Monday, May 19, 2003

Need a Laugh? If so, the Borowitz report is a must read! I confess, I only added this to my frequent reads following a WSJ article; The author, Andy Borowitz, is a successful writer who created (?) or at least drove "The Fresh Prince.' Anyway, his AP-release format, The Onion-style anchored around politics, business and headline news is just funny funny stuff .... sample? http://borowitzreport.com/ http://borowitzreport.com/archive_rpt.asp?rec=595 3:19:29 PM    comment []

Is it Time? 2 weeks ago, I saw Scott McNealy http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/ceo/mgt_mcnealy.html address a small-ish crowd (less than 500 people) at the annual SIIA Software conference. It was the first time I'd seen him in person and I'll admit,  I was hoping to be impressed. Wow! was I not ... aside from some smart (smarmy?) one-liners about the tech industry and his favorite target: http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/default.asp He talked extensively about how Detroit doesn't ship turn cars without left-hand turn signals and that because the car was a "whole product" http://www.chasmgroup.com/, that infrastructure software should be as well. Of course, all bundled in SOLARIS. You hear people around the Valley say, "Sun's not a software company." I used to question that POV, but the more time I spend here, the less I do. They certainly have been a visionary company over the years, but it looks to me as if their time is up; or do they become part of Big Blue? http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/19/technology/19PLAC.html?dlbk Regardless at present McNealy and Larry are bringing us "Low Cost Computing," http://www.sun.com/lowcost/feature/index.html, pardon me if I chuckle. 2:52:57 PM    comment []

Airport hot dogs, tornados … in the name of pitching. Not that you needed a reason to read Peter Gammons, but the headline is how his most recent article ends; this piece is an assessment of the trade market as May winds down: http://espn.go.com/gammons/s/2003/0519/1556237.html It's really to early to talk for most folks, especially Brian, but you never know ... the next 10 days could help make or break the race out West (at least for the D-Backs: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks/0519dbgiants0519.html   2:35:07 PM    comment []

Friday, May 16, 2003

Sinking Ship? IONA's CEO, COO and EVP of Corporate Development stepped down today. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030515_003869,00.html Given that the firm lost ~$12million in the March quarter and has $16 million in cash & equiv, it doesn't look real good. They did $123M in 2002, but the first quarter was $17M with GAAP at ($0.36); projections for Q2 are $17M with GAAP at ($0.37-0.54) ... It just supports the Professor's contention around the Platform Paradox: http://www.flightpath.com/nublog/archives/000673.html Is Integration a stand-alone product offering? Some are making their way by adding to their stack offering (http://www.tibco.com/solutions/products/default.jsp?m=b1, while others http://www.vitria.com may follow the CORBA leaders from Ireland. I wonder what the "refugees" http://www.capeclear.com/about/people/aotoole.shtml are saying now? No doubt, there's a sly crack to accompany the constant craic (http://www.howsthecraic.com/) 3:16:48 PM    comment []

Geography Question Is New Jersey near Manhattan? Apparently not, according to the NYT Sports section (http://www.nytimes.com/pages/sports/index.html). Too obsessed with failed franchises http://www.newyorkrangers.com/   http://www.nba.com/knicks/ too notice that folks in the Sixth Borough, previously known as New Jersey are having (another) nice little playoff run. How else do you explain the Devils being the 7th listed story on the NYT homepage? Is interest in the Mavs-Kings really that great?  Anyway ... looks like the 3rd Cup is on its way (http://www.meadowlands.com/) to Jimmy Hoffa's home  (http://specials.tribstar.com/Clients/Specials.Tribstar/Colts.Season.2002/January5B.html); can anyone really route for (another) Disney team (http://www.mightyducks.com/home.asp)? Weren't the Monkey kids annoying enough http://www.rallymonkey.com/bio.shtml? Anyway ... perhaps Dave Anderson & friends will notice what JKidd, RJ, KMart are doing, not to mention Marty, Scott and Neidermayer. 3:04:02 PM    comment []

Bummer! U of M Should Sue! http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&;ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22According+to+those+who+have+seen+the+report%22 It looks like other folks are using the phrase I held eponoymous with U of M's Consumer Sentiment report including the Sacto Bee talking about a DoD report (www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/ 6244108p-7198374c.html 2:55:15 PM    comment []

Consumer-Sentiment Index Climbs The University of Michigan said (Missed the early report) its consumer-sentiment index climbed to 93.2 in mid-May from 86 last month. Economists had expected the index to be on par with the April reading. WSJ says: "Components of the survey were mixed. Consumer confidence in current conditions slipped from last month, but attitudes about the outlook increased dramatically." (http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105308806425218500,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us)   2:37:20 PM    comment []

