Microsofting me / PART II: Geek in an elegant dark suit

(Note: this is 2nd part of Micro$ofting me. 1st part: M$ing Me I).

Let's elaborate this one:

I. Geek

Motivated. Driven by an idea he believes in. Being apostol to his idea. Maybe somewhat fanatic about it. Explosive and over-energised. Hyperactive. -Do you get my point?
This is the guy who will get drunk in the evening, share his idea with drinking-buddies and suddendly figure out solution to his biggest business problem. Still drunk, he'll get to work and fix it. In the morning, he'll be hung over, but get an applause for overcoming the barrier.


II. Dark suit

Realistic. Analitic. Well thought-over. Strategical. Thinking in a long haul. Sun-tzu general.
He'll go to the opera or a game of golf after work and use the peaceful environment to think things over. Jot them down. Sleep it over. Repeat the excercise again. After a week, he'll ask for someone's opinion. Finally, he'll decide to communicate it on the next meeting. And he'll show up with well prepared slide show!

I'm prepared to put my money where my mouth is (or where my fingers on keyboard are), that this is the winning combination. Maybe not, if you're in one of those boring oil businesses or running your own burial-services company, but for most of businesses that's it.

I've met a lot of sales people in my short life. I met the ones who realy suck and the ones I'm trying to copy. Actualy, sometimes I copy both species - but trying to do the "mirror copy" of the ones that suck. Just look what they do and act totaly oposite. Learn on other peoples' mistakes. ;-)

Yes, I went a bit off the road now. So let's get back to M$. I don't believe they'll ever collapse. They'll stay here just like IBM: forever. But sure, they'll go through some evolutions and transform to adapt to new circumstances. They're this big elephant that's being attacked by thousand mice, just like IBM was once. There's Linux. Unix is still here. Apple is regaining momentum again. New areas of computing. New way of living. It's just a lot of fronts. And they're too big to focus only on one. We'll see what will happen next, but I believe M$ will always stay a big part of our personal computing. Although the only M$ product I realy like and admire is Office. It's just "competitionless".


Let's save this for the next round: Part III. Come back for it soon! :-)

Become a part of science research!

Most of our computing resources are under-used and as such, they could be "borrowed" for good cause, such as health research. Check out how simple it is to lend your UNUSED computing power to the science.

BBC NEWS Science/Nature: PCs do thousands of years of work

World Community Grid, backed by IBM, is doing huge chunk of scientific work. It has more than 55 thousand members already!

Join today and be one of us good guys who support science in health research. Check WCG's homepage at
World Community Grid.org

Try imagine it this way: while your computer is on and you're not using it, it's actually useful - for YOU! God forbid, but years from now, you might get one of those currently uncurable diseases - and by then, with a help of WCG and Human Proteome Folding project, scientist will already find a way to cure it.
So, by running the WCG agent, you're actualy using your free computing power to help yourself, your family and the humanity. This might sound overreacting, but it's a good point to think about.

It's free. It's painless. It's human. One of those good things backed by IBM. It's WCG.

Carly goes to heaven? :-)

HP CEO Carly Fiorina dies, and she goes through the usual process of
defending her case in front of the Divine Jury. It is not clear what
happens exactly and where things go wrong, but when the jury comes back
and the sentence is read, it turns out she is admitted into Heaven. So
Carly is filling in the usual paperwork at the HAO's desk (Heaven
Admission Officer): non-disclosure agreement, legal disclaimers,
non-competition clause, etc...

'Congratulations and welcome to Heaven,' finally says the angel. 'Go
down the corridor, first door on your right.'

Carly walks to the door, pushes it open... and staggers back. Through
the flames and behind the door, all you can see are countless devils
inflicting the most horrible tortures to screaming souls. She rushes
back to the Officer and waves her admission pass, breathless. 'Must be
an error, this thing here says Heaven!'

'Oh yeah,' says the angel, barely looking up from his/her screen.
'Forgot to tell you... we merged.'

