At the risk of fanning unwelcome flames, it's interesting how the "news" of Microsoft's 'Midori' futuristic operating system and putative successor to Windows, has spread over the last several days.
"We're going to zig while others zag," said the boss of one of the largest public relations companies in the UK to me just the other day. He meant that his plan was to acquire rival companies through the plateau/slowdown/downturn/recession, thereby taking advantage of distressed firms, and what market watchers call "negative sentiment" about the economy, in order to grow and use scale as a way to win more accounts.
The IT Value Stack
Some stories seem to have been around forever and reports of renewed interest in Yahoo by Microsoft feel like an ancient saga such as Beowulf, a series of Shakespeare interminable history plays, Jason's adventures with the Argonauts or, closer to home, almost as long as Bill Gates has spent edging off center stage.
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.
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?
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 percent of their time on crisis management in three years' time compared to 26 percent three years ago.
It was difficult not to detect shades of the PR handler when Paul Collingwood faced his interrogators Wednesday evening, following the shameful episode of The Run-Out That Wasn't.
Jeffrey Bernard's Low Life column in The Spectator magazine chronicled his drinking, gambling and womanizing ways through the 1970s to the 1990s and was once dubbed "a suicide note written in weekly instalments". Having watched the sorry saga of Yahoo's attempts to avoid being acquired by Microsoft, I'm confident that the phrase could be equally well applied.
Is it just me or has Bill Gates been leaving Microsoft for rather a long time? In 11 days, Dollar Bill officially steps down from his full-time role of chief software architect at the company he founded, but, despite suggestions that this marks the end of an era, it's hard to see him ever going away.
A new website, Glassdoor.com, offers insights into employers, what they're paying and what staff members think of the boss. If, like me, that's too attractive a combination of voyeurism and cash envy to ignore clicking on, have a look and read on.
Derek Gannon has a state-of-the-art Apple MacBook Air on his desk when we meet at Guardian News & Media's London offices on the busy Farringdon Road. "I like to play with new things," Gannon says, while agreeing that, like the newspaper group that employs him as chief operating officer, Apple has a brand seen as fashionable, liberal and, some would say, design-led.
A local power failure has left Dr Richard Sykes temporarily without electricity at his home in Islington, London. He is also being photographed to illustrate this article but the double delay in being able to talk to him affords a little time for admiring his collection of modern art and perusing his bookshelves, groaning under the weight of volumes that testify to the interests that have underpinned his career.
Although some would trace back the roots of software as a service to mainframe timesharing, what we would now call SaaS, or on-demand computing, is really experiencing its second coming.
Outside IBM's large, grey, Stalinist complex on London's South Bank, the squally March weather is blowing umbrellas inside out, and sending discarded newspapers, food wrappers, and other detritus to the four winds. Tourists scurry into the nearby National Theatre, Hayward Gallery and other attractions, sprinting to escape the latest caprices of nature.