Thursday, May 15, 2003

Is Deflation on the Horizon? Meanwhile, the Labor Department said producer prices fell 1.9% in April -- the biggest decline in 56 years -- after a gain of 1.5% in March. The so-called core index, which excludes food and energy items, fell 0.9%, its biggest drop in a decade, after rising 0.7% in March. The results surprised economists, or at least those surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and CNBC, who had forecast a drop of 0.8% in the overall data and a decline of 0.1% in the core figure. The data appeared to back up comments made last week by Federal Reserve policy makers, who warned that the U.S. could be poised for a period of deflation, where prices decline over time. However, economists said not to worry. 6:55:39 PM    comment []

Wednesday, May 07, 2003

IBM takes App Server Lead: Oh Really? Today, Gartner announced that IBM has taken the lead in the application server market. http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=9600108 This press release is topped off by the quote from the Gartner VP: ""The tight horse race that started in 2000 between IBM and BEA was won in 2002 by IBM as they continued to gain market share in all categories of AIM (application integration middleware)," Joanne Correia said."  The report claims that IBM has a 37% to 29% edge, as opposed to BEA's lead last year of 34% to 31%. Um ... okay, if you say so.  Fortunately the reporter talked to some other folks, in particular John Rymer at Giga Group, woops Forrester, to get a more complete picture.  Perhaps next year Gartner will consult Muhammed Saeed Al-Sahhaf  http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/  regarding IBM's market share number. Barron's did a great piece on IBM's "fuzzy math" back in January; a must read for anyone who cares about market share data: http://online.wsj.com/barrons/article/0,,SB1042852269193890944,00.html Perhaps Elliot Spitzer, my own personal hero, should look into industry analysts more, huh? 6:35:03 PM    comment []

"ROLL TIDE" Mike Price has gone through a tremendous amount in the past 7-10 days; you've got feel especially bad for his family, especially his wife. How much of the story is true? Who knows? According to Price, even he doesn't know. The Sports Illustrated story that hits newstands today is pretty amazing / outrageous; see the clip below: http://espn.go.com/ncf/news/2003/0507/1550422.html According to SI, Price left the club at midnight and went back to his hotel. According to one of the women involved, Price engaged "in some pretty aggressive sex" with two women in the hotel. The source told SI that at one point she and her female companion "started screaming 'Roll Tide!' and he was yelling back, 'It's rolling, baby, it's rolling.' " There are some other choice comments including Price's admission that "he was too drunk to remember" what happened at the club. He's got a great repuation and you hope that both he and Eustachy (http://espn.go.com/page2/s/thinking/030505/eustachy.html) can recover from these sad events. 5:44:58 PM    comment []

Sunday, May 04, 2003

Technology Industry Hitting Mid-Life Crisis? A couple of weeks ago Larry Ellison made a speech in which he projected that 1,000 companies would have to die in Silicon Valley and that innovation amongst software companies is dead. Biotech is where it's at. Granted Ellison loves to make bold statements (Network Computer anyone?), but I think he's got more truth in this statement, at least in the oversupply of companies. The development of $10Bln+ revenue companies in the software and technology industries makes it significantly harder for venture capitalists to build $1bln revenue companies, nor matter how much bluster accompanies the response from a VC when you ask the question. I agree with Ellison's assertion that significant innovation will come from bio-tech, but I do not believe that innovation in software is dead. The large fish in the pond just means that early developments will get picked up before they get a chance to hit the $500Mill run rate. No one wants to be the next case study in Christensen's "Innovator's Dilemma Revisited," in 2005 (or whenver it gets published), so they all claim to have solved the problem, at least by press release. Continuing this theme, there's an interesting article in today's NYT, "Technology Hits a Midlife Bump," (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/04/business/yourmoney/04TECH.html?th)    that refers a new HBR piece: "IT Doesn't Matter," that its title suggests continues the extreme end of this discussion. They also discuss IBM's Irving Wladawsky-Berger, who is leading the autonomic computing effort from IBM. Wladawsky-Berger has a phrase that he says that we have entered the "post-technology era,"  (http://ww.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2002/tc20021231_1219.htm) his essential point is that speeds and feeds are not where it's at, but more a matter of what problems you solve. The last issue of the Herring had an outstanding piece on this, "The Death of Moore's Law." A theme that we will continue to evaluate it, as it appears to be on the lips of those "who have seen the report." 11:36:47 AM    comment []

