Palmisano, Personally

insights into Palmisano's leadership style PartnerWorld Newscenter

Long Island: Land of Contrasts

It's been a good news/bad news week here on Long Island. Last night, Sarah Hughes (who lives here, just a few miles away from our offices) pulled off a stunning win in Olympic skating. On the other hand, technology giant Computer Associates, after first denying it, acknowledged that the company has become the latest to be investigated for accounting irregularities, leading to a precipitous drop in the value of CA stock.

XChange Site Upgrades

Our redesigned site for the XChange Conferences went live this week. This year's four events bring together hundreds of solution providers with channel-committed technology vendors, and top editors from CRN and VARBusiness. The first event, Solution Provider XChange, next month in New Orleans, will include looks at CRN's Channel Champions, and VARBusiness' State of the Market, a wireless product face-off hosted by the CRN Test Center, radio broadcasts from our own Jeff O'Heir, an opening session hosted by our big boss, Robert Faletra, a solutions pavillion, and a few rocking parties. Check out the XChange site for more of the XChange agenda, past event photos and video, and more.

Best Boards

Another busy week in ChannelWeb Talk Backs. Check out threads on Be vs. Microsoft, Microsoft's security problems, and Compaq vs. counterfeiters.

Losing Touch With Reality

This week we say farewell to our friends at Reality Research, our next-door neighbors, office-wise, and cohorts in CMP Media's Technology Solutions Group. Reality Research is joining forces with RoperASW, the American research arm of our parent company, United Business Media, and moving into New York city. We wish them well.

And Of Course, HP/Compaq

Proxy forms are flooding out to Hewlett-Packard and Compaq shareholders. For a somewhat disturbing look at how both sides see the future of direct vs. indirect sales, see T.C. Doyle's column.