Friday Jul 27, 2007
Friday Jul 27, 2007
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OK, so Pat Patterson will never look like Steve Ballmer to me again - ever.
Wednesday Jul 25, 2007
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"Two years ago I purchased what was then the brand-new, whiz-bang PPC-6600 smartphone from Sprint. At the time, the rep told me that when EVDO became available in the Chicago area that the 6600 would have it available. My pre-purchase research showed that
Tuesday Jul 24, 2007
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Oracle announced Wednesday that it has agreed to buy Bharosa Inc., a provider of software to help detect online identity theft and fraud. The companies didn't reveal the financial details of the acquisition, which is expected to close next month. Bharo
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Every user who throws away (or loses) a keychain-size flash drive could be unintentionally leaking critical information to a competitor. Any of the tens of millions of desktop and notebook computers disposed of each year in landfills, junkyards, and yard
Thursday Jul 19, 2007
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So I can better talk to my friend Daniel :-)
Wednesday Jul 18, 2007
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An Austin software startup has gotten $7.2 million in a second round of venture funding and named a new chief executive. Chris Ostertag, who has more than 25 years experience in the technology industry, will lead the company's expansion as its CEO, the
Monday Jul 16, 2007
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I so very much hope that in a decade's time I won't have to load a web browser whenever I want to run Photoshop! When we consider the bountiful array of possibilities that proper 'first class' RIAs could hold, shoveling everything through the clumsy mediu
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Avaya plans to team up today with Nokia to support dual-mode Wi-Fi/cellular phones as the race to link cell phones with corporate VoIP systems heats up.
Thursday Jul 12, 2007
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Sweet! JBoss will support OpenDS! Identity: With JBoss 2.6, developers have pre-built LDAP integration with LDAP server. Supported servers include Red Hat Directory Server, OpenDS, and OpenLDAP.
Tuesday Jul 03, 2007
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And I feel so bad for them: iPhone users across the U.S. were complaining Monday that AT&T's wireless data network was down.
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My 30th Class Reunion
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Shocking to me that this would be acceptable today, but clearly it is: The plan costs $79 plus an additional $6.95 postage and packing.
Thursday Jun 28, 2007
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These drawings from Sun Microsystems depict the blade platform (left) and switch system that make up Sun's Constellation System, which launched Monday. Squeezing so many processors into a finite space cuts costs and can increase overall computing firepowe
Catalyst Panel on Identity Services Today
I'll be on a panel today, Thursday, June 28, at Burton's Catalyst at the San Francisco Hilton with a bunch of guys that are a lot smarter than me, but it should be fun. I'll be joining moderator Mark Diodati, good friends Phil Hunt from Oracle and Nick Nikols from Novell, as well as Bill Dettlebeck from BEA and Andy Rappaport from CA. We'll be on from 2:50-3:50pm PT, right after Mark provides his analysis on the topic from 2:20-2:50pm PT. It should be interesting. Join us and bring your comments and questions.
Wednesday Jun 27, 2007
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Picture of me taken by Brandon on his cell phone at the Surrey vs Hamshire Twenty20 cricket match at the Oval in London
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Reading Dave's post on MySQL's IPO range of $600M - $1B, I started to wonder what type of revenue we're talking about.
Tuesday Jun 26, 2007
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I think we care about privacy like we care about strong security. "I'll give you a candy bar for your password" - "Ok". By the time we understand what we gave up it will be too late.
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Think I'm a brainwashed IBM lackey (or insert appropriate description)?... So there you have it, my data. Bring yours to the table and let's chat. Or if you want to tell stories of strawberry fields, bliss and OSS "obvious truths", then let me know so I c
Cricket: What Baseball Wishes It Was
I'm in London attending the Gartner Identity and Access Management conference and arrived Sunday with my friend and co-worker, Brandon. We got in early and the Hilton didn't have our rooms ready so we did a bit of sightseeing. I'll spare you the details of our pathetic navigation of the bus system, but after making it to Buckingham Palace and seeing Westminster Abbey and the House of Parliament/Big Ben, we had walked a long way and wanted to ride back to the hotel. The bus drivers were quite helpful and we were soon on our way back - or so we thought. In our haste to get on the right bus we neglected to make sure it was heading in the right direction. It wasn't. When the bus driver told us we were going the wrong way and we got off, we were next to something that clearly held sporting events. I asked one of the attendants through the fence if there was an event. He said yes and I asked if it was a football match. He laughed and said, "Mate, this is the Oval. You've never heard of the Oval?". I admitted the obvious, that I hadn't. He laughed again and then told me that the Oval was one of the most famous cricket stadiums in the world and the ONLY thing played in the Oval was cricket. I had just told Brandon that morning that one thing I wanted to do someday was to go to a cricket match. Why not today? The attendant told us that the game was being rain delayed and we proceeded to look for a place to buy tickets to find out how much it would cost.
