Freitag Mai 13, 2005

"Open Source Software in Schools"
"A project report evaluating the use of open source software (OSS) within a small number of schools will be published on Friday, 13 May 2005 by Becta (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency)."
The full article can be found here.
( Mai 13 2005, 04:22:38 PM CEST ) Permalink

Favorite HBR of the Week: "How Do You Know When the Price Is Right?"
This is my favorite Harvard Business Review of the week. It made me think that one problem alternative office suites like StarOffice and OpenOffice.org have is that the end-users within the companies don't have to pay for the software themselves. Therefore, they don't care that the company might spend too much money on functionality that actually nobody uses. Why should they (the end-users) support a switch to a different software if there is no obvious benefit to them?

To give an extreme example, if end-users could (or had to) chose between layoffs or a reduction in software costs, I'm pretty sure they would choose the latter. Or to use a positive example, if every employee would get 50% of the savings, they most likely would be more open to a change.

I think there is a similar situation at many companies with respect to travel expenses. Why should I accept/book a much cheaper, but more inconvenient and less flexible flight (maybe including many stops), if I only have to take the risks (of missing and losing my flight) and don't benefit from the savings?

Fortunately my own travel record should show that I'm pretty cost sensitive! ;-)
( Mai 13 2005, 11:46:30 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

What are the benefits of an MBA?
Today I want to start a new thread in my blog. It will be about MBA programs, MBA knowledge and my personal experiences in business life. As a start, I would like to know your answer to the following question:

What are the benefits of an MBA?

When I asked a top US business school alumni this question (or at least a similar one), I was really surprised by his answer. I had expected something like this:

"The tools you learn about and the knowledge you get are extremely useful for your day-to-day marketing tasks."

However, what he told me was something like this:

"You don't go to business school for the content. You go there to make useful contacts and get the branding of top business school. Therefore, you have to go to business school like Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Yale, or INSEAD. With the branding, it is much easier to get interesting well-paid jobs, and the contacts help you to find those jobs before someone else does."

As I said, I was really surprised by this answer. Maybe it was because of my German background. In Germany we don't have "elite universities" yet, and thus care less about "branding". In Germany you don't really see people wearing sweaters that show the university emblem or name. In contrast, in the Bay Area you see many people running around in "Stanford" and "Berkeley" shirts.

What do you think? What are the benefits of taking an MBA program? How important is it to go to a top school, and why? What alternatives have you found that worked for you?

I will tell you about my approach in my future blog entries!
( Mai 13 2005, 11:22:55 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [2]

Extremely cool Firefox video ads!!!!!
Just go here! You have to watch them!
( Mai 13 2005, 07:53:20 AM CEST ) Permalink

"IBM backs Firefox in-house"
I just found this article:
"IBM is encouraging its employees to use Firefox, aiding the open-source Web browser's quest to chip away at Microsoft's Internet Explorer."
I personally don't know anybody at Sun who is still using Internet Explorer. I'm wondering why it took IBM so long to figure out that Mozilla/Firefox is such a cool technology!?
( Mai 13 2005, 07:47:15 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [3]

Application Server Support in NetBeans 4.1
"Also a highlight of NetBeans 4.1 is automated deployment to the BEA Systems WebLogic, IBM WebSphere, and JBoss Java application servers, along with debugging support for these products. Previously, NetBeans only automated deployment to the Sun Java System Application Server."
The full article can be found here.
( Mai 13 2005, 07:41:10 AM CEST ) Permalink

OpenOffice.org wins in "FOSS spreadsheet hands-on comparison"
"Conclusion
After tallying the results from the individual evaluation categories, Calc comes out ahead, as it was tops in more than half the categories. It remains the most fully-featured FOSS spreadsheet, and some rumored problem with speed seem solved in version 2.0."
The full article can be found here.
( Mai 13 2005, 07:35:40 AM CEST ) Permalink

"Sun shines brightly on Java developers"
"With the latest iteration of NetBeans (Sun’s integrated development environment or IDE) a developer can, for example, just right mouse click to select the entire enterprise bean to generate look-up code, Shin said. Prior to 4.1, a developer would have had to write that portion of the code.

Also a variety of database operations can be performed without leaving the IDE, Shin said. NetBeans 4.1 also features wizards to create Web services and Web service clients, according to the company.
[...]
Another longtime Java shop is Parlay Entertainment Inc., an Oakville, Ont.-based online-games developer. CTO Perry Malone said he likes what he sees in Sun’s new tools, especially the ability to create more streamlined code."

The full article can be found here.
( Mai 13 2005, 07:26:35 AM CEST ) Permalink

"DB Visual Architect 1.0 for NetBeans 4.1"
"DB Visual Architect for NetBeans (DBVA-NB) is a full featured, cross-platform Object Relational Mapping (ORM) plugin for Eclipse."
The full article can be found here.
( Mai 13 2005, 07:24:31 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

"OpenOffice, Free-Software Supporters Make Peace over Java"
"As Scott Carr, documentation manager for OpenOffice.org, wrote online on Wednesday, "The major difference here is that OOo is actively talking with RMS [Richard M. Stallman, founder of the FSF] to make sure everyone is happy. OOo is run by a community. Sun is providing developers to this community, but Sun does NOT run things," Carr said.

"OpenOffice.org has a policy [which Sun endorses and has since it was framed] that OpenOffice.org will use Java in a runtime-neutral way so as to ensure it is always available 'Free' as well as 'free,'" a Sun representative said."

The full article can be found here.
( Mai 13 2005, 07:23:00 AM CEST ) Permalink