Logikworx
How will 2007 shape up for Intel?
While developing his thesis on Vista migration, Intel's CEO apparently forgot to save emails as required for the current lawyerfest called AMD vs Intel.
Hopefully, this will not snowball.
Then again, why not?
For someone like me who thought his dissertation was at best imbecilic, it was 他人の不幸は蜜の味
Translation: tanin no fukou wa mitsu no aji
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
That has got to be the most stupid statement coming from the piehole of a Fortune 500 CEO for a long while!
Also, from Intel?
For a company which is supposed to be this great company, now you know why they stumbled that greatly and for so long, Dell notwithstanding.
Wait for Vista SP1?
Still a lot of media ho's carried the news, treating is a some sort of validation of their position.
I'm afraid not only is the point missed, but the stupidity of Otellini's statement is missed as well.
Is this the way you treat your best software partner? Does this yum-yum think that the 4% Linux, and 3% OS X market share can take him there? Forgot, AMD had the greater Linix market share as well.
Robert McLaws, of Windows-Now.com, skillfully dissects the Intel position in a rejoinder to Otellini's moronic statement, and provides the text of a memo from AMD Executive VP Henri Richard exhorting his troops to move to Vista post haste.
For goodness sakes, if Robert, myself, and several thousand other people could have had over 2 years to test Vista, where were the yobs at Intel whose CPUs were targeted by Vista as well?
Intel is waiting for Vista SP1?
I hate to tell Paulie this, but by that time, AMD would have released Barcelona. And if estimates are to be believed, and I don't see why not, what platform do you think would be hot during the Christmas/end-of-year buying season?
In the same vein, what company's products do you think I would be recommending to clients, family, and friends?
Certainly not the company whose boss does not have enough confidence it his own IT department's ability to support Vista today.
Can you say, AMD?
Here's looking at my next desktop, with a 2-socket Barcelona solution for a total of 8 cores come Q3 of 2K7!
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
In a conversation with a luminary in Microsoft technologies today, we briefly touched on RSS.
Which led me to think of PointCast and their technology back in the day for delivering news to the desktop.
What seemed to new and esoteric then is now not only commonplace, but in on the verge of having extensions developed for it, by Microsoft no less, that would allow for the same sort of rich content PointCast promised. This time without the fat client and bandwidth hog that PointCast was.
Wow, it has been ten years since the board of PointCast, with the hubris of overawed business neophytes, declined the $450 million USD offer from News Corp for their company, which eventually got sold to an Idealab subsidiary two years later for $7 million USD.
Someone forgot to tell them to take the money and run!
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
Terri Stratton, Editor-in-Chief of The Tablet PC, had just unveiled hew newest site, Mobile PC World.
Mobile PC World will encompass all aspects of mobile devices: Tablet PCs, UMPCs, Laptops, and other connected devices.
Ms. Stratton is a Microsoft MVP for Tablet PCs, and a Microsoft Featured Community, and will bring her (very) extensive knowledge of mobility devices to this new site.
Logikworx is pleased that she has done so, for we tap her expertise in laptops and Tablet PCs as the primary source for our recommendations on those devices.
Mobile PC World can be found at http://forums.mobilepcworld.net
Congratulations Terri, and MobilePCWorld.net.
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
Nick White has disclosed the public unveiling of the Live Search Traffic Gadget and the Live Search Gadget
Folks, this are invaluable items.
I use the Live Search Traffic gadget whenever I'm in LA for traffic info as you know how free the freeways in Los Angeles are.
Just like open source, isn't it?
Pushers of the Higgins open source ID project, IBM and Novell, are aiming to replicate the work done by Microsoft in so that a "user should be able to sit down in front of the open-source implementation and feel comfortable and understand how things work, like Firefox versus Internet Explorer" according to a 'distinguished' engineer at Novell.
I guess the word distinguished no longer has meritorious value.
When was the last time an average user sat down to look at the source code in a browser? Any browser. Totally bolsters my declaration that source code evaluation is a figment of the collective reality distortion fields of open source proponents.
IBM's chief security architect - deliberately non-capitalized, talking out of his a$$ as functionaries at that once-storied firm are wont to, indicated that Microsoft's abandoning of rights related to patents is what is holding this 'great' project back.
If that is so, why don't you dweebs actually, ahem, create something?
After all, Microsoft never innovates, right?
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
Peter Jackson is slated to develop two serialized game series for the Xbox 360.
This is niiiice, and I, for one, will be looking forward to them.
In today's issue of the Redmond Channel Partner newsletter, there were so many errors in the section mentioned below that I was forced to reply.