HP looks beyond Fiorina

HP looks beyond Fiorina | CNET News.com

Complete with videos. IBM's senior managers get mentioned a lot. I take it as a compliment - IBM has the right leadership. The right way.

Good bye, Carly!

For a while, everyone was asking themselves about the HP's way. In end of January I wrote that Carly's fail is getting pretty obvious.

Sooner or later, it had to touch the Board and according to HP press release Carleton S. Fiorina was fired.

They put a picture with a word "Change" on their website


Analysts, stockholders, The (Wall) Street and others are already wondering if this means that possibility of breaking the company appart is the next step. One of the strongest Players urging for the big split is Steven Milunovich of Merrill Lynch (ML to HP: Time for a breakup).

This scenario is on the table - month after month. BusinessWeek's Ben Elgin is wondering if Anyone can save HP. As possible saviors we hear the names of Michael Capellas (former Compaq CEO) and even John Joyce, chief of IBM Global Services.

I agree with Ben: they'll need someone like Lou Gerstner, who "saved" IBM in the 90's, 'couse they're deep in shit, almost as IBM was in those dark 90's.

Separate i-B (ink-Business) from HP and we'll see what's left. As I wrote before, they'll have to regroup their troops (or what's left of them) and reposition themselves. Trying to conquer the Big ones (corporate market) and Small fishes (consumer market) at the same time obviously doesn't work. At least not for them. As some say, they are just loosing their focus.

BusinessWeek has a story called Where Fiorina went wrong - Walter Hewlett is probably a bit satisfied now - you know, that feeling when you can say to somebody:"I warned you." :-)


If interested, make sure you don't miss BW's The inside story of Carly's ouster!
"HEAVY BLOW. By November of 2004, HP's directors began holding periodic conference calls -- without Fiorina -- to discuss their CEO's performance. "


@ Carly: so long and enjoy your $21 mio+!

I admire her for being such a strong player in the "men's world" of IT. She certainly had some good ideas, but I'm pretty sure Compaq merger wasn't one of them. Let's wait and see what happens next - will there still be one or we'll get more "little" HP's.

e-business is the game. Play to win.

Well, a least now I can use this picture I found on web some time ago:

It's happening! IBM's cell chip!

Well, finaly unveiled! The long anticipated Cell chip, a supercomputer on a chip actually, has been showed public!


Just to mention a few highlights of Cell:
- breakthrough architectural desing: 8 synergistic processors @ 4GHz+
- massive floating point processing capability
- OS neutral (!!!) - supports multiple Operating Systems simultaneously (!) - including Linux.

And this is HUGE. It's going to change our (digital) lives forever. Remember this.

I'm so excited about it, that I don't realy know what to write. So check out the links below (they were selected as something that's worth reading!).

Also, enjoy some photos of the Cell. We're witnessing another breakthrough in computer history, man. Be aware of that! ;-)


234 million transistors @ 4GHz+!!! ------- 8-way Cell!




Size comparison to a coin ------- Lisa Su at IBM's 300mm plant in East Fishkill


Opinions from PC Magazine: Intel's Albatross
But what I'm hearing is what many of us have expected for years. Sony is going to leverage its PS3 into a computing platform with many uses, including traditional PC functions.
Let's face it, Web surfing and word processing can be accomplished easily on a 2-teraflop chip, with power to spare. If I were Dell, Microsoft, or any other company in the PC market, I'd keep an eye on Sony and see whom it is partnering with.
It wasn't lost on me that IBM just gave up the personal computer business while continuing to work on the Cell chip and help with this new platform. You have to assume that IBM knows a lot about what's going on and got out of the PC business while the getting was good.
(comment: yes, IBM knows what's going on. IBM always knows whats going on.)


Wall Street Journal: Sony, IBM, Toshiba To Offer First Peek Of `Cell' Chip Design

BusinessWeek: IBM Discovers the power of one

IBM's Press Release

The world of (personal) computing and home entertainment will never be the same again.