Thursday, January 23, 2003

Regis, What's Up? http://www.mckenna-group.com/ For 10 days now (or so it seems), the site's been down. Has the down turn finally hit the mother of all hi-tech marketing shops? 12:59:47 PM    comment []

McBride is, dare I say, En Fuego? US National team member, Brian McBride, is making quite a splash in the English Premier League, scoring 3 goals in his first 2 matches. His "double" on Saturday enabled Everton to top Sunderland, 2-1: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=54649&;cc=5901 The current Everton manager actually managed McBride in Dec. 2001 at Preston North End in Div. 1, prior to McBride's blot clot issues. Great to see McBride making such a huge impact. His efforts have given Everton's chances for Euro competition (in 2003-04) a big boost. "C'Mon, you boys in white!"   12:45:35 PM    comment []

There Goes Another One Giga Group was purchased by Forrester earlier this week for $51 Million (http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20030121S0005) More consolidation in the IT analyst space. Interesting to see how much fusion they get out of this. Giga is much more enterprise focused, so in theory, it should be a good fit. But Forrester paid a pretty nice premium, given that Giga was trading below $2 at the time ($4.75/share was the buy price). Interesting factoid: W.R. Hambrecht and Gideon Gartner owned approx. 1/3 of Giga at the time of the sale.   12:41:06 PM    comment []

What's Different this time around? I was posed an intriuging (and difficult) question this morning at breakfast. The topic was Services Management, which is one that, let's face it, I am quite fond of: http://www.stencilgroup.com/ideas_scope_200206wsmgt.html The inquiry from a friend in the venture community asked, "What's different in services management than say portals?"  Now that the market leader in portals got picked up for a song late last year (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/021029/datu058_1.html), what does this say for WS Management? The "devil's advocate" argues that if it's all about standards, then IBM, BEA, et all will have some LCD-functionality in their stack that will suffice for most users. At this point, the Big Boys Portal offering is nothing to get excited about, but companies were no longer willing to pay a premium for portal functionality.  Will WS Mgmt suffer the same fate? Stay tuned.   12:34:49 PM    comment []

Friday, January 17, 2003

"Guffman Strikes Again" http://www.countingdown.com/movies/amightywind -- WARNING, ENDLESS POP-UPS on this site. Christopher Guest and Crew will be releasing their next "mockumentary," "A Mighty Wind," in April 2003. Plot description: The Folksmen, a folk trio formed in the 1960's, reunite after thirty years for a comeback tour following the death of a legendary folk music promoter. A mockumentary in the vein of Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, and This is Spinal Tap. Cast: Christopher Guest Michael McKean Harry Shearer Eugene Levy Parker Posey Catherine O'Hara Bob Balban Ed Begley Jr. Fred Willard   5:51:08 PM    comment []

SAP starts the New Year with a "bang" SAP launched the year's first salvo regarding web services, integration and "standards-compliant" "products," with their announcement of NetWeaver http://www.sap.com/company/publications/overview/netweaver.asp -- who picks these names anyway? Perhaps it is worth $1 million or 2 to Landor to pick a name that doesn't suck? Peter Graf, VP of Market Strategy for SAP had some big-time quotes: (Who said it's not 1999 anymore?) http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle?doc_id=IWK20030116S0001 "We see [this] as at least as significant as the announcement of client-server architectures 10 years ago,"  and "It's the blueprint of all SAP solutions going forward."  In the 50 recent interviews that The Stencil Group  completed in Q4 2002, the fact that major application vendors such as SAP, PSFT, Siebel and Oracle were supporting the "infrastructure guys," made adopters a lot more comfortable in moving ahead with web services and SOA plans. In one bit of embarassing marketing execution, the analyst quoted in SAP's press release, Josh Greenbaum, (http://www.eaconsult.com/) didn't seem nearly as enthusiastic by the time News.com got to him. In the official release, "SAP NetWeaver will allow customers to achieve their goals by creating and improving business processes across their IT ecosystem without changing the underlying technology foundation.” In News.com: "This is stuff they've already got," .... Huh? Perhaps Josh was having a tough day? 5:48:37 PM    comment []

Goodman Gives Kimmel "Thumbs Up!" You may ask yourself, "Do we really need another 'Late Night' guy?" According to Tim Goodman http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2003/01/17/DD177972.DTL, whom my appreciation grows for daily, regardless of whether we need one, we got one and one that happens to do quite well, thank you very much. My favorite quote from the discussions. Kimmel apparently angered NBC and Jay (as in Leno), when TV Guide interviewed Kimmel, Kimmel described his show as, "a comedy version of 'The Tonight Show.'" Premiers Super Bowl Sunday ...   5:40:15 PM    comment []