
Posted by Lee Pender on September 30, 20080 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    Whatever unified communications is, everybody wants a part of it. 
Yesterday
, 
  we told you about Oracle cutting into the Notes-Exchange dance, which isn't 
  strictly speaking a unified communications story, really...but it sort of is.
Or, at least, we think it is. After all, messaging, calendaring (we still love 
  the fact that "calendar" is a verb now) and "collaboration" 
  all seem pretty UC-ish to us, even if Oracle's new suite doesn't currently appear 
  to delve quite as much into voice, Web conferencing and other nifty Web-whatever-point-oh 
  functions as offerings from Microsoft and Cisco do. 
 More
	Posted by Lee Pender on September 25, 20080 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    We've always been amused by the English tendency to identify with soccer clubs 
  by saying, "I'm West Ham" or "I'm Chelsea" or "I'm 
  Stockport County," rather than saying, "I'm a (fill in the club here) 
  fan." It's as if the fan himself or herself is the living embodiment of 
  the club, a personification not just of an organization but of a way of life.
 
More
	Posted by Lee Pender on September 25, 20080 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    Oracle doesn't get a lot of virtual ink here at RCPU, but there's no question 
  that Larry Ellison's company is a monster, one of a few dominant firms in the 
  industry along the lines of Microsoft (of course), IBM, Cisco, Google and maybe 
  a couple of others. So, when Oracle does something significant, it matters -- and 
  this week at its OpenWorld show, Oracle did something significant.
 More
	
Posted by Lee Pender on September 24, 20081 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    In case you missed it -- and if you follow this sort of thing -- Microsoft 
  is 
buying 
  back $40 billion
 of its stock to try to get its stagnant (and sinking) share 
  price moving upward again.
 
	
Posted by Lee Pender on September 24, 20081 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    It's Software Usage Management (that's a product, not a category) for .NET. 
  Careful, the 
press 
  release
 opens as a .PDF document. 
 
	
Posted by Lee Pender on September 24, 20080 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    E-mail 
  risk management
, that is. Remember that "Seinfeld" episode where 
  George can't stand reading because every time he reads he hears his own voice, 
  so he buys a book on tape about risk management, and the voice on the tape ends 
  up sounding just like his voice? Yeah, that was a good one. 
 
	
Posted by Lee Pender on September 24, 20080 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    With apologies to Willie Nelson: Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be 
  investment bankers (if there is such a thing anymore). Make 'em 
be 
  IT folks
 instead. 
 
	
Posted by Lee Pender on September 23, 20080 comments