Virtual Phone

• By Doug Barney
• 11/11/2008

Under the VMware Mobile Virtualization Platform, the phone itself is virtualized so that the hardware is separate from the embedded apps (could be a cool way to have an iPhone and Google phone running at the same time, eh what?).

This way, your phone can have different personalities depending on whether you're at work, home or vacationing in Acapulco. It also makes it easier for phone makers to update their software since it's not tied directly to the hardware. No fooling.

Sun and Microsoft Détente Working: Google Dumped for Live
During the heat of the antitrust prosecutions of Microsoft, the Redmond giant made friends with lots of its enemies. Two former foes remain tight: Novell and Microsoft are doing great work on interoperability, and the Sun deal -- though less dramatic -- is working out, as well.

This week, in fact, Sun announced that the MSN Toolbar can be downloaded as part of the Java Runtime. That means the Google Toolbar is getting kicked off, at least in the U.S.

I'd say Microsoft did some pretty fancy negotiating.

Google and Microsoft Agree on Airwaves
Both Google and Microsoft agree on one thing -- that the airwaves that will be abandoned when we move to digital television should be used for wireless Internet access. The FCC agrees, and is making these airwaves available for 'Net services.

That's the great part. Here's my fear, though: I worry that these spectrums, even though they're unlicensed, will be sold or given to service providers who will charge whatever the market will bear.

That's capitalism and isn't an entirely bad thing. But we also have an opportunity to serve some poor rural communities and poor urban communities here (hey, we might even find some suburbs that could use cheap or free access). I'd especially like to see this access spread to school kids so they have the same opportunity as Bunny and Biff in Greenwich, Conn.

Opening OpenOffice.org 3
I've been corresponding with a handful of Redmond Report readers about OpenOffice.org 3. I'm doing an article about this software and would love to talk to as many users as possible. Shoot me a note at [email protected] and I'll shoot you back a bunch of detailed questions. Don't be shy now!

Mailbag: Multi-Core, Veterans Day
Microsoft recently revealed that the next rev of Windows Server 2008 would be able to use up to 256 processors, but Seth isn't really buying the multi-core excitement:

You're missing the point with the core support: There's virtually no application software out there that will leverage the multi-core systems at the scale they exist at today, and there isn't really need to grow it in the future. The only thing that will need that many cores is a virtualization platform, and even then you're going to have RAM limitations well before you get to the processor bottleneck.

Show me an application platform that will benefit from the processor scaling and do so cost-effectively in a single chassis, and I'll get excited. Until then, it is just a marketing number that is rather irrelevant. Talking with an MS program manager a couple months back, he let on that 256 processors was probably going to happen, but also that there really is about zero demand for it in the market and that demand isn't expected to grow. It isn't that surprising really.
-Seth

Today is Veterans Day in the U.S. Readers share their thoughts on the holiday, and how they plan to pay their respects:

As a Vietnam vet, I take this holiday very seriously. Having seen war first-hand, I can appreciate the contributions of those that served before, during and after my time. God bless them all.
-George

My husband and I are both taking the day off as we are both veterans. He's a veteran of Vietnam and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and I'm a veteran of the Air Force. We both have some very dear fellow veterans to salute and remember.
-Anonymous

Having lived in the U.S. for nearly two decades, we're astonished at the ease with which many disrespect the military and deride those who chose to extinguish modern-day tyranny. It seems we in the U.S. are incapable of putting ourselves in the shoes of others who are being systematically eradicated just because they don't agree with the ruler. Imagine if the Constitution were set aside by a government with sufficient authority that wanted to silence its opponents; wouldn't 'the targets to be silenced' want someone to come in and decisively put an end to that? I would suspect that even the President-elect would welcome that.

We know several veterans of Iraq -- one, at least, multi-tour -- who have yet to reach 25 years of age, and the parents of other such sons who died in Iraq setting people free. All these are worthy of respect and honor -- doubly so, in my opinion, as multitudes of them are so young.
-Stephen

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