* Posts by Ian Michael Gumby

4454 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Apr 2006

Dutch company augments mobile reality

Ian Michael Gumby
Heart

@Tony72...

Er you must write for the Reg!

The problem with your idea is that you'd have to have some form of facial recognition to identify the hooker. Depending on the shift, the window worker changes. So maybe they place bar code placards in the windows to identify the hooker? (Since the Dutch regulate the industry and the hookers are supposed to be registered, they should be able to post something to identify them, right?)

Then your phone can get their bios and their latest blood tests for any sexual transmitted disease information, or if they're running a special and will offer an instant online coupon if you transact your business using your phone's EFT feature?

No, my minds not in the gutter like Tony72, but I just like to solve problems. He just made it sort of interesting and fun. :-)

Ian Michael Gumby
Thumb Up

Reality catching up to fiction?

Interesting in that the concept of overlaying virtual information on to a video/camera view image is becoming a reality.

Gibson's 'Virtual Light' had a set of 'glasses' to do that, and if you follow Anime, Eden of the East , also has a similar concept on their cell phones.

Its a very interesting concept and could have the potential of improving LBS applications.

Sun killing 'Rock' Sparc chip?

Ian Michael Gumby

@Bazza... not quite...

The same problem exists in Sparc VII+ chips in their m900 series (or is it m9000?)....

If you follow comp.databases.informix, there was an issue concerning how to tune the database engine in the environment because while you have 64 cores, there are two threads to a core.

The bottom line was that Informix (IBM's IDS engine) is probably the best engine to take advantage of the virtual cores, yet it can't. If you go to rock you have the same problem.

So your current off the shelf packages like Oracle, IDS, DB2, Sybase, etc ... can't take advantage of the extreme parallelism that Rock can offer.

Yes you are correct that you can have special applications developed that would take advantage, yet how many customers are there that have the budget and the staff to write these apps? (Not enough to make the chip viable)

Many articles, including those in El Reg have talked about having to upgrade the software in the OS and in applications to take advantage of parallelism offered not only by Sun, but also Intel's new chips. CRN (Computer Reseller News) had an article that talked about creating 15+ virtual microsoft servers on a 2 socket 8 core xeon 5500 box. Think about that. Instead of being able to have the software scale up, you have to instead scale down the box into multiple virtual servers to get the most out of the hardware.

Take to the example of PC users desktops where they use CPU intensive software like photoshop. Even here the lack of parallelism shows that the hardware advances go under utilized.

And that was the point. Sun's architecture is brilliant, but unfortunately no one has written applications that have mass appeal to take advantage of it....

Again, good idea, bad timing.

Ian Michael Gumby
Unhappy

Unfortunately, it makes sense...

Right now nothing software-wise can take advantage of the parallelism that Sun can bring to the table with Rock. It would mean a major investment in rewriting software for a single chip that maybe might have some gains on Intel and other architecture.

Right concept, bad timing.

Endeavour launch scrubbed again

Ian Michael Gumby
Boffin

@Annihilator...

Didn't your high school science classes teach you a simple formula :

pV=nRT?

Just in case, check out : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideal_gas_law

So what happens when the liquid Hydrogen heats up?

(Hint: Look at the formula and if p,n,R are all constant, if T increases, what happens to V?)

IBM launching American-only software support

Ian Michael Gumby
Alien

Smoke and mirrors...

IBM's Information Management Lab services support (L2 and L3) are done via Markham labs (DB2) in Toronto and Lenexa (Informix). God only knows where IBM's L1 support is being handled.

IBM inherited Informix's 'Follow the Sun' support where there was live L2 and L3 support for Informix products and you'd get someone around the globe for after hours support. DB2 has been always supported out of Markham regardless of the time of day. (This could have changed in the last couple of years, but I doubt it.)

Clearly IBM is starting to realize that People want same shore support and that off shoring of these roles isn't a good idea.

An alien because doing a smart job of creating a global workforce is alien to IBM.

Salesforce turns website host

Ian Michael Gumby
Thumb Down

Pretty darn expensive....

If you consider that you could build a pair of Xeon dual socket servers using 4 core chips for ~30K you could then host in house.

Even when you factor in a commercial grade database and web server, you'll still come out ahead.

Microsoft fans call for Opera boycott

Ian Michael Gumby
Black Helicopters

I can see it now....

You buy Microsoft's release on a new machine, sans browser. You install your favorite browser.

After your first run through the monthly patch, a new patch is downloaded.

You then start up your web browser like Firefox....

A pop comes up...

"We notice that you're not using Microsoft's IE browser. Would you like to install it now?"

[Yes] [No] (yes button highlighted.)

If you say no, every time you try to launch your browser, you will be given this pop up notice until you cave in and install IE but just don't use it.

Yeah, that's the ticket! (Microsoft: Oh no, we didn't *ship* IE with the OS, the customer *chose* to download it.

Or better yet, they sneak it in an update and unless you don't run automatic updates and manually watch each update, it gets installed.

A black helicopter because you *know* Microsoft had already thought of this ....

Buggy 'smart meters' open door to power-grid botnet

Ian Michael Gumby
Flame

Security as an afterthought...

I guess those who developed the system didn't think about security because in the first place you're not on a public network and there will be security at connection points.