In your newsletter article, titled, READERS SAY, 'FEAR THE PENGUIN!, I am afraid the responders made so many glaring errors that I am forced to debunk here in order to stop the confusion.
I will be blogging my entire answer as well here.
Starting with “Mike” who writes
First off, his reasons for selling his company because of ‘disenchantment with Microsoft’s offerings’ were never enumerated.
Secondly, to say that Microsoft is lacking in its mission or zeal in courting developers is plain wrong. Microsoft engages customers from several angles and provides the resources, in several languages, to do so. There are so many programs directed at developers – MSDN, ISVs – Empower for ISVs, to beginners – the Express Editions, that I cannot help but wonder what he’s talking about.
However, Mike gets to it with the next sentence, namely, distributing fully-working virtual machines with a working copy of Windows on them.
Is he kidding? Why would you be allowed to distribute fully-working VMs of software licensed for one system only?
Then the marketing savvy of Ubuntu?
While I know that his experience, indeed, all our experiences with Vista™, are subjective, I cannot help but ask what functions in Vista are a step back.
As a user of Vista since it was the Windows codename Longhorn beta, I do not have the same experiences and would like to know what I missed in order to both help my clients and my firm, and also to escalate those issues to Microsoft for resolution.
One area in which I agree with Mike completely in is his assertion that the landscape would look different in three years. In three years, the landscape would look a little different, with Linux having lost just a little more ground as customers come to realize that the promises of Linux zealots about productivity gains over Windows were not only shallow, but also totally devoid of reality.
We get to “Bill”
In his post, Bill starts out by praising Windows Server SBS, and then brings out his flensing knife, stating that it requires a well-trained IT person to run it.
Very untrue. It does require a well-trained person to install and configure it. However, it does not require that that person be around to babysit it.
Bill states: "A SOHO will often have less than 10 computers in the entire office and about half of these should be servers for safety, according to Microsoft recommendations.”
That is about as untrue as it gets. 50% of the computers in a 10-system SOHO/branch office should be servers? Bill, stop! Really STOP!
He then goes into his rationale for that wild and completely erroneous declaration. Microsoft established Windows Server SBS as a single-server system. Period. In fact, using multiple boxes ad described by Bill is totally unsupported. I challenge him to reveal any official information from Microsoft describing what he is saying.
In larger enterprises, what he describes is the recommended configuration. However, at that time, you would have moved out of the realm of Windows Server SBS and into BackOffice Server.
That said, all of his arguments regarding the hardware requirements for Windows Server SBS are invalid and hereby discarded.
Linux server has a place in computing, just not in SMB computing. It, and not Windows in any version, requires a body in place to support it.
It is amazing to note that IT pros, who think nothing of tinkering with source code and recompiling stuff, would foist that on small businesses with Linux, making the specious argument that it is better or easier than Linux.
Lance’s rants are, to put it kindly and politely, somewhat nonsensical. My replies to his points on Microsoft’s customer unfriendliness:
- 100% the discretion of system vendor
- To reduce piracy.
- See #2
- See #2
- ???
- To protect the creative properties of musicians
- There is NO DRM in Windows Vista.
- How so? Any different from the EULA restrictions in a DVD, OS2, Solaris, Oracle?
- HDCP – I give you that.
- So securing a system is now a Bad Thing?
- So not true. Robert McLaws, of Windows-Now.com, has a post here that details the true cost of Microsoft Windows from version 1.0. After reading it, I am sure Lance would want to take this one back as well.
- ???
What he does not realize it that Microsoft has a fiduciary duty to its owners, employees, and customers to protect its IP? That is being in the customer interest.
Furthermore, if Microsoft or Windows weren’t there, where would Linux zealots get their ideas?
He also states that Microsoft is neglecting legitimate customers in pursuit of a small number of pirates. I do not know about him, but if you are ever in Asia, and have a street hawker come up to you with a DVD full of Microsoft software for sale at the equivalent of $10, you would freak out if you were Bill G. In addition, it must have warmed the hearts of holders of MSFT to hear the president of Romania tell of how piracy delivered his country.
When tagged, customers are able to revalidate their systems online or offline. Not outrageous at all.
Contrary to what Lance would have us believe, consumers are not clamoring for alternatives to Windows. It is the IT cognoscente that wants change, partly for some misguided need to root for the underdog, and partly because it keeps them and their jobs relevant to the great unwashed who think that they are delivering some sort of valueadd when they spew forth all that jargon.
My replies to his suggestions for customer-friendliness are:
- Actually, it is not. Vista Ultimate, as its moniker suggests, it the ne plus ultra of Windows. As a premium product, it carries a premium price, just as a Maybach does. As for the price discrepancy in Europe, that is up to a) The current tax structure in Great Britain, b) the cost of doing business, there, for which you can thank Kroes and the absurd EU office of Competition, and c) the
- How then would you mitigate the piracy issue?
