IBM and Sun have
reached
a major agreement that seems aimed at thwarting Hewlett-Packard. The first
part of the deal -- calling for Solaris to run on IBM Intel-based servers --
sounds a little silly: Solaris has run on Intel for years.
But plans to port Solaris to IBM Big Iron is a whole 'nuther story. This is
potentially a very big deal. As servers proliferate, there's not just management
complexity but huge electric bills, as well.
One approach to consolidate these servers is virtualization. Another is to
run apps on bigger servers, and they don't come any bigger than a mainframe
(supercomputers aside).
Have you looked at rationalizing your infrastructure, and are mainframes making
a comeback? Have any of you looked at Microsoft's Infrastructure Optimization
model and, if so, what do you think of it? Let us all know by writing [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/20/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
When most of us think of architecting a house, we imagine room shapes, door
openings and roof lines. Peter Rhys Jenkins thinks of software -- in this case,
SOA software.
At IBM's recent SHARE conference, Jenkins, an IBM employee, described
his SOA-based house -- a house three years in the making. This fully automated,
12,000 square-foot abode includes a system that detects (and eliminates with
extreme prejudice) mice in the barn and -- through RFID tags stuck in family
members' shoes -- makes sure that only friendlies are let into the house.
To me, this is like a car with too many options. Instead of driving, you spend
all your time and money fixing seat warmers, power windows, air conditioning
and your kids' stupid DVD players!<
>
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/20/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Add Pete to the list of readers who've moved away from Windows. Here's his story:
I made the switch some time ago, in 1993. I was working on a game using
Borland's Turbo Pascal in my spare time. As with a lot of games back then,
it used 32-bit protected mode, so it was not compatible with Windows, and
all the drivers (graphics, keyboard, mouse, timers, everything) were written
from scratch in assembly. I had libraries of code for processing images, animations,
sprites, the lot. I also had high school assignments which I typed up on the
computer using MS Works on Win3.1. After submitting some assignments, I became
interested in the file format that they were in. I was worried that my .WKS
files may not be readable in years to come. I couldn't find anywhere that
had details of the format, so I decided to have a look at the files themselves
in a binary editor. Lo and behold, what should I see but my own Pascal code
staring back at me! There were large blocks in this .WKS file that seemed
to be just dumps of random portions of memory (I can only assume I had the
TP IDE open at the time of saving the file). This really angered me and I
vowed to find an alternative to Microsoft, but since it was the family computer,
there was little I could do about it other than resort to doing assignments
on my Amiga.
The following year, I was off to university, and at some stage I managed
to afford a computer of my own. Some friends from the computer science department
started mentioning this Linux thing which was apparently a version of Unix
that ran on a PC. I'd heard of Unix before and my computer-related classes
all were based around Unix, so I decided to give it a try. They had arranged
a batch order of CD sets containing a number of distributions, but as the
first disk contained Slackware, that's what got loaded up. I wasn't particularly
blown away by the installer or the interface, but it worked identically to
the computers in my class labs so I spent quite a bit of time using it. I
didn't at first like the lack of control when coding -- you couldn't just
poke around with video registers and memory like you could with Windows --
but at least you didn't have to write code for every particular device out
there.
Little did I know that it was this protection that drove me to Linux
for good, since I'd upgraded the other drive to Windows 95 and it was proving
to be difficult to manage and keep stable despite the numerous re-installs.
Linux, on the other hand, was dream-like in manageability. Installing new
software didn't mean a reboot or even require logging out and logging back
in. I had turned into a Linux fan. I went to the local Linux user group meetings,
advocated Linux to friends and family, and helped develop some parts of it
in what spare time I had. Over the last 15 years, I've used Slackware, Red
Hat (and Fedora), SuSE, Debian and Ubuntu, and since graduation have only
looked for jobs involving Linux and Unix.
-Pete
Got something to share? Let us have it! Send an e-mail to [email protected]
or leave a comment below.
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/13/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
When it comes to crafting SOA services, .NET has a slight -- very slight --
advantage over Java. As of now, 31 percent of SOA developers code in .NET, with
28 percent writing in Java. But Java is closing the gap and may surpass .NET
if the
trend continues.
To my mind, Microsoft has been too quiet about its SOA offering and plans,
and this isn't the best way to recruit developers.
In a recent Redmond cover story, Microsoft went into some detail about
its SOA strategy. Check it out here.
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/13/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Tomorrow is the second Tuesday of the month, so yes, it's time to roll up your
sleeves and get to patchin'.
This month, a wide range of tools that are usually neglected get some attention,
including Virtual PC, Virtual Server, Mac Office, Visual Basic and XML Core
Services.
Get a sneak
preview here, and clear your calendar for tomorrow.
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/13/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Liberal magazine
The New Republic was so anxious for a scoop that it
let a U.S. soldier write anonymously about abuses in Iraq and
never
bothered to check his facts. Turns out Pvt. Scott Beauchamp was spinning
more yarn than a Liz Claiborne sweater factory. The lies were uncovered by
The
New Republic's right-wing rival,
The Weekly Standard.
