Microsoft Getting Yahoo Cold Feet?
I have written many
newsletter
items and even a
full-fledged
editorial arguing that Yahoo isn't worth nearly $44 billion, and buying
it is a backward move for Microsoft.
Maybe Microsoft read some of this stuff or is just getting cold feet. At the
very least, Microsoft is reportedly
wondering if Yahoo is worth the original bid or if the bean counters from
Redmond should knock it down a few bills.
Late last week and over the weekend, Microsoft pressed
Yahoo to accept its offer or else suffer through a proxy fight, hinting
that the final price might be lower. So what does a slumping Yahoo do? It argues
that it's worth more than
Microsoft's offer!
If I were Microsoft, I'd forget the whole thing and spend all that dough on
inventing new technologies.
Patch Tuesday Already?
I feel like apologizing every time I write about Patch Tuesday, which is exactly
12 times a year.
The reason I'm so sheepish is that every story is nearly the same, describing
remote execution exploits, Internet Explorer holes...you get the picture. But
like covering every nuance of the Iraq war or the fight for the Democratic nomination,
it's painful, boring and necessary. At least I'll try to keep it short.
Tomorrow is a relatively busy day, with eight
fixes. Again, IE, Office and, of course, Windows are the main victims. Surprisingly,
Microsoft Project also gets a little plug. Also unusual are the fixes for JScript
and VBScript. Web developers take heed!
Gartner Says Virtualization Is
Hot, So It Must Be True
When it comes to reputation, Gartner is as well-respected as the pope, John
McCain and Mother Teresa put together -- despite the fact that a decade ago,
Gartner overestimated the cost of owning PCs by about ten-fold. It seems that
somehow the gurus from Stamford, Conn. can do no wrong.
In the case
of virtualization, Gartner is mostly right, but I have a few bones to pick.
First, Gartner says that through 2012, virtualization is the "highest-impact
trend in [the] infrastructure and operations market." Check.
Then, the company's press release argues that "storage has already been
virtualized" and that PCs and servers are the next frontier. Technically,
that may be true; folks have been talking about storage virtualization longer
than x86 PC or server virtualization. But how many have actually virtualized
their storage? Precious and few.
Yet another Gartner guru claims that because of PC virtualization, "the
days of the monolithic, general-purpose operating system will soon be over."
Right. Wasn't the Network Computer (a style of PC or desktop virtualization)
supposed to kill the PC a decade ago? Wasn't the Web supposed to kill Windows
clients five years ago? Like the end of the world, if you predict it long enough,
it will eventually happen.
Have you virtualized your storage, and if so, how? Write me at [email protected]
and I'll pass your story along in our next newsletter.
About the Author
Doug Barney is editor in chief of Redmond magazine and the VP, editorial director of Redmond Media Group.