- Same as #2
- That statement makes absolutely no sense to me
- I have no problem with WGA. And lots of people I know, including lots of clients concur
- Why? How many people know how to install an OS? Just because you do, doesn’t make it the norm. Moreover, if they are comfortable with Windows, what is wrong with that?
Lance’s final wish, that there be competition for Microsoft was a head-scratcher! How does he want that accomplished? Like they want in Europe, by government fiat? Or like Penfield-Jackson wanted: by dividing Microsoft into three companies? How, buddy?
In closing, I have to wonder about the disproportional coverage Linux gets relative to its importance, both on desktops and as servers. In an ideal world, it should have coverage proportional to the 4% or so of the market it commands.
For years, it has been touted as the Second Coming, only to have that event pushed back.
Folks, this ain’t happening!
There you have it.
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
Earlier today, I was asked that question as well as the following:
My reply:
The first thing would be for me to blame AMD for the current throttling back of processor speeds.
(This is in addition to the loss of income I suffered nearly seventeen years ago from the AMD 80387 math-coprocessor battle, which decimated math-co prices across the board. On the other hand, should I thank AMD for opening up the market for the tons and tons of math-coprocessors I sold when prices were ‘normalized’ by the AMD math-co?)
Prior to the debut of the Opteron, we were on a direct collusion trajectory with Itanium, that all-new be-all of computing. It was going to be the Swiss-knife of computing, allowing us supercomputer power at each of our desktops, and utilizing that most current of computing architectures, the EPIC.
Before that though, we were going to go through several iterations of the Pentium architecture. Personally, I was looking forward to a 10 GHz Pentium 6 without active liquid cooling – no need to have a space heater in my office.
If the Opteron had never existed, it would still be a Pentium world, without a doubt. The mobile Pentium, based on the P-III, would have been slowly ramped up in speed and would have been hitting about 4 GHz right now. As I stated earlier, the desktop Pentium and the Xeon would have been continually cranked up relative to the gains in processing power of the Athlon.
All the while, we would have been inundated with flackware and ink about the coming goodie called Itanium.
Processor prices would have remained stable for mainstream CPUs, with newly introduced CPUs continuing to command ridiculous prices a la Extreme Edition.
It was a very slick way of raising prices or introducing ‘premium’ pricing into the market, disguising it as new product with attendant bells and whistles. In reality, it was just a cranked-up unit just like the mainstream CPUs.
Dual-core? Are you kidding?
Remember, it IS Intel we are talking about!
Remember the 80487?
What was the function of the Intel 80487 math coprocessor? It was to turn off the primary processor in an Intel 80486-80487 CPU-math-co combo.
What do I mean?
Let me jog your cobwebs.
At the intro of the 80486 (i486), the math-co world was still burgeoning, however, due to AMD’s entre into the math-co space with the 80387 for which it (AMD) was still in litigation with Intel, margins were very low. For the 80486, only high-end match-coprocessors were worth stocking for margins, and the Wietek math-co cost over $1,200.00 USD back then. Intel’s solution was a perfectly good integrated CPU/match-co chip sold as being without a math-co. When you purchased the 80487, all it did was to turn off the original 80486 chip and perform all processing itself.
Yes, the only difference was an additional pin on the external connector that shut off the original chip.
Now that we have divulged some of the ‘advances’ developed by Intel, and the tactics used to
defraudeducate the buying public, let me ask again:Dual-core from Intel?
Without the Opteron, I don’t think so.
Itanium? Nevertheless, in the 2K7 timeframe, we definitely would not have been running the
ItanicItanium processor. For the following reasons:
- Processor yields have been deplorable,
- Thermal signature of the chip has remained pretty high,
- Performance has remained very, very ho-hum, never exceeding that of the Pentium 5, not to talk about the Opterons. Oops, forgot Intel canceled the P5!
- Development of software targeted at Itanic has remained pretty much in the mainframe/alternative OS realm, and
- The benefits of Itanic, aka The WIIFM Factor, have never been successfully enumerated to both the public and developers.
64-bit Vista?
It would have been pie-in-the-sky without the Opteron, IMO.
What is very ironic is that just prior to the intro of the Opteron, Intel had been sabre-rattling about the IP contained in its 64-bit platform, not knowing that AMD was going to extend the much-maligned current computing architecture, the x86, and create the AMD 64-bit platform.
It was a brilliant move, and superbly executed, and a fitting ‘Exit Stage Left’ moment for Jerry Sanders.
