Archives: December 2005

Dan Warmenhoven's definition of "State of the Shelf"

Posted by: Peter Burrows on December 31, Categories: storage

In a recent article on Network Appliance CEO Dan Warmenhoven, I talked about Warmenhoven's "state-of-the-shelf" strategy for product development. This is the idea that NetApp relies on hardware components made...

Reintroducing AT&T--or SBC?

Posted by: Peter Burrows on December 30, Categories:

This morning, I read that AT&T would launch the biggest ad campaign in the 120-year history of the company, starting with a major presence in Times Square on New Year's...

Bloggers' New Year's Resolutions

Posted by: Olga Kharif on December 29, Categories: Technorati

Blogs search site Technorati is collecting New Year's resolutions from all over the world. And these can make a fun read. Bloggers are vowing to lose weight, volunteer more, and... to eat more peas.

A Few Tech Predictions for 2006

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 29, Categories: predictions

Everyone else is issuing predictions for 2006, so why not me? Well, for one, Jeff Jarvis might go postal on me (not that I’m at the top of his reading...

Quickie Reader Survey: Have you used "Bill Me Later?"

Posted by: Peter Burrows on December 29, Categories: e-commerce

Hi, folks. I'm trying to determine the popularity of the "Bill Me Later" payment option that is popping up on e-commerce sites such as Wal-Mart, Priceline and Continental Airlines. The...

An Amazon.com Christmas: The Video

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 27, Categories: Amazon.com

I toured Amazon.com's massive, automated distribution center in Fernley, Nevada, a couple weeks ago, and we ran a slide show on how it works. I really wanted to include video...

VoIP Patent Holders, Please Stand Up!

Posted by: Olga Kharif on December 27, Categories: VOIP

In many tech sectors, such as next-generation RFID, one company holds a lion's share of the patents needed to make that technology tick. Who will hold the most patents to VoIP?

The Human Side of Networking

Posted by: Peter Burrows on December 27, Categories: Cisco

I came across this corporate video from Cisco about its program to wire up hospitals so sick kids can have videoconferences with Santa. OK, maybe I'm just a sentimentalist sucker...

Will the Trustbusters Go After Apple?

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 27, Categories: Apple Computer, Digital Music, iPod

In the wake of Eliot Spitzer investigating digital music pricing, David Berlind at Between the Lines wonders if Apple's an even more obvious target: At what point does Apple's DRM...

Enterprise Software Doesn't Work for Me After All

Posted by: Sarah Lacy on December 23, Categories: Enterprise Software

Back on Dec. 5 I blogged about my sheer delight at Ann Taylor's supply chain and order management software. Not exactly cocktail party conversation I know, but it had long...

V Cast Music: Simply Playing Catch-up?

Posted by: Olga Kharif on December 23, Categories: wireless

CNet says Verizon Wireless will launch its wireless music service in January. What I've read about the service so far seems to indicate that the company is simply playing catch-up to rivals rather than planning to unveil any unique features.

Best Way to Post Video Clips to Share Publicly?

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 23, Categories: video

I've been trying to figure out the best way to post some video to go along with a story that's running today online. I'd like to find an easy, fast...

When Betas Go Bad

Posted by: Sarah Lacy on December 22, Categories: Google

A few months ago BusinessWeek’s Steve Baker reviewed Gmail calling it a bit too quirky. While his points were very well taken—and a good many people agree—I was already a...

Wink: People-Powered Search

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 22, Categories: Power of Us, Search, Web 2.0

The new "people-powered search engine," Wink, has just launched its public beta. In CEO Michael Tanne's own words: Wink is a different kind of search engine - one that searches...

Soft-War of Words

Posted by: Sarah Lacy on December 21, Categories: Enterprise Software

There's an interesting post on Gartner's Ombudsman's blog about the Oracle ads running in the Wall Street Journal. Gartner says the research Oracle cites is grossly taken out of context,...

Google-AOL: The First Step to VoIP Interoperability?

Posted by: Olga Kharif on December 21, Categories: VOIP

Google-AOL tie should allow for interoperability of the two companies' VoIP services. That, in turn, should benefit Google -- and perhaps even lead to interoperability of all IM-like VoIP services.