Now, the military has clamped down on the soldier, taking away his access to
computers, the 'Net and telephones (not sure if he still gets to use his iPod).
There are two wrongs here: trusting bloggers on something so serious (um, like
career- and national security-threatening serious) and clamping down too hard
on someone who is decidedly a moron (too bad we can't bump down this clown,
but he's already a private).
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/13/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
I recently wrote an editorial
arguing
that print is not dead (and filed my copy pretty much the day my old employer,
InfoWorld, killed its paper edition).
Since then, Network Computing (of which I was editor in chief for a
spell) shut down, as did Optimize and, before that, the old Network
Magazine.
These were all fine magazines, but what really gets my tears flowing is hearing
that the Weekly World News will no
longer be gracing our supermarket checkouts. This publication was one good
read. Besides aliens, Bigfoot and Bat Boy, it has some amazing prose. If you
want a perfect example of alliteration, just check out one of their leads.
There is clearly massive change in the world of media. But I still believe
that those who do print right will survive for decades to come. Heck, my group
has four magazines that all prove that point!
Do you love or hate print? Let us know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/30/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Want to find out exactly where Microsoft stands on open source? Don't bother
using Google. Just pop over to
http://www.microsoft.com/opensource/default.mspx.
This spankin' new Web site details
how
Microsoft works with open source vendors, how Microsoft will support your
mixed environment, and what open source projects Microsoft has in its otherwise
proprietary pipeline. Pretty interesting reading.
Meanwhile, we covered these issues in detail months ago in a Redmond
magazine cover story. Get the skinny here.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/30/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
After a
speech
last week by Ray Ozzie, I'm suddenly less confused about Microsoft Live.
At a financial analysts meeting, Ozzie told the bean counters and Gordon Geckos
in attendance that Live is an entire platform consisting of four levels:
- Global Foundation Services, which is the hardware (read: massive Microsoft
data centers) that supports Web services
- Cloud Infrastructure Services, which provides load balancing and deployment
- Live Platform Services, which includes identity management and other application
services
- And last, but not least, are the apps themselves. Here you can collaborate,
word process, surf and, of course, read all those advertisements that make
this all possible.
This all sounds a bit like the old seven-layer OSI model for networks, with
applications at the top. Except the OSI model has no provision for ads!
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/30/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Microsoft is crowing about Vista sales, and for any other vendor,
60
million sold would be truly huge. But this is Microsoft we're talking about,
and it's held to a higher standard.
With an installed base of Windows rounding about a billion, 60 mil is a drop
in the PC bucket. And the 60 million figure itself is taking some heat, with
critics pointing out that not all of these licenses are actually in use.
Still, I wouldn't mind being in Microsoft's shoes. Thick client PCs are still
the main way we compute, and nothing -- not Linux nor the Mac nor Google --
is currently posing a serious threat.
Have you found any good resources about Vista compatibility? Let us in on them
by writing [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/30/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
A
few weeks ago, Doug wrote about the fall of citizen journalism sites, whose
effectiveness he compared to that of Eugene Tackleberry (of
Police Academy
fame). Bruce wonders how many readers missed the reference:
"You're going to school NOW, mister!" I'll bet more than 50
percent of your readers didn't even know who Eugene Tackleberry was until
they looked it up. Question: Do you have a paper copy of the orginal Police
Academy training quiz they handed out at movie theatres? I believe I have
an original of it at home.
This brings up a good point: movie history. A lot of the "great
movies" in the past 30 to 40 years are very unknown to the 20- to 30-year-old
crowd. We gave our foreign co-worker here a list of the top 100 comedies of
all time and she had a non-stop laugh riot. But many of our under-30 staff
don't relate to famous quotes like the one above. Which makes it all the funnier
when they don't get the jokes!
It is also my gut opinion that this line of movies made a star out of
Steve Guttenberg who happens to be one of my most favorite actors.
-Bruce
Thoughts? Let us have 'em! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/30/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
I've been a defender of Microsoft Research and the billions that the company
spends exploring the computing envelope. Other journalists haven't been as kind,
taking the division to task for not turning its research into leading-edge products
we all can use.
The more I hear about Microsoft Research demos that are all show and no product,
the more I start to agree. While there's a place for pure research, other companies
-- such as startups -- research, develop, then ship!
Last week, Microsoft
Research held a Faculty Summit where it showed off new pen and search technology,
as well as speakers that can isolate two different sounds in a single room (so
you can watch the hockey game while your spouse listens to "Days of Our
Lives," or vice versa). Oh, and don't forget the robot that uses an old
cell phone as its brain.
I'm still a fan of Microsoft Research, but would be an even bigger supporter
if I could use some of its inventions. What say you? What do you want to see
Microsoft invent? Let us know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/23/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments