Just weeks after VMware
unceremoniously
ditched founder and CEO Diane Greene, you'd think the company would report
poor financial results. But no; actually, the company
reported
great financial results. At least in my opinion.
Second quarter revenues of almost half-a-billion dollars were up 54 percent
compared to the same quarter last year. Profits are shining, as well -- up $14
million to $61 million in quarterly profits. And it's expecting to grow almost
50 percent this year compared to '07.
Jeepers. I guess Greene really did mess up! I'm sure there are plenty of companies
that would want her to screw them up to the tune of 50 percent growth!
Of course, those stunning growth rates did nothing to please the Brooks Brothers-clad
stock set. These clowns say VMware isn't growing as fast as they expected, making
Greene a colossal failure in their eyes. Nuts, eh?
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/23/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Some folks are real dopes -- and there's no better way to discover that than
on the Internet. We have thugs posing with guns on MySpace, predators leaving
electronic trails of perversion, and now a
brand-new
idiot: Joshua Lipton.
This 20-year-old moron was caught drunk driving (it's easy to get caught when
you crash and nearly kill someone). Then, two weeks later, someone posted Facebook
pictures of Lipton posing with a bunch of beer cans and wearing a striped prison
shirt. That's not going to look too good at trial.
Do social networking sites like Facebook have any role in your organization?
Tell me yes, no or maybe by writing to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/23/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
In the weeks since he took over VMware, new CEO Paul Maritz has been pretty
darn quiet. My guess is he was huddling with EMC honchos figuring out what to
say. Well, they still haven't announced how independent VMware may or may not
be from EMC, and they still haven't announced a grand, new strategy, either.
Maritz did make some rather bold pronouncements in this week's earnings call.
First, he announced that ESXi, the embedded hypervisor, will
be free. With bundling deals with all the major server makers, this makes
ESXi almost part of the operating system.
This is big news, but it's not VMware's first free tool. It has the VMware
Player for PCs, and VMware Server, a stripped-down tool, is also free.
Maritz also gave a glimpse of the future. ESX, the enterprise hypervisor, remains
immensely important, but the more critical aspect is building out the overall
infrastructure.
I think VMware should design infrastructure tools that are totally independent
of the hypervisor, and support Xen and Hyper-V. That's VMware's future.
Does a free ESXi change the game? Send your take to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/23/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
So is Google becoming
Microsoft's
evil twin? Here's what a few readers thought:
You're dead-on with your assessment of Google. I've had the same concerns
myself for some time now.
-Paul
I have to echo your thoughts. I had rather positive feelings about Google
until I was invited to an interview at their shiny new datacenter in Central
Oregon last year. After a VERY bizarre interview -- unlike anything I had
ever experienced in 20 years in IT -- I did some more checking and had to
reach the same conclusion. I don't know for sure if Google is evil, but it
is certainly doing a lot to make me think so!
One example: The name of the fake company that it hides behind that houses
their datacenter (the sign outside) is "ValDeMoort Industries."
Now, I have to ask, who would name their datacenter after the ULTIMATE EVIL
character in Harry Potter? It was dumb, but maybe not. Maybe it is really
a message?
Honestly, I think Google just suffers from being an extremely immature
company run by extremely immature billionaires. Microsoft has had the advantage
of 30 years of experience, BG hired some of the top business managers in the
world right out of the gate, and he "grew into" his success.
-Jim
Nope, I totally agree with you. While I'm a MS partner and respect MS,
I don't always agree with them either -- but at least you can talk to someone.
Google bought Postini recently. If Postini weren't such a great product,
we would have dumped it 100 percent becuase of the crap we have been going
through. And this is an understatement.
-Don
Yes, I think Google has too much and it needs to be cut back. No one should
get any slice of Yahoo; it should stand on its own two feet. Ditto with MS
on the same subject, so yeah -- they are becoming the evil twins.
And do you think that MS buying Yahoo's search business will help MS?
I don't think it will help at all. MS will screw it up and it will burn. The
problem that I see is that what will Yahoo then get for income to do other
things such as its one-of-a-kind chat system which feature-for feature kills
anyone else? I would invest in Yahoo, but only if King Carl steps down and
leaves.
-Bruce
I guess I would rather opt for free services from a vendor that provides
open source options for those not willing to fork out money for an expensive
OS that is unreliable, less secure and a huge resource hog. I can't wait for
the Google phone.
-Nathan
I live in a Microsoft/Dynamics world all day long and I'm happy with that
world -- it keeps that regular paycheck coming. But I don't want to see a
monopolists dictating to that world, Microsoft, Google or anyone else.
-Ron
Doug recently asked readers to name their favorite defunct IT magazines. Here
are some of your nominations:
I'll take InfoWorld over any of the others any day. I wouldn't
say it's defunct either. I continue to get lots of good stuff from them.
-Bruce
It's still in print, but nothing the way it was in the "good old
days." The magazine: Computer Shopper. To pore over the endless
advertisements when looking to build your own systems was priceless.