Developers can go bonkers or paranoid trying to think about all the potential attack vectors.

But yeah, a good code review should have caught some of the blatant errors.

The good news is that its possible to correct these defects without having to redeploy the existing meters and could be done remotely.

A flame or pox on the bean counters who take shortcuts in the name of profits.

Indian outsourcers prepare for US trade war

Ian Michael Gumby
Thumb Down

The IT market is a bit inverted...

Right now you can hire a consultant cheaper than you can hire a FTE.

This inversion is due to the loss of local jobs with the work being done overseas.

With respect to the slogans, ever hear "Buy American" which was the war cry of the US auto industry. That is until Nafta meant that they could ship work outside the US to Mexico and Canada and still consider it US. And of course the Japanese car companies produce their cars for the American market in America. (All work done in non-union states with non-union workers.

The point is that the US based companies can deduct their expenses in current fiscal year and then defer income until they bring it back to the US. So if Microsoft were to spend $500 million to make products overseas, they can deduct that expense in current year. If said software had revenues of 1 Billion dollars, that money could sit offshore, be invested offshore, grow offshore before the bring it back on shore. The net is that they then only have to pay tax on what they bring onshore.

Think its not a big issue? Going from memory, during a tax amnesty period, I believe IBM brought 8 BIllion USD onshore under the tax amnesty program. That's not chump change.

India is going to be hurt because the loss of this incentive could reduce IBM's desire to sack US and EU workers shifting their jobs off shore.

Yes its a global world. But look at the Japanese. They manufacture their products for their markets locally. Meaning cars bought in the US are primarily made in the US.

Think about it.

Sun rallies investors despite possible Oracle blocker

Ian Michael Gumby
Black Helicopters

@Tim Spence

Sun turning in to Yahoo!, in what respect.

Sun was the darling of the 'dot bomb' world. In other words, the dot com boom customers were buying a lot of hardware. Dot bomb hits, Sun loses customers, earnings and stock takes a hit. Sun also failed to monetize Java. (Not that they had to sell Java, but to produce and ship software solutions around Java. However Sun was/is a hardware company and thought about giving away the software to sell more hardware.

Your reference to Yahoo! is that they walked away from Microsoft because they wanted a better deal and Microsoft said no. Yahoo! then got nailed.

If Sun does walk away from Oracle, that too will happen because the current stock price is based on the news that Oracle will buy Sun. That doesn't happen, the stock goes back to the $2-4 range.

However, there is one other 'white knight' in the background. Cisco. Cisco and Sun combined would be a very interesting combo that would really scare IBM , Oracle and even Microsoft.

Why Cisco hadn't stepped forward is beyond me. Perhaps they were politely asked not to and that until 'California' takes off, they didn't want to rock the boat? ;-)

Ian Michael Gumby
Dead Vulture

The author again revises history...

'Java users don't get a golden parachute from the Oracle, but they can - and are - looking for ways to avoid becoming beholden to a single company for their entire middleware, business applications, and hardware. They are investigating Red Hat and JBoss.'

Methinks that the author has the "Anybody butt IBM" attitude. Note: the spelling of 'but' because his assumption is that IBM doesn't have any 'middleware' or 'appserver' that runs Java. (Hmmm and of course IBM isn't heavily involved in the JCP unlike Oracle...) ;-)

I chose the tomb because the author clearly doesn't know the industry, or wrote this very quickly as she/he/it or (s/h/it) was nursing a nasty hangover and was late for his deadline....

Ian Michael Gumby
Black Helicopters

There's a bit of a snag...

IBM walked away and one of the 'unnamed sources' has cited that IBM balked at the exec payout package.

I don't know, but did Oracle balk or did the numbers change?

Hence the potential for a lawsuit because of the fiduciary requirements of the officers. That is, one could argue that the 'excessive' 'fat' executive payout is actually a payoff at the expense of the shareholders.

Its interesting that IBM walked away and now looks more 'evil' than ever. Sun customers appear to view Oracle as their 'white knight'. In truth, the potential synergy of Sun and Oracle would mean that there should be more of a premium, albeit, when has Larry paid a premium for anything instead of buying at fire sale prices?

US team create carbon nanotube ultra-memory

Ian Michael Gumby
Boffin

@ Graham Bartlett

I think you've missed the standard caveat that this *years* and *years* away from being practical.

I agree that this is meant for long term storage and to answer you question about stability, you could always shield the chip such that you limit the amount of electric noise exposure, except to the electric currents that you want.

If they can shrink the length of the tube, increase the sensitivity of their measurements, it will be faster.

Imagine if they can, when writing, 'shoot' the metal particle to one wall or the other. Then you have you 1/0 state easily read. My guess is that its the length of tube that helps give it the really long data lifespan. If they shorten it, will it at least last 1000 years? If so, and Moore's law kind of holds, they can probably figure out how to make it small, fast and last a billion years with a couple of decades.

Too bad anyone trying to read it in a billion years will probably lack the technology...

US mega retailer settles spyware charges

Ian Michael Gumby
Alert

@AC...

You live in a fantasy world.

Sony Rootkit? Who went to jail over that?

Look, in real life you take what you can get.

