Australians are in shock with the terrible bushfires over the weekend in Victoria.   Here in the Sun Sydney office the mood is somber.  On Monday the office was much quieter than normal.  People did not want to talk about what had happened.

I love this country.  Australia is a country of such natural beauty and such contrast.  I love the Australian bush, in fact our house back onto a bush reserve and is in a bushfire prone area and yet I live 20 mins from the center of city.

Bushfires are part of living in this country and have been part of the Australian landscape for thousands of years.   However Man needs to understand the power of bushfires.   What we saw on the weekend were shocking conditions with temperatures over 47 degrees C, that is 116 degrees F, with extremely strong hot winds, which is a receipe for a firestorm.  The fires were moving at close to 100kmh and those in the path of the firefront had no hope.

The events of the weekend remind me of an iconic  poem by Dorothea McKellar called My Country

The great race is over for another year with Carlos Sastre from Spain winning this years Tour de France following a win in the Alps on the famous L'Alpe-d'Huez and a strong performance in the time trial to hold on to his lead.    Australian Cadel Evans was second for the second year in a row.  Still a huge performance from the Australian.  Cadel can win the Tour in the future, he needs the confidence to make a break on a mountains stage and remain strong in the third week of the Tour.  A stronger team would also help.

There is something about the Tour de France that captures the imagination.  The majic of the secenary, the determination and guts of the riders, the tatics of the teams.     The Tour de France truely is the great race and the toughest individual sporting event in the world.

Carlos Sastre of Spain and Cadel Evans, right, ride past the Arc de Triomphe.

I participated in a Live Blogging session today here in Sydney Australia on climate change and how Australia should tackle climate change and if we had an Emission Trading System what that should look like followwing the release of an important report into climate change by Australian economist Ross Garnaut. 

This really was web 2.0 in action.  Very interactive with live polls etc.  You can view the reply here.

I think that "Micro-Blogging" is set to the be the next big thing. As people are increasingly prepared to share their lives with the rest of the world and the ease as which people can access the internet through mobile devices increases so does the scope for "Micro-Blogging." 

Micro-Blogging is where people fire off terse missives about what they are doing at any given moment.   I have read some micro-blogs and they appear to be rather random and more an up-to-date on-line diary together with random thoughts.

In Australia through the Telstra 3G phone network you can update your blog over the handset.    

More on micro-blogging here.
 

An example of a Micro-Blog  

You know you are getting close to the end of the year when you start to see articles with predictions for the year ahead.

This article from smh.com.au has a bit of an Australian slant, however throws up some interesting ideas as what to expect in 2008 in the world of IT.  

I agree with the comments on the growth of Facebook and 2008 will an interesting year in Australia, with a new Government which is commited to buiding an world class broadband infrastructure for Australia.  

I think you will see an increaed focus on eco computing and this will be driven by the consumer, who will demand from companies an effort to reduce their carbon foot print and their emissions.   There is no better way for a company to prove its green credentials than to start in its datacentre and with its computer infrastructure. 

Great success story from Australia of Macquarie Telecom switching from HP to Sun severs.  One of key reasons for Macquarie Telecom to swith to Sun is the ability to reduce its carbon footprint by slashing its carbon dioxide emissions by 600 tonnes per year by switching to Sun's eco friendly servers. 

What I think is key in this storey is that the response of Macquarie Telecom was consumer driven.  The consumer was looking to Macquarie Telecome to reduce its carbon emissions and the company wanted to show to its consumers that it was serious about reducing its carbon emissions and adressing it IT model was a quick win to reduce its carbon footprint and Sun provided the solution.  The company now has a good storey to sell to its consumers and it looks serious about climate change.

This is compelling and a key competitive advanatage for Sun.    Sun is well positioned to not only offer a solution to a company to reduce its own costs by using eco friendly servers, but to meet customer expectations that a company is reducing its carbon emissions.

 
I blogged about the Asus Ess PC that is selling in Australia for $500.   It is reported that the PC is virtually sold out in Australia.   This just shows that there is demand for this type of macine.   In the US 10,000 units were sold within two weeks and Asus plans to sell 350,000 by the end of the year. 
 

What is interesting is that customers are buying two and three units for the family as back-up machines and for the kids.   It also interesting that sales appear to be new PC buyers and not impacting on other PC sales from Dell, HP, Apple etc.  This just shows that there is a market for a simple cheep laptop and that once you take Microsoft out of the loop, you take cost out of the equation.

 
More here.

Asus Ess PC..  less than 1KG 

The Asus Eee PC breaks through the $A 500 price barrier to retail for $A 499 in Sydney shops this week.   So what do you get for $A 500?   Based on this review  I would say a lot.  Sure the screen maybe 18CM across but it gives you everything you need a neat light package.  

