23430432
submission
theodp writes:
If Apple's looking for a seamless transition, advises the NYT's James B. Stewart, it definitely shouldn't look to Hewlett Packard. In the year after HP CEO Mark Hurd was told to hit-the-road-Jack, HP — led by new CEO Leo Apotheker — has embarked on a stunning shift in strategy that has left many baffled and resulted in HP's fall from Wall Street grace (its stock declined 49%). The apparent new focus on going head-to-head with SAP (Apotheker's former employer) and Oracle (Hurd's new employer) in enterprise software while ignoring the company's traditional strengths, said a software exec, is 'as if Alan Mulally left Boeing to join Ford as CEO, and announced six months later that Ford would be making airplanes.' Former HP Director Tom Perkins said, 'I didn't know there was such a thing as corporate suicide, but now we know that there is.' A year ago, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison fired off an e-mail to the NY Times calling buddy Hurd's ouster 'the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs.' Most dismissed Ellison's rant as hyperbole at the time, writes Stewart, but now many aren't so sure.
23424904
submission
tetrahedrassface writes:
According to the Wall Street Journal, Federal agents again raided guitar maker Gibson this past week seizing several pallets of wood and computer documents. At heart of the issue is the wood that is being used in guitars and whether or not it comes from sustainable sources. The company insists it is being harassed and made to 'cry uncle' to the governments enforcement laws. While, as the article notes, wonderful woods like Madagascar Ebony, Brazilian Rosewood and other fret and tone woods are protected in order to prevent the equivalent of 'blood diamond like trade' in sought after tone woods, the ramafications now extend to guitar sowners. Owners and players are next in sights of this enforcement. If you play a vintage guitar, or a hand built guitar made of old stock woods that were legally obtained years ago, but only recently crafted into an ax, you best not fly with it. John Thomas, a law professor at Quinnipiac University and a blues and ragtime guitarist, says "there's a lot of anxiety, and it's well justified." Once upon a time, he would have taken one of his vintage guitars on his travels. Now, "I don't go out of the country with a wooden guitar." That's right. Recent revisions to various laws and the Lacey Act mean if you carry your guitar across the border and don't have your paperwork and certification in hand, they will seize the guitar and fine you 250.00. So if your planning that dream vacation to France and want to play your acoustic in the air of France (or anywhere else) be forewarned. They are gunning for you.
23155450
submission
bonch writes:
Pundits have been analyzing the Motorola acquisition since its announcement, and Dan Lyons, formerly known as Fake Steve Jobs, says Google never cared for the Nortel patents and that they drove the bidding price up intentionally while negotiating to buy Motorola, an idea questioned by MG Siegler who believes buying Motorola for $12.5 billion--almost two years' worth of Google's annual profits--is an act of desperation. John Gruber notes that Motorola was threatening to wage a patent war against other Android partners during the time they would have been negotiating with Google and that Motorola likely forced them into an expensive buyout rather than a patent license agreement. Google may have also been motivated by the fact that Microsoft was pursuing a Motorola buyout.
22880228
submission
mikejuk writes:
The recent unsettling behavior at Microsoft concerning .NET makes it a good time to re-evaluate what the technology is all about. It may have been good technology but with the systems guys building Windows prefering to stick with C++ the outcome was inevitable. Because they failed to support its way of doing things .NET has always been a second class Windows citizen unable to make direct use of the Windows APIs — especially the latest. .NET started out as Microsoft's best challenge to Java but now you have to ask what has the excursion into managed code brought the Microsoft programmer and indeed what good has it done Microsoft? From where we are now it begins to look very much like an unnecessary forced detour and Windows programmers are going to be living with the mess for years to come.
