Google's Stunning 'Street View'You have to see it yourself. This week Google launched 'Street Views' of at least five major cities (and surrounding areas) in the US. Click on a point on a Google Map, and--where available--up pops a 360 degree panorama image from that point. Here's New York's Penn Station, for instance, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But it's not only landmarks--their Manhattan coverage looks pretty near complete, and continues out past my town out on Long Island. And knowing Google, it'll soon be everywhere, and with improved quality. Think about the implications for business and personal life. At VARBusiness, we've been carefully evaluating the revenue reports of solution providers in preparation for June's VARBusiness 500. A quick look at company's headquarters location might reveal whether a report of $50 million in revenue is plausible. Real estate shoppers, job hunters, virtual tourists, and many more will flock to this application. What does your front door say about you? How can your business take advantage of this opportunity? And if you thought Google is keeping too close an eye on you before, this won't make you feel better. Thousands of people are clearly visible in the photos--one woman has noticed that her cat is visible. The blogs are burning up over Street Views and it's implications. Try it yourself and let me know what you find. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:34 AM, May 31, 2007 Vista Security UnderwhelmsThe CRN Test Center buries the idea that Windows Vista is much more secure than Windows XP: "In the end, both the Vista and the XP test notebooks were almost equally damaged by viruses, trojans and other malware. And because most of the Web sites [used in our] test were able to exploit Vista's weaknesses, Internet users are just about equally vulnerable with both OSes." As I've noted here and here, improved security could have been the driver of much Vista adotion. But as we've seen here and here, people just don't feel the urge to upgrade. So when will people move to Vista? When they buy a new computer that already has it installed. Get comfortable seeing XP in your organizations for a long time... Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:33 AM, May 30, 2007 Can Google Survive Its Staff?Google has assembled one of the most talented teams of engineers ever put together, given them the time and resources to pursue their ideas, taught them entrepreneurship, and made them wealthy. What happens next? Over at PBS.org, Robert Cringely has a fascinating post on how Google is sowing the seeds of its own destruction. "With hundreds -- and soon thousands -- of Google employees vested and solvent, we'll shortly see a dribble, then a river, then a flood of former Google employees with time, money, and experience, and some of them will have the drive to realize the dreams of those thousands of ideas that were rejected by their former company." Among the post's comments, readers raise a number of objections to Cringely's scenario, including intellectual property issues, and Google's ability to buy any successful companies that former employees launch. But whether it benefits them directly or not, Google is clearly incubating the next generation of technology start-ups. Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:44 AM, May 29, 2007 A Gamer That's More Than GameFew projects fire up a system builder more than constructing a high-end gaming PC. Our latest TechBuilder recipe assembles a quad core CPU, high end motherboard, power supply, video card, memory and other extras to construct a gamer that delivers maximum performance on a generous $5,000 budget. As a plus, the recipe includes a series of steps to take to either boost performance even higher, or else to cut costs, and still have a serious multimedia PC. Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:30 AM, May 29, 2007 Memorial Day Linkfest 2007I've got a look at top VAR technologies, Second Life and math software, Al Gore's office, and more, in today's Memorial Day weekend Linkfest: Continue reading "Memorial Day Linkfest 2007" Posted by Joe Caponi at 04:09 PM, May 25, 2007 Microsoft and Linux: Don't Bet On The End of the WorldCould Microsoft sue Linux companies, even Linux customers, for copyright infringement? They just might, according to senior Microsoft executives interviewed in Fortune last week: "Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith and licensing chief Horacio Gutierrez sat down with Fortune recently to map out their strategy for getting FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) users to pay royalties. Revealing the precise figure for the first time, they state that FOSS infringes on no fewer than 235 Microsoft patents." Continue reading "Microsoft and Linux: Don't Bet On The End of the World" Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:58 AM, May 24, 2007 Staffing and HR ReportI'd wager there are few issues that solution providers would rather deal with less than recruitment, retention and human resource ones, though few will be more critical to keeping your business on track. VARBusiness' new Human Resources Special Report can help. With features on hiring the right people, avoiding HR disasters, the role of new HR software solutions, and more, it'll help take the sting out of the 'people side' of the business. Posted by Joe Caponi at 01:36 PM, May 23, 2007 903 E-MailsThat's the project for this morning, now that I'm back from a terrific week's vacation. Thanks to Gayle Kesten for filling in at Hot Topics! Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:26 AM, May 21, 2007 Big Blue Boo-BooWhich is worse -- a security breach like the one retailer TJX or the VA fell victim to, or this Big Blue Boo-Boo: losing data storage tapes containing the personal info on who knows how many retired employees. Yup, someone at IBM has some 'splaining to do. Separately (and before I forget), VARBusiness editor Larry Walsh's first town hall meeting in Second Life went really well! Poor guy was all-a-jittery before he took the virtual stage, but luckily the technology has not advanced to the point where attendees could see him sweat (in 3D, no less...yuck). Anyway, before you find out how gross I can really be, here's how it went. Posted by Gayle Kesten at 11:26 AM, May 17, 2007 Dell Sees the Channel LightCall it our scoop du jour: Huge kudos to CRN's Ed Moltzen, who caught up with Michael Dell for an exclusive interview that reveals his company's plan to embrace the channel in what's nothing less than a major strategy shift: "We're going to work on a number of different program elements and reach out to these partners because, actually, this part of our business has been growing faster than the overall category," Dell told Ed. "We take that as a positive affirmation that there is a great interest here. We're going to ramp it up quickly." BTW, Dell's just the latest hard-to-get, big-name exec we've scored. In recent weeks, VARBusiness also spoke to IBM CEO Sam Palmisano and Microsoft channel chief Allison Watson. Posted by Gayle Kesten at 10:40 AM, May 16, 2007 Hackers For HireOrganized hacker groups are nothing new. What *is* new, however, is how methodical they've become -- bypassing the easy targets in favor of systems that have the highest ROI. "What makes these new groups dangerous is their ability to tap the same or better IT talent than vendors, solution providers or end users can recruit," Websense CEO Gene Hodges told VARBusiness editor Larry Walsh (a security boy at heart). Hodges suggestion for defense? Develop fringe groups that beat the bad guys at their own game. On a related note (because I'm about to point to a second story about hacking by another guy named Larry), TippingPoint is feeling the heat for its latest, controversial hacking contest; the winner went home with 10 grand: "As a rule, security vendors tend not to involve themselves in these types of contests because they fear it will feed the conspiracy theorists' speculation of vendors capitalizing on their own vulnerabilities," says ChannelWeb editor Larry Hooper. What do you think? At the very least, has reality TV covered any of this yet? The possibilities are huge. Posted by Gayle Kesten at 04:11 PM, May 15, 2007 VARBusiness 500 Event: Be There Or...Thanks for the kind words, Joe. Hi, all -- like me, I'm going to keep this short and sweet, with a few shameless plugs for my buds at VARBusiness. First on the list: I cordially invite you to attend the VARBusiness 500 Conference and Awards event, to be held June 11-12 at the Marriott Marquis in NYC (you can walk from Penn if you're feeling ambitious). Stephen J. Dubner, author of "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything," has been tapped to headline dinner for the second night, which is when VARBusiness honors the cream of the crop from its 500 ranking of North American solution providers. Click here for more details and to register to attend. Also, in the category Hey, That's Cool!, VARBusiness editor Larry Walsh is holding his first virtual meeting in Second Life tomorrow, May 15. Here's his plan, plus how you can participate. Posted by Gayle Kesten at 03:12 PM, May 14, 2007 Bill And Dave and GayleI'm away for a week, off to Orlando for some family fun, but I'm pleased to report that Hot Topics will be in the good hands of guest blogger Gayle Kesten. Online managing editor of VARBusiness, editor of the VARBusiness Insider newsletter, channel and web publishing veteran, she'll bring her good sense and good humor to your guide to the best of the ChannelWeb network. Posted by Joe Caponi at 06:46 PM, May 12, 2007 A Scorecard For Building The Rich WebNew web development platforms have been sprouting up like flowers the last few weeks, as developers race to trump each other and keep up with rising user expectations. AJAX applications (such as Google Maps) have raised the bar by behaving more like traditional desktop apps, with robust interfaces and quick, seamless screen refreshes. To aid in building these applications, vendors are releasing new development suites that marry full-fledged programming environments with a focus on easing web development and deployment. Among the latest moves: Continue reading "A Scorecard For Building The Rich Web" Posted by Joe Caponi at 04:49 PM, May 11, 2007 So, What Is Your Job?Adaptive Path (an interface design consultancy) struggles with the issue of explaining what it is they actually do. It's a topic familiar to VARs, and one I've discussed before. But they've come to realize that difficulty is a strength, not a weakness: "Most organizations are stuck in classic mid-19th to 20th century thinking, borne of a manufacturing economy, where optimization arose when people were as interchangeable as the parts of the machines they built. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:22 AM, May 10, 2007 Tuesday. Second Life. Be ThereLooking for a reason to dip your toe in Second Life? Next Tuesday, VARBusiness editor Lawrence Walsh goes virtual, hosting a Channel 2.0 town hall in Cisco's Virtual Campus' Bandwidth Amphitheater, in Second Life. He knows you're sceptical, (Shadowram certainly is) but Larry's confident: "Vendors leading the charge into Second Life say this is very different from the conventional conference call, Web site or Webex meeting. Participants can interact with the presentation and each other in real time. It's not uncommon for people attending Second Life events to spin off into a private meeting to discuss mutual challenges, exchange ideas and forge partnerships." Meanwhile, Jill Aitoro reports that Second Life might just be the place to track down your next government contract, as well: "The opportunity to get in front of government customers in Second Life is huge, and programs like Safecom that require collaboration will be more apt to accept pitches in the virtual world than via telephone, e-mail or in-person meetings. It's a safe harbor, in a sense, for solution providers to approach government with ideas without necessarily having an initial in, or struggling through the red tape to get a formal bid submitted." Posted by Joe Caponi at 12:15 PM, May 9, 2007 Life At MicrosoftBarbara Darrow weighs in on a former insider's report on the rough culture at Microsoft: "Many Microsoft partners and even insiders concede that the arrogance—-and the BillG wannabe population explosion in the rank-and-file got out of control. This hurt the company itself and annoyed/outraged its "ecosystem" partners. Almost every partner has his or her own outrageous Microsoft product or project manager story with wince-inducing detail." Does tight competition from the likes of Google make this better or worse? Posted by Joe Caponi at 12:51 PM, May 8, 2007 Channel Champions 2007In Channel Champions 2007, CRN asked more than 2,000 of its readers to select their top vendors in 27 different product categories. Each vendor was rated on the tecnical quality of their products, the strength of their partner programs, and, new this year, on their capacity to generate financial opportunities for VARs. With 54 vendors in total participating, some of the highlights included: HP took top honors in desktop PCs and notebooks; Microsoft beat out Oracle in databases and Red Hat in network operating systems; Viewsonic edged out the pack in a tight displays category; and IBM won in the data backup category. UPDATE: Steven Burke surveys the results and declares it a rout for HP over IBM and Dell: "What HP Chairman and CEO Mark Hurd has done in a relatively short period of time is cleaned up a lot of conflicting sales motions, instituted some no-nonsense compensation metrics and driven a new level of channel excellence... To put it simply: HP's gain is IBM's pain." Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:07 AM, May 7, 2007 Go Wide With Wireless NetsDavid Markowitz builds a wireless network featuring dual access points in our newest TechBuilder recipe. By doing so, he greatly expands the range available for the network wireless users. Along the way, he covers issues such as network planning, selecting hardware, and enabling the system's security features. "The exact method you use [to secure the network against unauthorized users] will depend in large part on which mechanisms your client supports, especially when it comes to encryption. For example, while WEP is supported by virtually all wireless clients, it's not too strong. WPA offers much stronger encryption, though it may not be supported by your clients." Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:29 AM, May 7, 2007 Speaking of Web Fads: TwitterCombine blogging and IM and shake vigorously. Twitter puts you in the middle of a global stream of consciousness in which you can share your every thought, feeling and action, with everyone, right now. According to Stacy Cowley, it was all the rage at Microsot's Mix07 event: "Twitter offered real-time feedback on Mix07 -- a community groundswell Microsoft encouraged by featuring the running commentary on screensavers on all of its conference computers, using Flittrbook, a stylish application cooked up by one of its engineers. Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:37 AM, May 3, 2007 Second Life: It's Nice To Visit...No successful technology company would operate today without investing serious resources into its internet presence. Will that be soon be true of Second Life, the 'virtual world' featured in both CRN and VARBusiness coverage this week? Continue reading "Second Life: It's Nice To Visit..." Posted by Joe Caponi at 03:29 PM, May 2, 2007 |
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