Barrier broken! :-)

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Well, after one week of posting, the "magical" 100 visits barrier has been broken.

All my fans are welcome to come to our great ceremony which will be held in a phone booth at crossing of Blog and Web street at exactly 8PM CET today. Bring your invitations and don't be late for opening speech.

Our guest of honour will announce high-performing next generation Windows keyboard. Easy to use with only 3 keys (CRTL-ALT-DEL).

:-)))

Microsofting Me / PART I: How we all first "met"

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PART I - how we all first "met"

Micro-soft. As soon as I remembered, that I had once (probably bored and therefore web-avanturistic) reserved myself some space on blogger.com and decided to release my IT steam, I knew that one thing was inevitable. Microsoft. Or M$ as it's commonly named in most communities I'm part of.

I'll have to write about them. About HIM. Ever since, I was somehow fighting this must-do-task, but always felt presence of that little guy saying: YOU NEED TO WRITE IT.

As I think about it now, I'm not sure why all this avoiding. Probably I'm scared, that I wont write what I really want to. Or mean to. It happened a couple of times before, when I was writing for a magazine. When article was finished, and I read it, it was simply not what I wanted. Perhaps now is the right time to face my demons ... ;-)

Why now? -Well, this time I have unlimited space and no deadline. /spits in his hands/: let's rock 'n roll!

So let's start with a bit of a history: M$ first crossed my path about 10-or-more years ago, with DOS on old AT 286, running lightning-speed @ 16Mhz (in turbo mode!). Then I saw Win 3.11 CEE edition and I thought I've seen all that (personal) computing world has to offer. -Along with famous CTRL-ALT-DEL combo, which was, btw- invented by recently retired IBMer. (Again: Thank you, IBM!)

So by the time of W95 (remember that "worst disasters" picture which included Hiroshima, Chernobyl and Win95?) I became interested in what's behind it. One visit to the library (yes, back then, young people were still reading books - not e-books, but "analog" books!) and 3 days of active studying later, I got to know BG. William Henry Gates III.

Trey's biography. Instantly, he became my idol. For a while, I even forgot about James Hetfield of Metallica! ;-) (Disclaimer: sorry guys, but I'm far better with computers than with guitars. However my ThinkPad is full of your MP3s!)

Hope our librarian doesn't read blogs (if she's still alive), but I have to admit now: book contained some pictures of Gates, Allen, Ballmer & gang. I think I ripped all the pics out - one of them - showing Gates in his office back in '91 - is still on my old workspace (scientifically called "analog desktop"). It was even visible on a picture that we used in the magazine beside my column.

One day, I was in the library - it was actually a separated visit, nothing to do with returning Gates' bio - and found a book that changed and shaped my life. Father, son and IBM. Biography of Thomas J. Watson Jr., son of IBM's founder. So suddenly I knew there was someone even more significant in the (IT) world than Gates (and Jobs!). Somewhere between 1st and 5th re-reading, I fell in love with IBM. And, though this may sound VERY WEIRD,- still liked Gates. Reason why, lies in differences: while Watsons were very "IBMish" (does that sound too amish?), Gates was more .... eeeem /scratches his head/ ... - more of a geek? Yes, that's correct word!

Ever since, my opinion hasn't changed: if one wants to be a successful businessman (or a woman like Carly, LOL), he has to find best balance of both worlds. In other words: dress the geek in elegant dark suit.


Check out the PART II of Microsofting me: Geek in an elegant dark suit!

Beware of the Spammers! :-)

Interview with a link spammer at The Register

Check it out!


Bloggers be afraid of link-spamming-hungry dogs! :-)

What caught my attention is how much they can make with it. Seems like a decent business, and only "partially" illegal.

Should we close down the "comments" option? No way, they'll get around. But, if they're not really making so much trouble (using comments to old posts), then maybe we shouldn't even mind.