Sure I'd love to see the former CEO of Sears get cuffed and sent to jail along with the Senior VP of Marketing, the CIO and their in house counsel. (I believe this happened prior to the acquisition by K-Mart) But the reality is that you can't charge someone and then use discovery to prove your case. You have to have a case first.

The FTC did sue and this is their settlement rather than face a risky trial where you have a good chance of Sears walking away scott free.

Its not a perfect world.

Ian Michael Gumby
Thumb Up

Its not that simple...

The reason the FTC didn't go full bore and even consider criminal prosecutions is that Sears is a legitimate company. Behind Wal*Mart, its one of the largest retailers.

The FTC would have had to shown that individual(s) knowingly violated the law. With respect to Sears, they may have crossed the line, however it would be very expensive and difficult to prove that certain individuals knowingly broke the law.

Sears used their lawyers to write the agreement such that it *disclosed* what it was doing, however deceptive their tactics were. The whole mess could not really be attributed to a single individual's decision or actions.

I'm not defending Sears however just pointing out that any attempt to actually file criminal charges would have been a waste of time.

All we can do is create better consumer protection laws and impose stronger penalties.

Also on a side note... Sears has been putting out a lot of job notices for senior IT executives. Things under K-Sears' management isn't so great and I'm sure those individuals who were responsible are pretty much out of a job.

Thumbs up because you know that no other major retailer will be stupid enough to try this stunt and it will hopefully put Comscore out of business.

Ballmer clashes with Obama over US tax rules

Ian Michael Gumby
Thumb Up

Now the truth comes out...

Companies invest in off shoring capabilities not just because of the cheap labor, but because of the loopholes in the current tax system. As long as the money stays off shore, the companies don't have to pay taxes on it until they bring the money on shore. That is, they can potentially hide profits made on revenue streams outside of the US until they need to use the money.

Obama is doing the right thing. If you are going to 'globalize' your workforce, you need to globalize your tax code and remove the incentives to level the playing fields. Microsoft, IBM, Accenture, CSC, etc.. will have to rethink their business models.

Note that the US also will go after corporations that relocate their corporate HQs outside of the US if only to dodge US taxes.

So unless Microsoft or any other company wants to no longer do business in the US, they will have to rethink their business practices. Now if only the EU also takes this stance will we find some normalcy.

Oh and tying this to the BT article about 'internal transfers' ... add jail time to the penalties and you'll see it stop very quickly.

Thumbs up because finally a government official is starting to look at the long term picture. With respect to Obama, the short term picture looks like crap so he can afford to take a stance.

I'd also add the devil symbol since Balmer is taking Bill's place as the 'antiChrist'.

BT slammed for 'importing' cheap Indian contractors

Ian Michael Gumby
Boffin

A lot of misconception going on...

First, just because you see 400 vs 220 doesn't mean that the individual contractor sees the 400 or that the internal transfer sees the 220. The numbers reflect the cost per day of the worker and its not only the salary that goes in to the cost.

The point you should be taking away from this is that BT is using a loophole in the law to replace the *local* contracting force with their internal transfers because they are a global corporation.

As pointed out, these internal transfers do not have 'expertise' that could not be found locally.

As also pointed out, this not only a BT thing. In the IT world all of the major companies do this as a way to keep fat margins on declining bids.

Who loses? The consumer because the quality of the software is shite. The Indian worker because even though they are brought in to the UK, they still earn their current salary plus maybe a small stipend and their UK housing paid for. (Part of the reason you see $220 a day.)

As pointed out by Callum, its a short term work visa. So you rotate the staff.

Here's the net result. BT saves money until they are caught. Then they say mea culpa, pay a fine and do it again until caught. BT can also start an appeal process by claiming that they have the talent within their global workforce but not locally within their workforce so that instead of bringing in outside contractors they sourced internally first.

The bottom line, there are no longer any ethics in business. If you stipulate in a contract that the work has to be done locally and no off shoring, the contracting companies will find a way to get around that. If you limit the temporary work visa to only those who have specific skills that are not found locally, they will find a way to make it so that the workforce has some specific skill.

The true and not recognized issue is that if you choose the more skilled and qualified resources that may cost more dollar per hour, your overall cost will decline because you can do more with less workers and the final quality would be up to snuff.

The blue headed boffin guy because while what I've written is common sense and common business knowledge, it appears that a lot of people in charge have the intelligence of Monty Python's Gumby characters. (Gee I wonder why I use the alias of Ian Michael (I.M.) Gumby!

Poor management hampers gov IT

Ian Michael Gumby
Boffin

@Pete

You nailed it pretty much on the head, only its not the size of the company.

To sum it up... A certain amount of paperwork and time tracking is important, until the business process of tracking the work itself becomes the 'bottle-neck'.

There exists some ratio X, defined as the amount of time in man hours spent on tracking and following 'best practices' (Paperwork) versus the underlying man hours on development/support (Actual Work).

There exists some threshold Y that when X > Y, the process is deemed inefficient. The value of Y depends on the objectives set by the company and are influenced by its environment.

In larger companies, employees add unnecessary processes in order to justify their existence and salaries. So they are more prone to increasing X.

So when is a 'best practice' not a 'good practice'? When hinders your ability to meet your objectives...