Sudoku: The Next Tetris?

Posted by: Olga Kharif on December 21, Categories: gaming

Numbers puzzle game Sudoku is getting really big. And it could make companies such as Nintendo, which will make a version of Sudoku available on its GameBoy Advance come February, lots of money.

Seagate + Maxtor = Great Move

Posted by: Olga Kharif on December 21, Categories: Chips

Seagate just acquired Maxtor. It's an inspired move, and one that will allow Seagate to get ahead of the curve.

The Dell drama behind the change at Lenovo

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 21, Categories:

Dell exec who takes the top job at Lenovo was already being pushed aside at Dell--at least according to the company bios.

Buy.com Postpones IPO Due to (Ahem) Market Conditions

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 21, Categories: IPOs, e-commerce

I wasn't the only one to wonder why investors would buy into the IPO of a money-losing company that's growing more slowly than its e-commerce peers. My colleague Tim Mullaney...

A Fair and Reasoned View of Wikipedia (Really!)

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 21, Categories: Wikipedia

Danah Boyd cuts through some of the overheated arguments about Wikipedia, in the wake of recent revelations about mistakes and outright fabrications on the site: Wikipedia is better than most...

Now I Know Why Ringtones Are a $500 Million Industry

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 20, Categories: ringtones

... because the stock ringtones that come with the phones bite. I just got a new cellphone for the first time in a long time, and the one Verizon chose...

Riya: Not for Sale (At Least Not Yet)

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 19, Categories: Google

A few weeks ago, seemingly every A-list blog had Google buying the photo service Riya, which won't even launch to the general public until the Demo conference in February. (You...

News Rating Service Readying Pilot Launch

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 19, Categories: Power of Us, Social Media, Web 2.0, reputation

I just got a sample survey from NewsTrust that indicates the news rating service will launch a pilot site in January. The group, headed by Fabrice Florin, claims test results...

Why Was Google So Desperate for AOL?

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 18, Categories: Google, Microsoft, Search

I don't get it. Here's a company that seems to have everything going for it--absurdly high revenue growth and profits and a $127 billion market cap. But according to this...

Tiny Bubbles...

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 17, Categories: Web 2.0, bubble, venture capital

Mike Arrington also wonders if there's a bubble brewing after all in the land of Web 2.0. His latest red flag is stupid parties: "I was invited, and drove 25...

VMware goes mainstream

Posted by: Steve Hamm on December 16, Categories: utility computing

VMware is a true tech-industry phenomenon. With revenues doubling year over year, it's on the same growth trajectory as Oracle was in its salad days--and Oracle was the fastest-growing software...

Identity: The Worst of Both Worlds

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 15, Categories: identity, reputation

I lost my driver's license a few days ago--about two hours before I had to catch a plane and rent a car. Truly an "Oh s---!" moment. In the next...

iPod: A Way to Meet Other Singles?

Posted by: Olga Kharif on December 13, Categories: iPod

Could your iPod improve your dating life? Quite possibly. iPod jacking and iPod dating sites are gaining momentum.

Hurd's Plan for HP Nirvana

Posted by: Peter Burrows on December 13, Categories: Hewlett-Packard

The late Lew Platt heard the siren song. So did former HP CEO Carly Fiorina. I'm talking about the obvious potential for HP to tie its many businesses together to...

A tech guru prognosticates

Posted by: Steve Hamm on December 13, Categories: tech's future

I'm way late to the party when it comes to appreciating Mark Anderson. He's the headman at Strategic News Service, an influential newsletter and consultancy. I had a chance to...

Amazon Thinks Out of the Search Box, Again

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 13, Categories: Amazon.com, Search

If you haven't been watching what Amazon's doing outside its famous Web store, you've been missing a lot. Its A9.com search site offers some pretty neat tools for searching specific...

Finally, a comprehensive gauge of tech industry health

Posted by: Steve Hamm on December 12, Categories: Tech Spending

For a numbers-based business, the tech industry has long suffered from a shortage of good metrics with which to gauge its overall health. There are a smattering of CIO surveys,...

