Memo to kid coders: Enterprise software exists
If you live or spend time in Silicon Valley, it's easy to forget that enterprise software exists, or that it still drives $245 billion in annual revenue, according to Gartner.
Google, Facebook, and a rising generation of consumer-facing startups get the media buzz, to the point that young developers have neither an interest in enterprise software nor an appreciation for the challenges it has long sought to solve – but could this be a good thing?
This generational shift hit home while having lunch with my 20-something developer colleagues this week. I mentioned BEA Systems and got blank looks all around. I persisted, "You know, the app server company???" Vacant expressions. "Java?!? You've heard of that, right!?"
"Is it like JavaScript?" Read more...
Is Office 2010 in for a significant price decline?
Stock market prognosticating company Trefis specializes in predicting stock prices by analyzing a company's major components and calculating how much of the company's stock price is attributable to each piece. Their recent take on Microsoft Office -- the tail that waves the Microsoft stock price dog -- has caught the attention of Forbes Magazine, among others.
The Trefis analysis of Microsoft attributes 28.6 percent of Microsoft stock price to Office, 25.1 percent to Windows, 13.5 percent to Server, 7.9 percent to Xbox, 4.3 percent to Bing, 1.6 percent to Skype, and 19 percent to cash. Read more...
10 years after 9/11, cyberattacks pose national threat, committee says
Ten years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the nation faces a critical threat to its security from cyberattacks, a new report by a bipartisan think tank warns.
The report, released last week by the Bipartisan Policy Center's National Security Preparedness Group (NSPG), offers a broad assessment of the progress that the public sector has made in implementing the security recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. The comments about cybersecurity are part of broader discussion on nine security recommendations that have yet to be implemented.
The report, the foreword to which is signed by Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic representative from Indiana, and Thomas Kean, former governor of New Jersey, notes that catastrophic cyberattacks against U.S. critical infrastructure targets are not a mere theoretical threat. Read more...
Sorry, tablets, laptops still dominate the enterprise
Bruce Smith is feeling some tablet pressure. As director of computing services for Cummins Inc., Smith helps the company's 40,000 employees get the right computers for their jobs.
For a majority of those employees, it's a desktop PC. For mobile professionals, it's a laptop. Select employees, such as engineers, get both a laptop and a workstation capable of high-capacity computing.
Now there's a new possibility on the horizon. Smith says lately he's been getting more and more requests from workers throughout the organization, from executives to HR, to deviate from the standard selection and bring tablets into the mix at the Columbus, Ind.-based company, which designs, manufactures, distributes and services engines and related technologies.
So far he has said no. Read more...
Fresh iPhone Apps for Sep. 7: Floop, Google+ Photo Importer, Food Chain, Tapsteroids
Get your social network on with today’s Fresh iPhone Apps. Up first is Floop, an app that’s all about voting on various topics, and seeing what other users think of the same questions. Next up is Google Plus Photo Importer, which integrates with your other social networks, like Instagram, Facebook and Flickr, to quickly import photos to your Google+ account through the cloud. Over in games, Food Chain provides a multiplayer Tetris-like experience, and Tapsteroids will have you tapping away furiously at your iPhone screen in order to destroy as many asteroids as you can, as quickly as you can.
Floop (iPhone, iPad) Free
Floop is a social polling app that lets users answer simple questions and find out what others think of different subjects. Tap one of Floop’s questions and you can vote on the answer, with questions such as “Will Apple launched the iPhone 5 this year?” or “Are you afraid of flying?” After casting your vote, you can check out the stats that show what other users think, and how their opinions compare to your own. Read more...
Yahoo Fires CEO Carol Bartz, Silicon Valley Rejoices
Carol Bartz was fired from her job as Yahoo's CEO with a phone call from the company's chairman early Tuesday evening. The executive, who was not known for being widely liked by her colleagues during her tenure, then took the liberty of telling the entire company with an email sent from on the go. "I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo's Chairman of the Board," she wrote. "It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward." Her coda as Yahoo CEO: "Sent from my iPad."
Based on her dismal approval rating, however, the vast majority of her staffers probably wouldn't echo that sentiment. Carol Bartz got off to a good start at Yahoo, but she left to a chorus of jeers. "Ding dong the witch is dead," read a report on Yahoo's stock price jumping six percent in after hours trading, following the news. Not even Yahoo's official press release sounded kind; it said that Bartz "has been removed by the Board." Read more...
Report: T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom quietly taking iPhone 5 preorders
Even more information suggesting that T-Mobile will end up supporting the iPhone come October is circulating the Internet, following a report that the cellular carrier’s parent company is offering preorders.
According to a story from 9to5Mac, a German language website, Focus.de, is reporting that T-Mobile in that country has been accepting preorders for the iPhone 5 since this morning. Apparently, the company has been issuing something called a “Premieren Ticket” to users: “These are basically support tickets – one per customer – for early adopters and informed buyers who couldn’t be otherwise convinced into buying the existing iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS,” 9to5Mac writes. Read more...
Russian Minister: YouTube and Google Should Be Shut Down For Copyright Infringement
Recently leaked confidential diplomatic cable has revealed that not only is the United States government unhappy with the level of intellectual property rights enforcement carried out by Russia, but also that the reverse is true. Russia’s Deputy Minister of Economic Development said that not only do U.S. sites continue to offer pirated Russian movies, but that YouTube and Google should be shut down for not respecting local laws.
When it comes to the protection of intellectual property, it’s well known that the United States is almost continually unhappy with just about every other country’s regimes. A huge amount of lobbying is carried out on a continual basis by government and the private sector in the hope that one day everyone will adopt US-like approaches to rights enforcement. Read more...
Database Of U.S. Internet Pirates Will Be Decentralized
Starting in a few months, millions of online ‘pirates’ will be monitored as part of an agreement between the MPAA, RIAA and all major U.S. Internet providers. Alleged infringers will be notified about their misbehavior, and repeat offenders will eventually be punished. Thus far the details on the operation have been very slim, but TorrentFreak has learned that unlike in France, the U.S. database of Internet pirates will be decentralized.
In June the MPAA and RIAA announced a ‘ground-breaking’ deal with all the major Internet providers in the United States. In an attempt to deter online piracy, a third-party company will monitor BitTorrent and other public file-sharing networks and collect the IP-addresses of alleged infringers. Read more...