The blue boffin head because common sense seems to be lacking in the majority of IT management these days...

-G

PS. You can call this Gumby's law of Process Management. ;-)

Huawei stymied by India security fears

Ian Michael Gumby
Happy

You get what you deserve...

I believe that there were reports (Including in El Reg) where China refused American kit over security concerns.

The Chinese government opened the door to this paranoia so there is no reason why one should not reasonably suspect that China was paranoid because it was planning to do the same thing that they accused Western governments of doing.

A happy face because Karma can be a fickle bitch and bite you in the ass when you least expect it.

Oracle's Ellison gambles with OpenOffice's future

Ian Michael Gumby
Flame

Just a simple clarification...

Oracle was not the first major relational database company to commit to Linux.

Unofficially, both Informix Software and Sybase had ports already done to Linux far before Oracle had.

Oracle announced just a couple of days prior to Informix's planned announcement that was to take place at their annual user group conference.

At the time Informix had planned their announcement, they already had a product ready to go to market. Not so with Oracle. Oracle's announcement was smoke and mirrors in an effort to steal Informix's thunder.

Someone had leaked the 'super sekret' 'surprise announcement' to Oracle ahead of time. ;-)

However, the point you were trying to make is that Oracle is a company trying to be on the 'bleeding edge' and becoming an early adopter of technology has some merit. However, unless Oracle believes that the adoption of the technology will make them money, they will not do it.

But hey! What do I know? Its not like I was there back in '97 and '98... ;-)

-G

Flames for the author who believes the hype that he hears without checking the facts.

Ellison pits Sun and Oracle against AJAX and Google

Ian Michael Gumby
Thumb Up

Interesting...

Take what Larry is saying and what his posturing means...

Oracle/Sun is looking where they have an advantage and how to exploit their advantage.

People don't really care if the underlying tools are open or not. Only that they work and that they are 'free' to use and develop with.

An example, the JVM. Sun and IBM offer JVMs but they are closed. Meaning they control their JVM. You are welcome to build your own and there are open sourced versions of the JVM. Yet the majority of java users are on either Sun or IBM's JVM. The point is that the price point (free) and level of support makes it viable.

If JavaFX works, easy to implement and its 'free', then you will have adopters. If it reaches a critical mass, then it will be viable. Having Sun and Oracle stand behind JavaFX could offer enough support and credibility to make it viable.

Consider this the first step in bringing Oracle in to the spotlight and in a better position to compete against IBM. If the other stories are true, then Oracle is getting ready to relaunch the 'network is the computer' pitch.

Today's main competitors are IBM, Oracle/Sun with Cisco being a dark horse in this race.

Boffins: Ordinary lightbulbs can be made efficient, cheaply

Ian Michael Gumby
Thumb Up

I can't believe the numb nutz responses...

First, this is a good thing. Hence the thumbs up.

With respect as to the effects on the longevity of the bulb, I don't think they've really looked at it. There are a couple of tests, (on/off patterns and continuous output), that you can use.

Did they measure if there was any increased heat generated with the increase in light? The article didn't say. So if you can take a 60W bulb that still uses 60W of electricity, generates the same amount of heat but yields the equivalent of a 100W bulb, you have a *good* thing.

Go check out OSHA on what to do if a CFL bulb breaks. Sure the odds of it happening are slim, but they do happen and you have to be careful on how you clean it up.

Also if you check out the wattage used by a CFL with respect to that of an incandescent , you'll find that the 40% efficiency increase is really a good thing and would make the incandescent bulb a better buy when you consider (cost, efficiency, and safety)

With respect to LEDs, I'm still waiting.

I tried an experiment in my laundry room. I replaced the two incandescent 60W bulbs in the light fixture with two LED bulbs that you can purchase from HomeDepot or Ace Hardware. These are pretty much the 1st gen bulbs and they consume about 1.5 W per bulb and are supposed to be a replacement for 40 Watt bulbs. Since I usually use 1 60W bulb, 2 40W bulbs should produce enough light, right?

Not quite. Not enough light. Also I was having problems with the LED bulbs burning out when I would turn the lights on and off. At $10.00 a pop, not cheap and after the first couple of bulbs, the guys at the neighborhood store started giving me dirty looks....

(Note these are LED bulbs that are meant to replace the incandescent bulb.)

Until the brightness increases, and the price drops, I'm not going to add any more to the house.)

I think that the remarkable thing is that this is probably one of the first new approaches in to increasing the efficiency of the incandescent bulb in years.

So thumbs up. If you need a 60W bulb that has a 40% energy savings, it means that it would only draw 36 W to provide the same amount of light that an older incandescent light would. And when you compare the price, its still a lot cheaper than LEDs.

Think Green but be Safe!

-G

IntelliJ's Maia shapes up against Eclipse

Ian Michael Gumby

I have to agree with Mr. Wolf..

Where is Netbeans in all of this?

Considering that Oracle is now buying Sun, I could see Oracle adopting IBM's model of a free version sans bells and whistles and a paid for supported version.

IMHO, monetizing Netbeans is feasible and would keep the minions of Larry happy.

Hiding secret messages in internet traffic: a new how-to

Ian Michael Gumby
Black Helicopters

It can be detected..