A man, who either heard us talking to the attendant or could just tell we were in the market for tickets, approached us and said he had some he wanted to sell. Both of us were leery, but John assured us the tickets were not only legit, but 3 pounds (about $7) cheaper and could be refunded, if in fact the match was rained out. Further, he encouraged us to come in with him, his girlfriend Allison and his good friend James and pay him only if the match was played. Talk about no brainer.
The stadium was beautiful and looked to me like a HUGE golf green. It was somewhat covered by tarps, etc. to protect the pitch and key areas from the drizzle. The clouds were dark and I don't think any of us felt the match would actually be played. However, about an hour later the clouds cleared up and they announced that the match would occur, but it only be 10 overs per side and not the full 20. By this time John and James had completely explained the game. It helped that John was such a huge baseball fan (only weeks before he'd been to both a Cub and White Sox game in Chicago) and could relate aspects of cricket to baseball, something Brandon and I know better, though neither of us are fans.
The match was the Surrey Brown Caps, the home team, against the Hamshire Hawks. James is a big Hawks fan. John is a big cricket fan. Allison is mostly a John fan :-). The rain stopped, at least enough for the match to start and we could not have happened upon three better people to spend the afternoon with and learn about this fantastic sport. Hamshire elected to bat first, which John said was a surprising move, and Surrey proceeded to bowl exceptionally well keeping Hamshire to only 72. The spin (slow) bowling was quite effective. We were impressed that bowling, essentially pitching overhand while being required to keep your elbow straight, reached speeds of 89 mph. Yes, straight arm. Surrey looked like they would reach 73 very quickly, but slowed near the end, finishing Hamshire with an over to spare. Sky (a Sun customer) covered the match and we were on the replays, and probably the sports coverage on the news later, several times.
I loved it. Can't wait to go again. Thanks John, Allison and James! You guys were great and our experience with you at the Oval was definitely the highlight of our trip. John, when you are in Illinois next we've got to see a Packers/Bears game!
Cricket is so much better than baseball. Granted that is a low bar, but easily cleared. Let me know if you want to understand any of the rules or the intricacies, but do wait until John sends me his email :-)
Baseball - a poor imitation of cricket.
Monday Jun 25, 2007
Time for another Burton Catalyst and this year we'll be doing a Monty Python Holy Grail theme. The first line I think of is "Bring Out Your Dead". It will be a great time and you won't want to miss it. This is Bianca's last event for us and we had to get her out of retirement to do it :-). If you've been to our Catalyst events in the last three years she was the one behind them. She is better known to us as "Producer Bianca" since she produces the Identity Management Buzz podcasts that Brandon and I do, and she also writes the blog. Interesting sidenote, my good friend Pat's brother George was an extra in the film. How cool is that!
We'll have all kinds of demos, including: Identity Manager and Approva, DSEE's virtual directory and new web console, and Federation Manager. We'll also demo our open source projects OpenDS, showing off the APP/Atom work, and OpenSSO, showing off the new Sun OpenID implementation. We will also have several partners in the suite with us, like Deloitte and Vaau with our new Enterprise Role Lifecycle Management offering, and PwC with their Foundations offering.
But what you won't want to miss is a special appearance by our President, CEO and star blogger, Jonathan Schwartz, some time around 6:30. He'll talk a bit about how important Identity Management is to Sun, answer a few questions from the crowd. If you're lucky you can get a picture with him.
If you're attending Catalyst you'll definitely want to stop by, listen to Jonathan, grab a hunk of stuffed pig and check out our demos.
Monday Jun 18, 2007
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Gartner recently announced its "Magic Quadrant for Application Infrastructure for Back-End Application Integration Projects, 2Q07" and positioned Sun in the Leaders Quadrant.