What is really interesting is that it DOES NOT RUN WINDOWS.   Now you know why you pay $1,500 + for a laptop, because you have to pay a Microsoft for the operating system.   This little beauty runs Linux which keeps the cost down and takes less hardware to run.  The machine comes installed wth a whole bunch of software inclusing Open Office 2.0.  

What is also really interesting is that the Eee PC does not have a hard drive which is replaced with a 4GB solid state drive and you can beef up the storage with a USB flash drive card.  

As the verdict in this review says. "Less truly is more, at least when it comes to the Eee PC. While Asus considers this mainly as a robust little laptop for kids, it's ideal as a second computer that can be shared among the family or taken on holidays."

Lilliputian laptop .... Asus Eee PC

Google has joined the Green bandwagon with an annoucement it will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into a quest to lower the cost of producing electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind and the Sun.  

Google must spend a fortune on power to drive its massive data centres so this move is not suprising.

However lets not forget who is the leader in Green computing and the first with a goal to reduce power consumption from computers - Sun Microsystems.

 
More on this story here. 

David Beckham and the LA Galaxy played an exhibition game here in Sydney last night against Sydney FC in front of 82,000 fans.  It was a great game with Sydney FC winning 5-3.  It was great to see such a high scoring game.  The highlight was a trademark goal from Beckham from 25 metres out. 

Sydney FC goalkeeper Clint Bolton can
only flap as a trademark David Beckham free-kick dips and curls
over the wall and into the net last night.

Australia has a new Government and a new Prime Minister with Kevin Rudd from the Australian Labor Party elected in the Federal election on November 24 2007.    

We in Australia are fortunate that we live in a great democracy, where there can be such a smooth change in Government.

This change in Government sees the end of 11 years of Liberal government under Prime Minister John Howard.   John Howard leaves a strong legacy.  Australia is a stronger and prouder country.  Key successes include strength of the Australian economy and increased prosperity.  Australia has also become a true global player on the world stage over the recent decade. 

Sun's excellent Q4 financial results have been reported in the Australian media.  This is the headline in Australian IT.  "Cuts deliver Sun profit."  With the tag line "Sun Microsystems has swung to a quarterly profit from a year-earlier loss as it reduced costs, sending the shares up 10 per cent." 

Full article here
 

As per previous posts, Sun has had a fantastic Q4 with Sun posting its third quarter of profit in a row and beating analysts expectations.  Here are some links to what the news agencies and analysts are saying.

Reuters: Sun Micro posts 4th-qtr profit as costs drop

Information Week: Sun Microsystems Posts 4th Quarter Profit

The Street.com: Sun's Profit Sparkles

AP: Sun Posts 4Q Profit, Beats Expectations

Following the announcement of the fantastic Q4 financial results the Sun share price (SUNW) has surged ahead 46 cents or 9.41% to 5.35.

The market is rewarding the strong resuts and beating the analsysts expectations. 
 

"Sun's Profit Sparkles" that is the quote from the TheSteet.com.   I quote "Sun sailed past analysts' profit expectations on Monday, nothing its third consecuitive quarter in the black and sending its stock surging."  

Sun reported a profit of $329 million or 9 cents a share vs the average analysts' expectations of 5 cents a share.  We SMASHED the analysts expectations!!

This is a great result for the Sun, the staff, the customers and the investors and all those that stuck by the company.  The Sun is rising! 

I love this quote from thesteet.com "Sun's Profit Sparkles."   Hold on to your hats folks, the Sun is rising and Sun is BACK IN THE GAME.  Share price UP 49 cents to 5.38 in after hours trading.   Sun did not just meet its estitmates it SMASHED them. 

This truely is the last frontier for Australian sport.  For Australian Cadel Evens to get set second in the Tour de France is truely remarkable.   I have been glued to the television in the early hours of the morning watching the Tour and Australia can be very proud of the performance of Evans.  He has put on a gutsy performance with out the support of a strong team and has hung in there and acheived an amazing result.

I love the Tour de France and when I was growing up my dream was one day was to ride in the Tour de France and I would one day love to travel to France and watch the race live.    As a long time watcher of the Tour it is great to see the efforts taken to clean up the sport and the Tour will survive.  It would be great to an Australian team backed by an Australian company in the race.  Imagin Cadel Evans, Michael Rodgers, Robbie McEwan and Stuart O'grady as the backbone of an Australian Pro cycling team.   I can wait until the 2008 Tour.   I think next year Evans can win.

Australian Cadel Evans - Second in the Tour de France  

Apple iPhone mania has hit the US with the iPhone hitting US stores US Friday.   Here are some photos courtasay of www.smh.com.au

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Surrounded by cheering Apple Store employees, one of the first iPhone buyers leaves the store on Fifth Avenue in New York.

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Customers line up on 58th Street for the iPhone outside the Apple Store in New York.

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Apple employees cheers as an excited customer leaves the Apple Store with his new iPhone in New York. 