Ok, at one level, this is pretty sneaky in that it is hard to detect. However, its not impossible to detect.

All one would have to do is to capture the network traffic from a given site and to then compare any resends against the initial transmitted packet. If the receiving site sends an acknowledged response then you can clear the packet from the cache. If a resent response is set, you can flag it to check the resent package.

Obviously there's more to this design, but it could be part of a corporate firewall or if you have the budget, something larger.

While the paper acknowledges that the more resent network traffic you have the more likelihood that you will be caught. Clearly you can identify this method fairly quickly.

IBM goes judicial over second strategic exec exit

Ian Michael Gumby

@Frank

The key here isn't for IBM to win, but to slow down the hiring process.

The information these key executives have is time sensitive. If you can get them to delay their hiring by 6 months, then the effort was worth it.

Just FYI... in some of these contracts there are two or more clauses that restricts where you can go to work post IBM... One clause is overly restrictive and worthless. The second clause usually contains one or two companies and is probably enforceable.

As to the lawyers, they are in house counsel so their fees are paid whether they go to court, or sit around in the break room.

Summer debut for Judge Dredd computer smart-rifle

Ian Michael Gumby

@Jan

Today's enemy has the RPG. (Rocket Propelled Grenade).

He shoots and then ducks out of site until he's ready to take the next shot.

This is a follow on to the OICW project that involved a couple of global defense contractors including HK. See : http://www.hkpro.com/oicw.htm

Of course there they were trying to have the gun be both a 20mm launcher and 5.56 Nato assault rifle. (And I think that the XM project is a continuation from the OICW.)

The key here is that if you don't have the ammo, or the batteries for the electronics the gun is pretty useless.

Nork nuke quite a lot less powerful than Hiroshima

Ian Michael Gumby

@john70...

Dude! You are way to much into the puppet sex aren't you?

C'mon, lets get real.

Its very plausible that the NKs did set off a couple of kilo-tons of TNT, or its equivalent in exposives and not a nuclear device.

The other thing is that Norht Korea is a hurting pup of a country where they are trying to use their nuke status as a bargaining chip to get more aid out of the west.

And yes, not only can the US bomb NK back to the Stone Age (which might be an improvement) but so to could France, UK, Russia, China and even maybe India.

Thats the problem with nuclear weapons. Its one club that every country wants to join, yet membership carries a high price tag for a weapon you'll never use.

Ex-NebuAd staff target behavioural data via websites

Ian Michael Gumby
Unhappy

Unfortunately they got the business model right....

That's the rub.

They are targeting their marketing/sales push at the website owners. Sign up and they'll pay you cash so that they can monitor your users as they access your website.

As much as we don't like it, how do you stop a website owner from recording and maintaining data about how a user (you) interacts with his/her website.

The only way to stop it is to stop using that website.

Since the tracking is done via a 'magic pixel'... one could imagine that one could find a filter to stop the tracking like using noscript and blocking google analytics from running in your browser.

Linux group, Microsoft form unholy alliance against US lawyers

Ian Michael Gumby
Thumb Down

@Jonathan...

Material defects as in the software doesn't perform as expected.

The lawyers are trying to write into law something that isn't feasible. If it does make it in to law, you can bet that there will definitely be a rapid decline in innovation and software/hardware releases. (Your hardware has embedded software in it.)

There's a pretty serious ripple effect.

First there will have to be some sort of professional licensing or criteria that all developers must have at a minimum. (Like an engineering degree from an accredited 4 year university )

Codified Best/Acceptable Practices that all developers must follow and it must be documented in case of litigation.

Probably a de-evolution back to Waterfall development methodology. You want to have a defined set requirements document with no or minimal scope creep. Sorry but Agile development would potentially introduce too much risk and a greater chance of litigation.

You can also bet your bottom dollar that offshoring will suddenly drop due to the potential litigation.

While the lawyers will attempt to make out like bandits, the real winners are those who design software development tools.

Boffin builds better display from... a cuttlefish

Ian Michael Gumby
Thumb Up

A tad cynic are we this morning?

Ok,

Rather than beat up a poor reporter over some technical goofs, lets look at the amazing thing...

"But Stephen Foulger, a professor at Clemson University in North America, told website Discovery that such screens have a limited viewing angle and can only be used in a well lit areas.

So you may never see a TV based on this technology, but it has the potential to be used in electronic ink-based gadgets and on billboards. Thomas said he also hopes to build a self-assembly kit for use by children in chemistry classes. ®

"

Imagine a kindle 10.x. (That's roughly the number of iterations that will be released by the time this gets to market.)

You could have something roughly the thickness of a clipboard , roughly 1/4" thick with a 1 " thick bar at the top to hold batteries and the cpu guts along with additional memory cards etc ...

It could have a ruby crystal face so that it would be scratch resistant and in a solid (metal/carbon fiber) shell.

As a personal reader, it wouldn't need to be viewed from multiple angles and it wouldn't have to have more than 16 bit color depth if not less. With the fact that at this time, HP's memistor will be released so you could theoretically download a series of newspaper subscriptions, and books.

There are other uses for this technology too, so don't just laugh it out. It took 10-15 years before the digital ink idea became practical so lets see what happens.

Green GT rolls out sexy e-supercar

Ian Michael Gumby
Joke

There's a small device that they can add real cheap!

For those of you who are red necks or live in deer country... There's this little device that you attach to the front of your car. As you drive, the air flow causes a small shrill whistle to blow. I guess you could change it up a bit and end up with something you could call a screaming banshee.

Sun admits Oracle didn't want the hardware biz

Ian Michael Gumby
Black Helicopters

@Matt Bryant...

Matt,

I suggest that you step out for a bit of fresh air and think about the facts of what you see.

Its clear that you've never been in a competitive sales situation, otherwise you'd know that most of the FUD is generated at the street level and while there are competitive teams publishing 'attack packs', they are fundamentally correct to a point.

It seems to me that you rely on stories about Larry's enormous ego as your basis for your beliefs. I rely on the market and overall industry analysis for mine.

Look quite simply, when IBM made their bid, I was surprised that Oracle wasn't stepping up to the plate since they could get more from the deal than IBM. A friend at Oracle thought I was daft until there was a 'rumor' of the Oracle /HP bid that never materialized.

Then Oracle later steps in for the whole enchilada.

Do I know something that my friend who actually works for Oracle knows? Maybe. But not an inside secret.

I just understand the bigger picture and the corporate beast mentality. Sometimes its not all about doing things that will help you, but sometimes you have to factor in things that will hurt your competition.

Purchasing all of Sun does benefit Oracle, including the hardware portion. As I said, the hardware division could be spun off and left alone. In fact, one could even place a bet that Oracle will sell off the hardware division within 5 years to another large firm who's name is more than a set of Initials... (HP, IBM for those as slow as Matt).

You don't have to believe in what I say is true, nor do you have to acknowledge this to be a real possibility. You're just an individual who's spent too much time in the herd and have a herd mentality. (Which is what got Sun into this problem in the first place).

Moi?

I'm just a guy, see... so what do I know?

-G

The black chopper because I really do know more than I'm supposed to. ;-)

Ian Michael Gumby
Black Helicopters

@Matt Bryant...

Matt,

Knowing the 'dirty laundry' and being able to use 'it' for a competitive advantage are two different things.

Not to mention that there are things like NDAs that are signed and those that know the 'dirty laundry' aren't allowed to talk about it.

Its far easier for a sales rep to create their own FUD for their own advantage.

I'll give you an example...

When IBM did start the takeover process of Informix Software (the database division of Ascential...), the sales reps went out and started telling customers that they should buy DB2 since they were acquiring Informix to remove a competitor and that it would be going away.

(This was the furthest thing from the truth.) The net result was that the customer would end up going with Oracle because they didn't like DB2 and they didn't trust IBM's future in this space.

(Informix reps who covered the accounts would say a different thing.)

The other issue is that even if you know the dirty laundry, it could be a moot point. Its all about spin control.

Customers are used to sales critters bashing their competition so that when company A bashes company B, a good rep from company B deflects the negative talk with spin.

Sorry but the rest of your post is pure drivel.

Oracle will not sell off the hardware business.

The real problem is that Oracle was slow to think this deal through. From the Sun consumer and their resellers' perspective, Oracle is a better option that being bought by the 'borg. From Oracle's perspective, they didn't want to enter in to the low margin game of hardware, at the risk of hurting their current alliances with Sun , HP and even IBM. (IBM is also a very large reseller of Oracle's products.)

But as Oracle thinks the deal through, Sun's hardware could be pretty much a stand alone division, having minimal impact on their existing software relationship. Case in point, IBM as a larger (#2??) reseller of Oracle which they they sell IBM's hardware and services to close the deal.

Add to this the fact that with a hardware platform, Oracle can become a one stop shop and better compete against an IBM which sells hardware/software/services.

Add to this the fact that Sun customers love Sun so that as long as Oracle doesn't rock the craddle too much, their hardware division will continue to make money and they will continue to have access to customers in IBM's 'white space' where IBM really can't sell so its less of a competitor leaving HP or an Intel based solution from Dell or MSI...

The longer you look at the deal, Oracle comes out ahead by getting in to the hardware biz. The real interesting issue is that this deal is a total game changer.

The black helicopter is because I know too much. ;-)

Google protects Colonel Sanders' privacy

Ian Michael Gumby

@Hans...

While what you said in jest, the fact that KFC has made the request shows that it is going through the motions to protect its trademark.

Google is complying with the request because even if the 'street view' shot was taken in the public, the use is part of a 'for profit' venture. So they either have to compenstate KFC or comply.

So what we should all do is trademark the front face of our houses and then order Google to blur them out! ;-)

Toshiba first with half-a-terabyte SSD laptop

Ian Michael Gumby

@AC

I think that calling for the demise of 'rotating disks' is a bit premature.

SSDs still have their flaws. I guess if you can afford a $4,000 laptop, you could also afford to have an external raid of SSDs sitting on your desk top 'docking station' so you can back up your laptop's important data.

Several months ago HP announced a new storage technology that they were able to create within their labs. a memristor...

http://www.hpl.hp.com/news/2008/apr-jun/memristor.html

I did a quick google and found it.

If HP can bring this technology to the market, then you have a game changer.

But that technology is still a long way off. (Unfortunately)

Telstra bins UK support staff

Ian Michael Gumby
Alert

@Anonymous Coward Posted Thursday 14th May 2009 12:36 GMT

Bingo!

The real problem is that the decision makers are usually non-technical people and are bean counters. All they see is the bottom line and how they can show that they made a decision that saved the company money. At least in the short term.

The real problem is going to hit these companies shortly. Customers are not stupid. If they don't like the level of service they are getting, they will walk. (Why do you think that Indian call centers are opening up centers 'onshoring' their services? )

Customers (Companies) that contracted for services that were 'offshored' will definitely renegotiate their contracts for lower amounts because they know that the services are not being provided by local talent but by cheap disposable labor.

This is a negative downward spiral because if you don't drop your prices, your competitor will. Damn the SLA because their weasel wording lawyers have made a mockery of what they are guaranteeing to deliver.

With respect to the next AC, again spot on. Offshoring increases the potential risk for IP theft leaving the end customer out to dry. Not all countries have the same criminal code or data theft protection laws. Your ID could be stolen by an overseas worker and you'd have no way of knowing. Here in the US, California enacted a law requiring companies to immediately warn their California customers of any breach of their systems. Of course if their systems and staff are in India, how often do you think that the US based company is going to find out about a breach?

Sorry, but for the record I'm not a bigot but that I do see the risks and the problems caused by 'offshoring'.

Sphinx - text search The Pirate Bay way

Ian Michael Gumby
Flame

@Francis Fish

Relational Databases are not a commodity. At least to those that know about relational databases.

Its like saying that cars are a commodity. Just try and say that a Porche 911 and a Ford Mustang are equivalent vehicles.

The real problem is that a lot of the tips and tricks that are in the commercial products are not done well in the 'open source' community. Sorry, but query optimization developers isn't a commodity skill.

If the author did his homework, he would have found that IBM's IDS has a VTI (Virtual Table Interface) that also has a way of creating advanced indexing. So you can write you own indexing scheme.

The point is that what you praise in the OpenSource world has been around in the commerical world. Too bad certain web 2.0 companies would rather be a billionaire on paper than actually develop the rock solid infrastructure needed to efficiently support high volumes of users.

US states mulling Google book-scan pact

Ian Michael Gumby

@chris...

You are right. You can't give away rights to works you don't own the rights nor represent the rights of the authors.

But here's the rub. Google says they have the rights. You scan and make a copy of an orphan work and put it on the web. Google then sues you claiming that they have the rights to the 'orphaned work'.

Google may not have the rights, but it will cost you a lot of money defending yourself and it doesn't stop google from making money from the 'orphaned works'.

If anything the US LoC should takeover and make orphaned and public works available for free.

Hackers demand $10m ransom for Virginia medical data

Ian Michael Gumby
Paris Hilton

You've got to be kidding!

"It stretches the imagination to believe outsiders could break into a state-run website and destroy both the original data and its backup, which presumably would be stored off-site. A spokeswoman from Virginia's Department of Health Professions didn't return a phone call seeking comment. She told Security Fix the website was shut following following the April 30 discovery of an intrusion. She never directly addressed whether sensitive data was stolen or deleted."

Please, the sad truth is that people don't understand the value senior and experienced consultants bring to the table. Security for the most part is an after thought. :-(

Paris because she's got more brains that most in IT Management.

Satellite to offer 10Mbit broadband to entire UK

Ian Michael Gumby
Black Helicopters

What makes you think your position is "undefined" ?

What makes you think that your transmission point isn't trackable?

Google beefs health record lobby

Ian Michael Gumby
Paris Hilton

HIPAA is interesting...

While HIPAA was meant for the medical industry safe guarding your medical data, Google isn't in the business of medicine thus is outside of the law. So we need to modify the law.

Until then, if any hospital or medical facility transfers your data to Google without your consent, you have a major lawsuit against said facility. Under HIPAA if you see a doctor in the hospital and then have a follow up at his clinic, you need to sign a release. (Same doctor, different facilities.)

If you don't consent to having your data on Google, under HIPAA you can sue.

As pointed out ad nauseum, google doesn't have to sell anything to profit from your medical records. Imagine going to a web page that has google ads. Isn't it a funny coincidence that you're an asthma sufferer and you see some adds for asthma medications? ;-)

They're not evil, they just think that we're dumb.

Paris because she's made a profession of acting dumb and laughing all the way to the bank.

Oracle suits to strap on Sun's Java sandals

Ian Michael Gumby
Boffin

@ Cs and @Bruce (smoking crack this early in the morning?)

I don't know where you've been but IBM is the other big vendor in the JCP. IBM has been a big proponent of Java and sells a lot of java related stuff via Rational and Websphere pillars.

IBM was very slow to catch on to Java. In 2002, IBM just released a type 4 jdbc driver. Informix has had type 4 jdbc drivers since the mid to late 90's. IBM's spin was that their type 3 driver was faster. (hogwash.)

With respect to Apple, they're based on Mach and Objective-C. Objective-C is extremely compelling when you consider that at the time, it was easier to teach Objective-C to C programmers than C++.

C# is a pure Microsoft garbage play. Nothing IBM will want to play with...