The problem is that uncomfortable feeling - someone misusing your site. It's like you'd know there is a bug in your mouth. Not causing any harm, you can't feel it or see it. But you know it's there. yak!

But I don't get one thing: OK, so they're promoting all these PPC sites (pills, porn, casino) - and The Register found a guy who's a link spammer. I want to find and interview a guy who actually clicks on one of these links! Can't believe there are really people who click pop-ups for viagra, weird porn and stuff!? What's going on in those heads?

I can picture one of these as a fat guy in mid 40s, probably divorced (wife left with kids), sitting in his boring living room dreaming about having wild sex with a 18 y.o. blondie who will be crazy about him. His "tool" isn't working any more, so he's checking out viagra sites as well (or one of those enlarge-your-penis sites) ... during day he's working in his little dark office, has a bully boss and sweats a lot. Not many friends, he eats alone and regularly visits his mother who thinks he's a successful businessman.
In other words: potential serial killer. :-))

Correct me if I'm wrong - use comment section (no link-spamming, pls). ;-)

Newsreaders - faster, convenient news

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Following news on-line?
Are you into blogs? Writer, reader? I guess there are more readers that aren't writing than other thing around.

So if you're regulary following blogs, it's probably quite frustrating if it looks like this: open browser - go to favorites folder - find blog link - open it - read. Well, if you're following just one blog, that's probably not such a problem, but when you're reading 10 or even more ... ufff!

So I'd suggest you to use one of those simple newsreaders - such as SharpReader. Simple to install (very small package) and simple to use. Just check your favorite blog (or other site you're constantly visiting for news) and find the "feed" link - most of the pages have this - you'll recognise it by a small XML logo on the sidebar or at the foot of page.

Browse down to end of my blog and you'll see "Site feed" text in the footer - just copy the link to your newsreader and you'll have a lightning-speed access to updates.

What's better is that reader can get just a few couple of lines of update - so you can check if theme is interesting for you or not. Link to complete post is also available.

AND - not to forget - if your newsreader supports retrieval of the whole post, you can read the news/blogs offline - very convenient while you're waiting at the airport, during lunch or between meetings (not during, pls!).

For starters, check out the sindycation section of blogger help:
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=697&topic=36 (also includes link to some popular newsreaders

I'm currently using SharpReader: http://www.sharpreader.net/

IBM & Intel friends?

According to recent news, IBM served subpoena on Intel.
It's not asking about any code, but for all communications between Intel and SCO or Canopy about IBM, Unix or Linux. It's also asking about all meetings and contracts, business relations concerning above mentioned - past, present or future.

According to comments, some think that Big Blue knows something others don't.
I myself, can't comment on this one as I don't have any additional information yet.


Very interesting theory posted at: GROKLAW

IBM and Intel friends?
Authored by: SCO_DNR on Sunday, January 30 2005 @ 04:57 PM EST
“You don't usually have to depose your best friends... “IBM helped to make Intel the company it is today by picking the 8088 for thefirst IBM PC. The 8088 was just a step above the Intel 8080 or the Zilog Z-80. Other processors at the time would have been a better (Motorola 68000 or ZilogZ8000) from a programmers point of view. It is also true the Intel and IBM bothsupport Linux, but for very different reasons.IBM wants Linux to thrive because it allows IBM to invest more effort (readmoney) into higher profit software. Linux also allows the Power processoraccess to much of the same software as the Intel I-86 processors (at least onthe server side). Because of the cross platform nature of Linux IBM is hopingto move Power processor servers into the low end market with out the price hitof having to support AIX.Intel needs to support Linux to make sure that it can sell processors into allmarkets. Intel does not want to give up on any market. Linux embedded ishelping Intel push into new markets. Linux on the server side is pushing Intelinto higher and higher servers.But IBM wants to see the Intel IA64 chips dead, and Intel would like the Powerprocessors to go the way of the dodo bird. If SCO could hurt just IBM and notLinux, Intel may support SCO. If SCO had a good chance of killing Linux, Intel would not be too unhappy.