-Michael
My favorite defunct magazine is not one related to my current occupation:
Drag Racing USA. Back in the '70s, before it went defunct, this magazine
covered both the races and the newest machines, regardless of what class the
car was in.
One of the last magazines that I received featured a new short dragster
that Big Daddy built and called the Swamp Rat. Two weeks later, I'm at my
local drag strip, Renegade Raceway. Don Garlits brought his longer dragster
and raced it. While I was walking through the pits, he was signing some pictures
for fans. When he was signing a picture for me, I asked him, "Where is
the Swamp Rat?" He looked at me kinda funny and asked, "Where did
you hear about that?" I told him, "In Drag Racing USA."
Turns out it was Don's favorite magazine, too, and I got to spend quite
a bit of time talking with him between the races about his newest dragster
and his career in general. I regret to say that I no longer have that signed
picture, but I do have the great memory of getting to talk with one of drag
racing's great giants in his prime. That is a memory for a lifetime that would
not have happened without that magazine.
-Les
And yesterday, reader Chris suggested
that the iPhone fan who got teased
by a television reporter while waiting in line should've responded with
some snark. One reader thinks that's missing the point:
I think Chris did miss something. It's true that the man in line for
an iPhone didn't exactly "own" the reporter, but he also didn't
sound like he was going to run home and cry. What he said was on the money.
The question was insulting and in no way should pass for news reporting. The
idea of attempting humor in response to such a condescending question is inappropriate,
and acting like the reporter's behavior was funny would have just encouraged
him.
What those news people were doing is like something elementary school
kids do whenever they don't understand something. It was nothing but a smug
attempt at trying to belittle others to make themselves feel better about
themselves. It is a common behavior among luddites or the technically-challenged
to attempt to demean those that understand or enjoy what they do not. If anyone
wants to eschew electronics, then let them continue to bang blocks of wood
together. It's none of my business. I don't see computer experts walking around
with microphones asking everyone without the most recent phone or PDA if they
are virgins or eunuchs.
-A person who doesn't own an iPhone and probably never will
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/23/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Critics love to slap Microsoft around for its security problems. And by admitting
its faults each and every Patch Tuesday, Redmond gives these nitpickers plenty
of ammo. The open source world tends to keep its flaws more on the down-low
-- not exactly hidden, but not exactly disclosed with fanfare, either.
That's why it may be a surprise to some that open source apps have more holes
than a pair of hippy jeans, and are far
less secure than commercial apps.
Do you trust open source? And do you miss your old, patched, hippy pants? Send
answers to both to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/23/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Research in Motion just
plugged
a hole in its BlackBerry that could allow hackers to use PDFs to break into
BlackBerry servers. The company suggests that customers patch by moving to BlackBerry
Enterprise Server version 4.1, service pack 6 for Exchange.
I have a BlackBerry and love the e-mail. I hate, though, the way it deals with
attachments -- or doesn't deal with attachments. Talk about a kludge. No wonder
so many are switching to the iPhone.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/22/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Rumors have been circulating that Steve Jobs was ill when he showed up to the
latest iPhone debut looking thin and gaunt. Apple reps claimed that Jobs was
getting over the flu, but rumors persisted, especially since Jobs was diagnosed
with cancer of the pancreas several years ago.
Wall
Street flipped out over the rumors that Jobs is seriously ill after the
company refused to talk about his health on a recent earnings call. Investors
promptly started dumping the high-flying stock.
Another indication that Jobs is sick is the fact that Fake Steve Jobs is tossing
in the Fake Steve Jobs Towel, and will now post under his real name: Dan
Lyons. One theory is that Mr. Lyons wouldn't want to satirize a sick man.
I have no clue what may be wrong with Jobs. My hope is that the cancer is still
contained. It could be that his pancreas isn't working and he's fighting against
full-on diabetes, which could explain the weight loss. That's not a great scenario,
but is far better than metastasized cancer.
Jobs is a rather remarkable man, and losing him as the head of Apple would
be a crushing blow for the entire industry. What are your thoughts? Send opinions
and comments about Jobs to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/22/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Doug
asked
readers recently what they would do if they ran VMware and needed to take
on Hyper-V's pricing (read: free). Here are some of your suggestions:
What would I do if I was VMware? PANIC.
-Anonymous
Well, I would ultimately slash the price of the ESX products, give away
the Workstation and servers for free (but have fees for support), add more
hardware vendor support or alliance, and publish more books or best practice
guide documents.
-Cornelio
Here is a plan for VMware: Provide a hypervisor and a VM maker for home
users. Servers are where the money's at, but if you want users to keep your
name, you have to provide the same wares at home. Well, maybe not the same,
but something that will transfer readily between work and home.
What I envision is a VM platform that would allow a home user to run
one or more OSes independent of the hardware. When it's time to upgrade your
hardware to a better system, you just package up your system as-is, copy it
somewhere (online storage, DVD, whatever), get your new machine and drop it
down. How many people are forced to move to Vista (for example) because they
got a new laptop? If it were a VMware microkernel, they could just mount their
old OS on a new system -- no fuss, no settings to reset, no new or significant
nuances to learn. No doubt people would pay a PC premium for this ease of
use, and it would knock down Microsoft significantly as it cannot force a
vendor to upgrade to its new OS package since any VMware-ready machine would
be OS-independent.