I can safely say that the Opteron ushered in the modern 64-bit desktop and server processor era.
It revolutionized servers, created the market for x86-based blade servers, and redefined data center architecture, especially in terms of thermal output and cooling requirements.
My 2¢
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
Says Apple's CFO.
So?
Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? That the company whose product has 90% of the market shouldn't feel threatened by an upstart?
If, with 3% or so of the computing market, this idiot feels the need to reassure us about his forthcoming product's prospects, what does that say about the loops at 1 Infinite Loop?
Dude, this ain't the iPod market.
Holla' when your market share gets to 3%.
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
Apparently, it worked all the time.
Pursuant to my blog entry here, I received an email from Erica Sniad of the Epocrates team informing me of that fact and also of the reason why the email was sent out to their subscribers.
While I'm still somewhat miffed that the email was sent out at all, I must applaud them for taking the high road and declaring an upgrade verboten until they were sure everything worked.
After all, the information contained in their software concerned lives and health.
A redacted view of the email is supplied below.
Hello John,
Since you and your blog community have shown interest in this issue, we wanted to let you know that all Epocrates products (Palm OS and Windows Mobile) are compatible with the Windows Vista operating system
For Palm devices, our initial testing appeared to show problems, and we elected to take the conservative route and recommend that users delay upgrading. However, after more extensive testing, we are confident that the vast majority of users will have no problems installing and syncing Palm devices with Windows Vista systems. Users can refer to Epocrates’ Support page for more details.
Accordingly, I will upgrade my copy of Epocrates this weekend, and upon finding no errors, will advise my clients to do so in a flash SmallBizVista.com/Logikworx communiqué to be sent out on Monday, March 5th.
Thanks to you, Erica Sniad, and the Epocrates team for resolving this issue.
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
Michael Dell must read my blog!
Coming on the heels of my post here are reports that Dell (the company) is rethinking that absurd decision to preload Linux on systems shipped there.
Good for you, Mike.
Why don't you take a miniscule fraction of the funds you would have devoted to certifying and promoting that stepchild OS and utilize it in training the droids that are supposedly your customer service and technical support departments?
As expected, Linux fanboi is not happy!
I am.
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
One of the weekly business glossies is reporting that HP is supposedly bribing incentivizing retailers to drop store and aftermarket cartridges in favor of HP cartridges.
To the effect that Staples is dropping its store brand entirely?
IANAL, but this smells like unfair practice or injuring the competition to me.
If I were a buyer of inkjets, I would be on the phone to Bill Lerach of Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP, so fast and looking to screw them back.
Isn't it enough that the stuff costs more than gold?
Coming right after the pretexting mess, do the holders of HP need this?
Mark, say it ain't so!
Leave well alone, and lower prices, that's how to compete!
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
What is it with Symantec nowadays?
Could it be that they correctly foresee a dwindling in their fortunes with the 1-2-3 punch of Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows Internet Explorer v7, and Windows Live OneCare?
For days now, they have been sounding the horn over minutiae in Windows Vista's security blanket.
Yesterday, it was the architecture. Before that, Windows Live OneCare.
Today, it is UAC, as User Access Control is generally known, is the subject of another unfair attack by Symantec.
A report of supposed research by another faceless drone at Symantec declares that Vista's UAC can be compromised by a 'social engineering' attack.
Pray tell, what OS isn't prey to such an attack?
What a stupid stream of FUD by a formerly relevant company. And one headed by a Brotha' no less!
Is this how good companies start their death spiral?
A shame.
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
I could pile on here, but it is just too easy.
Suffice it to say that if the problem is even remotely related to Sony batteries, then the entire executive management of Lenovo should be publicly flogged for letting it come down to this.
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
Coincident with the public release of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Microsoft on February 20, 2007, released a series of Vista Assessment tools, six in number, for partners to utilize in identifying and migrating users to the new operating system and desktop productivity software suite.
Microsoft is reporting that in the eight days since, there have been over 4,200 downloads by (Microsoft) Partners of the tools leading to increased sales and opportunities.
For the record, Microsoft has had over 20,000 downloads of the tools since their beta debut in August of 2006.
As a user of the tools, especially the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) and the Solution Accelerator for Business Deployment Desktop 2007 (BDD 2007), I fully concur on their immediate usefulness, and the ability it gives me to leverage the knowledge gleaned from the generated reports into solid sales.
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
If Mikey thinks that this is the way to get back on top maintain #2, he is sorely mistaken.
According to the number of yobs posting on the Dell Ideastorm web site, Linux, instead of crapware-free Windows installs, seems to be the numero uno problem users have with his systems.