Calling 'Em Like He Sees 'Em

Posted by: Sarah Lacy on December 12, Categories: software as service

Greg Gianforte, CEO of Right Now Technologies, has a Viewpoint on our site today that's not exactly winning him friends in software land. He makes some strong accusations at the...

2006: The Year When Intel Catches up to AMD?

Posted by: Olga Kharif on December 11, Categories: Chips

Recently, I attended Intel’s manufacturing conference in Oregon. There, an Intel vice president, Stephen Smith, talked about Intel’s roadmap for next year. I came away convinced that, unless Intel stumbles on execution, it will finally catch up to smaller rival AMD in performance in 2006.

Yahoo! Eats Del.icio.us

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 09, Categories: Power of Us, Web 2.0, Yahoo, tags

Heather Green at Blogspotting has the news, along with TechCrunch's Mike Arrington: Yahoo's buying the tagging site del.icio.us. Between the acquisitions of del.icio.us and Flickr, Yahoo clearly is embracing tagging,...

Wikipedia's Paradox

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 08, Categories: Power of Us, Wikipedia

Wikipedia, the darling of the new Web, has seen quite a backlash lately thanks to some high-profile mischief and shady editing of entries. Outsell's David Curle has an interesting analysis...

Viva Vinyl!

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 08, Categories: Digital Music, Innovation

My record player is broken, and I miss playing my LPs, many of which have stuff available neither on CDs nor on digital download sites. Apparently, I'm not alone. Wired...

Fence-Mending in HP Land

Posted by: Peter Burrows on December 08, Categories: Hewlett-Packard

Now there's a place people can go to learn about two truly great men, and the admirable way of doing business they came up with.

Yahoo! Answers: Search with a Human Touch

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 07, Categories: Power of Us, Search, Yahoo

Just launched in beta, Yahoo! Answers is a place where you can ask questions on any topic and get answers from real people. It's free, presumably funded by sponsored ads....

Why I Don't Use a Calendar

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 07, Categories: Social Software, Web, Web 2.0

An online calendar like Outlook, that is. Actually, I use a bunch of calendars, but all paper. Don't look at me like that. After attending the When 2.0 workshop yesterday...

New Ideas in Online Advertising: Who Needs Google?

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 06, Categories: Google, Power of Us, Social Media, advertising

Heard a couple of new buzzwords--or are they incipient markets?--at the When 2.0 workshop presented at Stanford today by Esther Dyson's ReLease 1.0 and Stanford's Media X program. * "user-generated...

Tux Redux

Posted by: Steve Hamm on December 06, Categories: open source software

The last time I tuned into Mandrake Software, the founder of the France-based Linux company was begging Mandrake Linux users to send in contributions to keep the company afloat. Then,...

Spansion: A Difficult Road Ahead?

Posted by: Olga Kharif on December 06, Categories: Chips

The timing for Spansion's IPO could not have been worse. Today's Intel-STMicro announcement is another reason to think that this IPO won't fly.

Will Apple Get Real?

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 05, Categories: Apple Computer, Digital Music

Sure doesn't sound like it, judging from what Rob Glaser, CEO of Real Networks, said today at the Digital Living Room conference in Silicon Valley. Glaser was asked if he...

Finally! Enterprise software working for me

Posted by: Sarah Lacy on December 05, Categories: Enterprise Software

When I was hired by BusinessWeek Online in 2004, I had to leave my life as a venture capital and finance reporter behind to become a technology reporter. "Fine," I...

Why I (Mostly) Don't Use Shopping Comparison Sites

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 04, Categories: e-commerce

In writing a review of Google's Froogle shopping site, I remembered again that I just don't use shopping comparison sites such as Froogle, Shopping.com, and Shopzilla very much. It got...

Crunch time for the digital entertainment industry

Posted by: Steve Hamm on December 02, Categories: Sony BMG

The blowup over Sony BMG's XCP digital-rights management software shows how the entertainment industry needs to wise up to technology pitfalls as the world increasingly goes digital. Entertainment companies aren't...

Beta Overload

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 02, Categories: Web

I love new Web services as much as the next guy, but doesn't it seem like all these alpha and beta sites have gotten a little out of hand? I've...