I work in Finance at Sun and for us June 30 is a big day and is like our Financial New Years Eve.  I like many Sun finance folks globally are in the office today closing the June quarter and the financial year 2007.   For us in finance this is a very busy time of the year.  Please spare a thought today for the Sun finance folks who are burning the midnight oil during and over the close.

To my finance colleges at Sun and especially my Cash Teams in Sydney, Broomfield and Amersfoort:

The wait is over..  the Apple iPhone has hit the market.   So what are the reviews like..  here is a snap-shot of some of the reviews:

"Apple has delivered a prodigy," wrote USA Today reviewer Edward Baig.

The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret described the gadget as "on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld phone".

The New York Times's David Pogue called it "the most sophisticated, outlook-changing piece of electronics to come along in years".

And Newsweek's Steven Levy agreed: "It's a superbly engineered, cleverly designed and imaginatively implemented approach to a problem that no one has cracked to date: merging a phone handset, internet navigator and a media player in a package where every component shines, and the features are welcoming rather than foreboding."

New Apple of his eye ... Apple chief Steve Jobs is said to regard his products as sacred objects that should inspire techno-lust.

The long awaited Apple iPhone hits US Apple stores this Friday evening.  People have been queueing  for days already outside of the New York Apple store to be first to buy the iPhone. 

I think it will be interesting to see the reaction, there is no doubt that the iPhone will be the next must have, however I think that Apple will need to deliever on performance and not just style, especially on the performance of the phone, network coverage, web interface etc.   Remember that Apple will be entering a very mature market.   Consumers will be focusing on the performance and they will have plenty of phones to compare to.

 
The reviews  of the iPhone have been good.   However I think the verdict will be in the actual performance.

Shoppers point at the new Apple iPhone display in a shopping mall near Washington DC.

Christmas this year was a real joy for my Wife and I as it was the first Christmas with our four month old Son Bailey.  Christmas just seemed more special this year.  Bailey had a lovely day and was the star of Christmas Lunch.

Today I feel great!! Last night I handed in my final paper for my EMBA which I have being studying at the AGSM (Australian Graduate School of Management) AGSM has been ranked the top business school in Australia and Asia and the 5th best non-US business school in the latest Forbes biennial rankings (2005). AGSM was the only Australian or Asian business school featured in the rankings and The Financial Times (UK) 2005 ranking of EMBA programs placed AGSM as the leading business school in Australia with an international ranking of 35. AGSM ranked #30 in the world for faculty research, #8 for the percentage of women in the course and is the only Australian business school featured in the rankings.

The EMBA is an unique program. The program consists of a number of core courses in standard MBA subjects such as change management, managing people and organisations, marketing, finance and accounting. However where the program is unique is the final Executive Year with its focus on strategic management. The learning in the final EY is through a number of 5 day residential sessions and the larger cohort is broken up into a number of syndicates of between 4 and 6 and working as a syndicate you work through a number of syndicate assignments and projects. This syndicate work teaches you to work as a team in a high pressured environment with tight deadlines. The focus on strategic management in the EY is real bonus.

Today I feel a sense of accomplishment and we had a few drinks last night to celebrate. Special mention and congratulations to Catherine Ferrara, my college and friend also from Sun Microsystems who also completed her final project last night. A great day for Sun!! Two Sun colleges completing their EMBA at the number 1 MBA school in Australia and Asia on the same day.

Now that my blog is gaining momentum and averaging 1,000 hits a day, maybe I should tell the world a little about me and what I what I want to use this space for.

I work in Sydney Australia and have been at Sun for nearly five years. I work for finance in the ITC (invoice To Collect) space working in Process Complice for ITC at a global level reporting to Caryn Schraner and are part of the Global ITC Opps team.

My role covers Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) requirements for ITC, process compliance for ITC globally for ITC and internal and external audit resoulution.  I also work on process improvement initatives in the ITC space.  My prior roles at Sun have been in Cash Applications for APAC and the SunRAMP ERP project.

Prior to Sun I worked in banking for 8 years at Bank of America primarily in cash management and trade finance. I have an economics / finance background with a first degree in Economics, graduate diploma in applied finance and investment and a Master of Commerce. I am now working towards my EMBA at the Australian Graduate School of Management and are in my final semester of the program.  I am currently in the final or Executive Year which has a main focus on Straregic Management.

My interests are skiing, triathlon and marathons. I have skied all over the world and race at a club level. I have competed in many triathlons and completed the Australian Ironman Traiathlon (3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42km run) in 2002 and have run 5 Sydney marathons.

That is enough about me. What I want to use this space for is a communication tool on my job as many of my colleges are based all around the world. So you will see regular updates on compliance and SOX.  I have a passion for what is new in the world of IT and media and you will see updates on the future.  I also want to pass on some of the learnings from graduate school.  I also want to bring some flavor as to what is happening in Sydney and Australia to the wider world and to have some fun. Cheers. Kirk
kirk.parcel-AT-sun-DOT-com