IBM may have sold a big chunk of its business, the laptop business, to Chinese
company Lenovo, but that doesn't mean Big Blue's balance of trade is off-kilter.
Like any good Fortune 10 company, IBM buys billions worth of goods every year
from China. And like any good company with its supply chain act together, IBM
is inching closer to the source,
moving
its global procurement office from the mean streets of New York to the exotic
avenues of Southern China.
Microsoft, which has a pretty rippin' supply chain of its own, is now moving
aggressively into the supply chain software market with Dynamics. The only problem
is figuring out which of the four supply chain solutions to go with!
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/17/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Here I go writing a bang-up, highly controversial column advising Bill Gates
to run for president, and what happens? Nuthin', goose egg, almost no response
whatsoever. So come on, loyal readers.
Read
the column and then comment -- whether you love it or think it's dimmer
than a Britney Spears brain wave.
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/12/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
I was pleased as Planter's Punch when I heard Microsoft was planning to have Tech-Ed
in New Orleans next year. What a great way to help get this city back on its feet.
Unfortunately, the city and its airport aren't recovered enough to handle the
crowds, so
Microsoft
had to bow out of Tech-Ed and two other shows. While I may be sad, my liver
sure is happy.
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/12/2006 at 1:15 PM1 comments
St.
Bernard Software is buying Singlefin, which is known for its line of filtering
tools that work with the Web, IM and e-mail. These tools can be installed and
run by IT, or bought as a managed service.
While I'm sad to lose a third party, if it strengthens St. Bernard for the
long run, I'm all for it!
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/12/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Windows XP Starter Edition is a cool idea. This less expensive version of Windows with fewer features is designed to make it easier for those in poor countries
to afford a personal computer. I think it should be available worldwide. Like
there aren't poor folks in the United States, Canada, Italy or Germany? (Maybe
they should keep it out of Luxembourg and Monaco.)
Over a million copies have been sold, which led an overzealous Microsoft PR
type to write this headline: "Windows
XP Starter Edition Milestone: Helping Millions Cross the Digital Divide."
Maybe the math is right; maybe that many people cluster around each individual
PC. There's one trying to create a document, another watching and a third explaining
how to hit ctrl-alt-del all at once!
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/11/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
DataCore is making it cheaper to give storage virtualization a whirl.
For
a cool grand, you can see what it's like to treat your hard drives with
the same flexibility that some of you now treat your virtual servers and PCs.
And unlike storage virtualization of the past, this one doesn't require Fibre
Channel, which almost no one in IT understands.
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/11/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
I've been pretty interested in Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) for a while,
but the deeper I looked, the less I saw Microsoft using the term. Instead of
"SOA," everything was "Web Services" or "Windows Live."
Don't believe me? A search of Microsoft.com reveals 6,019 instances of the term
"SOA." Sounds impressive, until you realize there are 351,162 results
for "Web Services." You do the math.
I know these are two somewhat different concepts, and many of the folks at
Microsoft agree -- except for them, "Web Services" has relevance while
"SOA" doesn't.
But more
and more Redmond folks are getting it. The company even put on an SOA conference
last week that promoted the concept, especially from Microsoft's standpoint.
Do you care about SOA? Let me know at [email protected]
or comment below.
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/11/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Windows XP still makes Swiss cheese look like the Great Wall of China, and
Vista's security is very much untested. So it seems that the $100 Linux laptop
(I think there have been more articles written about this puppy than units shipped)
could upstage Microsoft desktop OSes by
offering
a deeper level of security than anything Redmond offers -- say, along the
lines of a Mac.
This is the beauty of building a system from the ground up. And that means
Microsoft should be able to do the same thing with Vista. Only time (as in months)
will tell. Are you a beta tester? Have your tests revealed anything about Vista
security? Clue us in by commenting below or e-mailing me at [email protected]
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/10/2006 at 1:15 PM1 comments
Google's Web-based
word processor is out and the news is good, great, not so good -- and a
big dose of unsure. The price (free) sure is right, and the interface and
file saving conventions are slick. But it is still utterly dependent upon the
Web.
I gave it a whirl and found it simple to use and, with my cable modem, fairly
snappy (I'm sure my old DSL connection would have given it fits). You can store
your files remotely, though I'm not sure what the quotas are or how much I'd
trust my critical files to a server I've never seen before. You can also save
them locally, like as a Word file in My Documents.
I'd love to see an option to save the same file both places at the same time.
Then again, I'd love for Word to offer the same feature, to save in My Documents
and a thumb drive or backup disk with one click. Office 2007 anyone?
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/10/2006 at 1:15 PM1 comments
While the MIT $100 laptop has yet to ship enough units to have its own Patch
Tuesday, the monthly Microsoft tradition is going strong.
Today, the company released 10 fixes for Windows, Office and the .NET Framework.
Still, you have to hand it to Microsoft for being so honest and willing to
take its lumps each and every month.
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/10/2006 at 1:15 PM1 comments
Every time I see a YouTube link, say on a motorcycle site, I find something
cool. So why is it that when I go directly to the site, I am overwhelmed with
lameness? Add to that poor organization and search, and it's no wonder I reckoned
YouTube was worth about $1.65, as opposed to the
$1.65
billion Google just agreed to pay for the video site.
By the way, here's
my kids' YouTube contribution. Can you count how many vehicles I own?
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/10/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Here is a very cool idea: Google has a new service that
searches
for bits of public domain code. Need a little widget and don't have the
time or skill to build it? Just download and go! I have a couple of questions:
Is this code tested for bugs, security holes or malware? And can malware itself
find its way into the system?
By the way, we're launching Redmond Developer News, a new magazine for corporate
software development managers. Get your subscription here.
And if you're a developer or development manager, what would you like to see
in such a magazine? Let me know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/10/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments