ShadowRAM: August 30, 2004

"We'll be our own early adopter," Kapor wrote in his Web log. "Call it eating our own dog food or whatever you like, the idea is taking hold." The open-source PIM will have a usable calendar ready by the end of October. Naturally, when Kapor and crew came up with a working name for the forthcoming release, they went with "Kibble."

The importance of checking out cultural implications of names can't be understated. One exec who recently visited ShadowRAM headquarters admitted the name of his company wasn't his first choice. But his preferred moniker turned out to be the same as the name of the leading adult toy in Ireland, so he opted for the current one.

New Gateway channel chief Tiffani Bova has a colorful past. Not only was she a collegiate volleyball player at a Pac 10 university, but she had a brief career in prime time TV: While growing up in Hawaii, she had a bit part as a volleyball player opposite Tom Selleck on "Magnum P.I."

We hear the new Hewlett-Packard Americas channel boss will likely come from within the ranks of HP. Word has it that an outsider would take too long to get up to speed. Our only question is why did HP instantly replace Peter Blackmore and Jim Milton when they were shown the door, but a permanent replacement for Kevin Gilroy has yet to be named more than a month after he moved to his worldwide SMB post?

Paul Otellini, Intel's president and odds-on-favorite as heir to CEO Craig Barrett, is on sabbatical through next week, when he's scheduled to deliver a keynote at the company's twice-annual Intel Developer Forum. Given that Intel announced three major product delays and a top-to-bottom review of its road map just before Otellini's time off, it probably wasn't the most restful respite. Early word, though, is that Intel is confident it will have many of its problems figured out"if not fixed"by the time IDF starts.

Even the governor of Wisconsin is taking note of recent consolidation within the IBM Business Partner community. After Berbee Information Networks, Madison, Wis., acquired Foresight Technology Group, Cleveland, a few weeks back, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle remarked: "I view this as great news for the state of Wisconsin. As other high-tech companies consider investing in Wisconsin, we can point to Berbee as an example of a home-grown technology company that thrives here for many reasons, including our outstanding education system." It must be election year.