The Global Economic Freak-Out and You

We're trying to stay calm here -- really, we are. We understand that this isn't 1929 or even 1987 -- and maybe not even 2001, for that matter -- and that the bright people who run our economy have the tools and the know-how to deal with what's happening.

We know that the economy is cyclical, that all sort of factors can affect it and that things have been much worse in the past. We're aware that 6 percent unemployment would have only been considered possible on Fantasy Island back in 1981 when jobless rates were closer to (or in) double digits. We get it.

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Posted by Lee Pender on September 16, 20080 comments


Ingram Micro Opens Up Cisco Sales to Government VARs

An alliance with immixGovernment is making it possible for partners to sell Cisco wares to government agencies.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 11, 20080 comments


CommVault Names New U.S. Channel Chief

Well, presumably Mark Conley's parents actually named him...but CommVault has hired Conley as director of North American channel sales.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 11, 20080 comments


Microsoft Shifts Another Gear in Standards

Oh, how the proprietary have fallen. Well, not fallen really, but certainly changed. Microsoft is making noises about openness and collaboration again, this time with a couple of standards-oriented initiatives.

Redmond said this week that it'll work on a Web services interface with IBM and EMC, and it's also joining a standards group called the Object Management Group. (OK, so we didn't know what that was, either -- but this story told us).

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Posted by Lee Pender on September 11, 20080 comments


Chrome Snatching IE Market Share?

Well, that's what the headline says, although we wonder how much one has to do with the other. And, at 0.7 percent market share, Chrome seems like much less of a threat to IE than Firefox -- for now. But, hey, we all love to read about Google, right?

Posted by Lee Pender on September 10, 20086 comments


Another VMware Exec Departs

Diane Greene is gone, and so now is one of the company's co-founders . Is the bloom off of VMware's rose? We'll see.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 10, 20080 comments


Hello, Redmond: London Calling

Given the hysteria in this part of the world over Tom Brady's knee, we barely noticed that the London Stock Exchange crashed yesterday. Yes, that's right; the news is shocking -- Tom Brady's out for the season.

No, wait, that's not the news we meant to talk about. What we meant to say was: Yes, that's right; the news is shocking -- the London freaking Stock Exchange went down. For almost an entire day. During a rally.

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Posted by Lee Pender on September 10, 20080 comments


Microsoft Making Progress in Virtualization

So, this week, Microsoft held one of those non-event events in which it gathers reporters together to release a few details about upcoming products, and reporters go because, well, it's Microsoft.

OK, so it wasn't a total non-event, but we do kind of wonder sometimes why Microsoft bothers with a whole big press event when a press release and a couple of spokespeople available to take calls would suffice.

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Posted by Lee Pender on September 09, 20080 comments


Seinfeld Ad Gets People Talking

Love it or hate it -- and, let's face it, you probably hated it the way we did -- Microsoft's bizarre Bill Gates-Jerry Seinfield-shoe shopping ad at least has the blogs burning with opinions, even if most of them are negative More

Posted by Lee Pender on September 09, 20081 comments


Redmond Updates Dynamics CRM Online

From the cloud comes a cool, refreshing rain of updates for Microsoft's hosted CRM service.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 09, 20080 comments


Four Patches Coming Tuesday

At least that's the count for now.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 04, 20081 comments


Red Hat Makes Virtualization Play

And sidesteps Microsoft in the process, apparently .

Posted by Lee Pender on September 04, 20080 comments