-Tom
A price increase might work for Smirnoff vodka, but it won't work for
software. It's the death knell for VMware. Just ask your corporate managers
who will force you to go with the lower-cost alternative -- especially from
a name-brand vendor like Microsoft.
-Mike
Add Pat to the ever-growing list of people who don't like Vista:
No, you are not being too rough on Vista. You're just not being rough
enough. I have been preaching to all my users not to purchase computers with
just Vista alone, but to purchase business PCs with both operating systems
on them (Vista with a downgrade to XP). This way, they can choose and later
ease into Vista if they want to or when Microsoft cleans it up. Some of my
users did not heed the warning, went out and purchased a new computer, and
are now complaining, "It operates too slow, can't get on the Internet,
stops me from creating documents," and the list goes on and on.
I personally do not own a Vista computer and will not until Microsoft
fixes the kernel, but if I wanted to imitate a Vista computer, all I would
have to do is to let my XP Pro computer get fragmented and full of temporary
Internet files.
-Pat
And if you're an iPhone fan that gets teased
for your iFervor, give this reader's advice some consideration:
In response to the YouTube
video you referenced, I was really hoping to see some pwnage, but I didn't
see or hear any. That guy didn't own the reporter; he sounded like he wanted
to go home and cry. Where's his sense of humor? I was expecting some kind
of humorous response in response to a pretty humorous question.
How about answering the question, "Have you ever seen a woman naked?"
with, "Why, yes, in fact your mom told me I'd get an encore of her performance
last night if I stood in line to get her the new iPhone. But I'm actually
getting this one for myself. I wouldn't pay to see THAT again." Did I
miss something?
-Chris
Got something to add? Let us have it! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail
to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/22/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
I didn't see this coming. Yahoo has actually
given
in to corporate raider Carl Icahn, and is allowing him and two others of
his choosing to join the Yahoo board. Icahn now controls three out of the 11
seats.
As owner of 5 percent of Yahoo shares, it makes sense to have Icahn on the
board. Then again, he's actively trying to dismantle the company. If I were
the Yahoo chairman, I'd treat Icahn like a Mexican jalapeno and steer clear!
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/22/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Some developers interested in trying out the beta of Live Mesh are a bit disappointed.
No, not in the software -- in their ability to get it. It seems there's a
waiting
list to get the test software.
I've read up on Live Mesh and still don't completely get it. Here's what I
think I know: Live Mesh isn't a product, but a set of tools that let developers
build applications. These applications are designed not just to share data across
the Internet, but keep it synchronized, as well. This is a very Lotus Notes-ian
concept, which used replication to sync end user machines with databases stored
on servers.
There are lots of potential uses for Live Mesh. For starters, consumers can
share photos and music, or collaborate on blogs. My ideal use is to have a single
place for all my documents, bookmarks and messaging tools. This way, I can have
a full environment and data set no matter what machine I'm working on.
I pine for this capability every time my Dell Latitude D520 needs a new motherboard,
an all-too-frequent event. In the absence of such a system, I have to kludge
together a working system out of an old machine, contact my online backup provided
to get my files (this company isn't open at nights or weekends, when I actually
do most of my work), and install new bits of software like my IM client.
Redmond magazine columnist Mary Jo Foley examined Live Mesh and found
it much more a consumer play. Check out her analysis here.
I know you in IT are much smarter than I am, so how do you keep multiple machines
in sync? Save my sanity by e-mailing your techniques to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/21/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
I've pointed out many times -- some may say too many times -- that Google has
too much power. It knows too much about us (and this is only getting worse),
has too much control over Web advertising (which it somehow achieves without
creating any of its own content) and now it wants to completely corner the market
on Web ads with a
proposed
deal with Yahoo.
I felt a bit like a voice in the wilderness. Now Bill Snyder of InfoWorld
(where I worked back when it still had a magazine) has joined me in the boondocks
with a column asking whether we want a monopoly on the Web, and warning that
"Google
is becoming Microsoft's evil twin."
Am I too tough on Google, or do you also fear a Google monopoly? Comments welcome
at [email protected].
And while you're at it, what's your favorite defunct magazine? InfoWorld,
Byte, Network Computing, PC/Computing, AmigaWorld?
Send your thoughts to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/21/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
As Chico Escuela might say, software has been berry, berry good to Microsoft.
And despite the over-hyped Google threat, Microsoft keeps printing money faster
than the U.S. mint (though slower than a Chinese bank these days).
Case in point: the most recent fiscal year wherein Redmond brought
in over $60 billion (and by Redmond, I mean the company, not the magazine,
unfortunately).
The only dark cloud is on the Web, where Microsoft actually lost almost half-a-billion
dollars. Microsoft, as it has shown with the Xbox and ERP applications, can
weather some rather massive losses as it waits for its strategy to succeed.
My opinion? Online services are no different.
Disagree? Tell me where I'm wrong by writing to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/21/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments