Computerworld UK "Tech_sceptic"

Yahoo's Yang finally walks

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:16:00 GMT

The news that Yahoo founder Jerry Yang is to step down from his chief executive role comes too late for the company’s investors or for those who thought that a Microsoft-Yahoo combination offered the best prospect of avoiding a Google lock-in.

Obama CTO role could be poisoned chalice

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:16:00 GMT

It’s hardly surprising that Google CEO Eric Schmidt isn’t interested in becoming Barack Obama’s technology czar. The role of helping government by shedding light on the broad issue of what to do with information technology has always been a stinker of a job and there’s no reason why the the new American regime should change matters.

NetSuite tries to cash in on SAP user row

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:44:00 GMT

With characteristic chutzpah, NetSuite is hoping to capitalise on disenchantment in the SAP community with a competitive discount offer that promises to halve the cost of current R/3 annual maintenance and support agreements for companies moving to its hosted business applications.

Microsoft edges closer to a supercomputer under your desk

martin_veitch@idg.co.uk — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:04:00 GMT

Microsoft today announced that the latest version of its Windows HPC supercomputing stack has been sent to manufacturing as the software giant continues to advance on a broad front at the very high end of computing capabilities.

Banking chaos likely to feed BI, governance tools

martin_veitch@idg.co.uk — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:04:00 GMT

It’s not quite 1929 and Wall Street isn’t yet filled with brokers leaping from windows but, from Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers to HBOS and Northern Rock via Merrill Lynch, these are black days for the erstwhile Masters of the Universe. Technology will undoubtedly get a share of the blame: what happened to all those theories of how you made your difference through business at the speed of thought , by taking out manual inputs and automating around pre-defined rules? Well, rubbish in, rubbish out – and it has always been thus.

United Airlines shows perils of web news

martin_veitch@idg.co.uk — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:34:00 GMT

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is to investigate whether there was any impropriety in the posting of a six-year-old news story relating to United Airlines’ bankruptcy filing. United stock fell sharply on Monday as watchers reacted to what they thought was “new news”.

LSE et al prove computing now utility-like

martin_veitch@idg.co.uk — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:47:00 GMT

Yesterday was not a good day for those that would seek to show that computing is now just another commoditised, reliable utility.

Telegraph CIO on swapping Google in for Microsoft

martin_veitch@idg.co.uk — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:07:00 GMT

Might the news that the Telegraph Media Group (TMG) is moving to Google Apps and phasing out Microsoft Office and Exchange be in future remembered as the end of the Microsoft desktop arm-lock? Nah, probably not, but the stakes are so high that it’s worth a little speculation.

Broadband Britain: Are we there yet?

martin_veitch@idg.co.uk — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:05:00 GMT

Long before his current incarnation as antigallican Eurocrat – in the days even before the version of him that allegedly whispered about Gordon Brown, or trouble filling in mortgage applications Peter Mandelson coined, or at least helped popularise the term ‘Broadband Britain’.

Outsourcing's win-win formula for success

martin_veitch@idg.co.uk — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:04:00 GMT

The news that Computer Science Corporation has received a $391m order from the US Department of Homeland Security is a reminder of outsourcing’s ability to remain buoyant even amid storms. The deal will have CSC running datacentre projects including virtualisation and consolidation tasks. Nice work if you can get it, to paraphrase George Gershwin, and, if you’re an outsourcer at least, you can get it every time you try.

Maritz to bring MS nous to VMware

martin_veitch@idg.co.uk — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:01:00 GMT

Avram Grant was ousted at Chelsea after taking the club to within an ace of the Premiership and Champions League so perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised to hear that VMware is parting company with its CEO despite having become the most successful business technology startup of the last 10 years.

Kill the fatted calf

martin_veitch@idg.co.uk — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:00:00 GMT

In the late 1990s, Burlington Coat Factory became famous in IT circles for being the beacon of commercial Linux volume deployments – the early adopter that became the case study for other businesses tempted by open source software but afraid of being the first to openly commit. It’s tempting to imagine that German newspaper giant Axel Springer group could do something similar for Apple.

Don't believe the Windows 7 hype

martin_veitch@idg.co.uk — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:57:00 GMT

That the PR hordes at Microsoft would begin the jungle drumbeat for the next version of Windows within an ace of the launch of Vista was, of course, to be expected. The company’s default position whenever challenged about its latest products has always been to pique the appetite for the next version through calculated leaks, the drawing up of roadmaps, the tossing around of code names and the issuing of possible feature details. This predictable tactic is rearing its head again with a steady stream of stories appearing in the media: Google News today lists 862. The question is: why do we play along?

Fear, loathing and semantic search

martin_veitch@idg.co.uk — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:53:00 GMT

A report today on the excellent VentureBeat website suggests that Microsoft is poised to buy Powerset , a Silicon Valley startup.

Paul Collingwood, Paul Coby and the art of the mea culpa

martin_veitch@idg.co.uk — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:52:00 GMT

It was difficult not to detect shades of the PR handler when Paul Collingwood faced his interrogators yesterday evening, following the shameful episode of The Run-Out That Wasn’t.

Is the fire-fighting IT chief becoming extinct

martin_veitch@idg.co.uk — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:50:00 GMT

At least some CIOs are optimistic that their fire-fighting days are going to be reduced. A survey by Coleman-Parkes Research, conducted on behalf of Avanade, found that IT bosses expect to spend 14 per cent of their time on crisis management in three years’ time compared to 26 per cent three years ago.

Symbian: (Lack of) business as usual

martin_veitch@idg.co.uk — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:49:00 GMT

A Symbian manager wasn't overly impressed when I suggested several years ago that the smartphone OS company was becoming Nokia's toy. As I recall from a press conference at the time, he called the idea irresponsible journalism. Now, a bit like Father Ted when he was voted Priest Of The Year, I feel somewhat vindicated - nay, self-righteous and fist pumping -- after the news broke that Nokia has acquired most of the company.