Mick, step away from that IT crack pipe and shake the wax offa your head! OK?
If you take that totally unscientific sampling as gospel, what you will find out, to the detriment of DELL holders, is that you have just been had by the most vocal group of biped a$$wipes on Terra.
Listen Mike, what you need to do, is meet with forward thinkers, internal to Dell and without, and create an extraordinary OOBE for your users.
And I don't mean the crap loaded on your systems for a vig from the companies. All those time-bombed pieces of crap just serve to piss users off. Not to mention the 3-versions late software as well.
What you want to do is get Bruce Kasrel and the Live group from Microsoft to deliver an experience worthy of your name. And it is your name on the company, Mikhail!
And make those vendors give your users a year's worth of software for placement with your users. If they believe in their products, then they should believe that there is enough of a valueadd in their products for users to re-up at the end of a year.
Right now, what separates you from anyone else?
So just what is your differentiator?
The pittance you get from each crapware vendor cannot be worth the dilution to your brand, Mickey!
As for the default installs, remember, Windows Vista. And with a concession to your software ho's, add a menu asking users if they want the software installed on their systems. Give them the option to install the crap.
BTW, you would find out that after the 10,000 or so Linux fans who might order from you, the spigot would dry up; then what are you going to do? What about the investment in certifying your systems for Linux? For what amounts to less than a rounding error?
There is a reason Linux has 1.5% or so of client computers: outside of the IT 'ivory towers': no one, but no one, gives a fu*k about it. They want Linux, have them do what what they have done so far, download, compile and whatnot.
Please return to the astute guy who ran PCs Limited, and please, pretty please, don't pick up the stupid Linux crystal meth that Linux fanboi is trying to get you to smoke or whatever they do with that illegal substance.
If not, Dude, nobody will be getting a Dell!
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
In this post in The Hive, member Waggler comments on IBM's underhanded, yet increasingly vocal opposition to Microsoft's Open Office XML document specification.
IBM's moves in this regard make the cowardly lion in Alice in Wonderland seem most fierce.
How insidious is this wink-wink, FUD-FUD campaign?
However, the following is my reply to the post.
(Edited to allow language not allowed in The Hive.)
Why should we blame IBM?
The culprit here is Microsoft.
Yes, Microsoft!
Listen, you do not go to a gunfight with a Taser®.
Where has Microsoft been all this time?
Even now, the letter and the problem, does not seem to be addressed at the highest levels. I know those guys are, by all indications, very important to the Office dev/mktg team and Microsoft, but to everyone else outside their locus of authority, just who the fuck are they?
For this, you need Bill Gates. You need Steve Ballmer. Heck, I’ll even take Margo Day (Have you listened to that woman speak? After a speech from her, you just want to get out there and move a whole lotta Microsoft stuff!)
You need someone to take a Martin Taylor-like position and slam those donkeys at IBM.
I think Microsoft’s counter attack has to come from the very highest levels; with the executive at Microsoft taking the fight to the leaders of those countries that are trying to lead their cattle people down that path.
It was this sort of belated lukewarm response that allowed the open source tossers the opportunity to gain a foothold in the EU and LDCs because those same asswipes could point to the lack of a fierce response from Microsoft as either arrogance, or worse, indifference.
Every time I come across those same arguments, I kick them down by asking, when was the last time the head of technology assessment for the country looked at source code or expressed a wish to do so. However, the inclusion of such source code as been sold to those fools as a way of equalizing technology. Go figure!
Moreover, the counterattack has to be swift, sufficiently sarcastic, loud, coherent, consistent, and long-lasting.
It is one thing to stand and attack with Apple, since the charisma delta between St Steven Paul 1 and Bill G. is pretty wide to the general public, though not to us in the industry.
It is another thing entirely to lose a PR battle to that invisible, creepy Palmisano.
Are you fuckin' kiddin’me?
That guy is so bland, even CPAs don’t want to hang with him.
So, Microsoft, MSFT has been doing well, please keep it that way and get the VITOs out.
And in full force!
My blog post about IBM’s deceptively named ‘Open Client’ is here.
Notes:
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®
There seems to be no better time to pile on than when a lion is wounded.
If 2006 was the Mother of All Bad Business Years for Sony, guess what 2007 is shaping up to be for Dell - the company and stock?
Let's see:
Now comes a class-action suit filed by employees at an Oregon call center accusing the company of short-changing them.
I sincerely hope that it is not the case!
How jacked would it be that the CEO get $$$ for efficiency while simultaneously shafting the working stiffs who were your first line of contact with customers?
I hope Mikey fixes things, and fast, because, at the end of the day, no one would remember that former placeholder: it is your name on the building, Michael!
© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®