Also I don't know which admin software Bruce is talking about. John Miller III wrote a php based admin tool known as (OAT) that was initially conceived and written as a hack. (Literally) Informix has always been open to multiple languages. In fact they held a patent allowing multiple languages run within the engine. That is to say, they were the first to allow C / ESQL/C and Java end user scripting in the engine.

Informix's other 'admin' tools are written in C (ESQL/C) such as OnMonitor and DBAccess.

So I don't know what point you're trying to make...

Crunch will fuel outsourcing

Ian Michael Gumby
Alien

Outsourcing vs Offshoring..

Ok, yes Outsourcing *can* save money if done properly. Offshoring doesn't necessarily save you money and opens the door to a lot of potential risks.

The biggest problem is that those bean counters and CEOs who are making these decisions don't appreciate nor understand the difference and not until its too late do they realize their mistakes.

Dell for example offshored their tech support to India. Notice how they then split their business customers and product lines to US call centers and then the personal PCs were still handled by India? Gee I wonder why? I know I wasn't the only person asking to speak to an English speaking (American) supervisor, or sending me directly to L3 support.... ;-)

Outsourcing makes sense, but you have to evaluate it on a case by case level. Meaning it may make sense for company A, but for its competitor company B, it may not deliver any cost savings.

Offshoring has more problems than most think. Thanks to the BBC and El Reg, we've seen how Indian Staff could be bribed to provide customer's identity details. You won't know your identity was stolen until well after the fact and the individual who broke the law is in a different country and there are different laws and levels of enforcement. Bean counters don't grok the true risk nor do they care.

I think its time that people understand the potential, both good and bad, of outsourcing, sameshoring and offshoring.

An alien because I fail to see any intelligent life in the executive suite(s).

Street View nod prompts call for privacy watchdog reform

Ian Michael Gumby
Thumb Down

Simple solution...

If a community doesn't want google street views of their neighborhoods then they have a nice little legal option.

They can 'privatize' their streets and neighborhoods making it unlawful for google to run their street view vehicles around the neighborhoods. If google does this, then you can nail them for criminal tresspas or legally order them to remove the street view from that neighborhood.

In the US, you do have private drives and gated communities where google's vehicles can't legally enter. If you extend that to neighborhoods that are not gated, yet are clearly marked, then you should have the same legal barrier.

The laws are such that a person does not have the right to privacy in a public area. However, it becomes murky when a person is in a public area taking pictures of a private area.

Of course, one has to wonder how much Google will charge to have certain neighborhoods not shown via street views. This is sort of like having the phone company charge you to not list your phone number. Perhaps this is a future blackmailing revenue stream for Google when the internet ad market crumbles?

Thumbs down because its one thing to map out the major cities and store fronts. Its another to map out private drives where you don't expect visitors. (And yes I do live in the city and while I don't mind people seeing my building, I do appreciate and understand why those in residential communities would freak.)

-G

GPS, swipe cards to monitor Welsh school kids

Ian Michael Gumby

@Pete...

If you read the article, Sasha aka 'Ali G' had one US attorney and then his offshore help. Note that in order to practice law in a state, you have to pass the bar of said state. This is why you can't really offshore lawyers. Of course if you think things are bad in the US, try getting a contract written in India. ;-)

With respect to chipping the kids, while said in jest, think about what would happen if you had contactless readers all over the place....

I can see it now. foil lined clothing. As a new wave in fashion... ;-)

-G

Ian Michael Gumby
Coat

You guys are soo far behind the times...

Heck, we're talking about 'chipping' our kids. That's right, putting a little RFID tag just beneath the skin above the solar plexus.

We're not doing GPS yet because we haven't figured out how to power the thing without having to worry about the potential side effects down the road. (Here in the states we have more lawyers than we know what to do with. After all, you can't offshore a lawyer... yet... ;-)

Besides we have 20+ years experience chipping our pets so we know its safe.

IBM picks open-source in Oracle database fight

Ian Michael Gumby
Unhappy

@AC

Isn't this true of even MySQL? You have to have an engine like InnoDB which is owned by Oracle and its not Open Sourced.

What is interesting is that the story is all about DB2 and doesn't mention IBM's other engine, Informix's IDS.

I guess IBM isn't doing the "freebies' to an engine which is driving their 'double digit growth' unlike their DB2...

Sharp intros 'world's first optical sensor LCD pad' netbook

Ian Michael Gumby
Thumb Up

Interesting...

How large of a touch pad could they create?

King Larry launches Oracle-Sun combo at Big Blue, Cisco

Ian Michael Gumby
Alert

@ AC 20th April 2009 15:42 GMT

I would have to disagree.

MySQL doesn't scale and without a good engine underneath, its pretty much worthless. Of course Oracle owns InnoDB but were IBM to have purchased Sun, mySQL could have run on top of Informix's Standard Engine and ran fine. Then IBM's IM would have had to deal with performance issues...

As it sits, Oracle may have to divest itself from mySQL because of their dominance in the RDBMS field.

Sorry to say but the Reg got it pretty much right. Its all about Java and the JCP. Even if Oracle kept Sun as a wholly owned subsidiary and restructured their management, Sun would make money. Not letting IBM become the sole dominant force in the JCP is a big deal in the long run...