ShadowRAM: August 11, 2008

Silverlight is Microsoft's attempt to trump Adobe's Flash technology by offering better-looking, more advanced display and interactive functionality, as well as superior tooling support. When the games kicked off Aug. 8, the Silverlight-powered NBCOlympics.com Web site on MSN went live with event coverage and features that go beyond the typical Web video experience, such as multiple camera angles, rewind and picture-in-picture, according to Eric Schmidt, director of media and advertising evangelism at Microsoft.

While these types of features can be difficult to pull off in low-bandwidth situations, with the current version, Microsoft added an adaptive video streaming technology that automatically chooses the optimal bit-rate and encoding based on available bandwidth, Schmidt said. "We have the ability to serve video to lots of different PC and Mac environments that otherwise would not get the greatest experience with traditional live streaming," he said.

Microsoft and NBC chose Limelight Networks as the lead content delivery network to deliver more than 2,200 hours of Olympics games footage, including 20 simultaneous live video streams at peak times.

Dave Meeker, user experience strategy lead at Round Arch, a Web development firm that works with Microsoft and Adobe, says a strong performance during the Olympics could catapult Silverlight into a genuinely competitive position with Flash. "Silverlight lacks the ubiquity that developers need to push our software out there, but having multiple cameras all streaming into a single player is something we haven't yet been able to achieve in online video," Meeker said.

But while Silverlight is hitting the world stage, it's not a big hit with Major League Baseball fans. In the past few months, several subscribers to MLB.com's streaming video service have encountered problems with choppy video performance when using Silverlight.

VARs Star In E.R.
• Nearly two dozen VARs got a behind-the-scenes look at how a hospital operates in order to help them better service their own health-care customers. Avnet Technology Solutions Inc. organized the five-day session with Scottsdale Healthcare, an Arizona facility.

Rick Chorazyczewski, an account executive with Logicalis, said the experience was unlike any other training exercise. "After seeing the differences in how technicians in radiology and staff members in admitting use technology, I understand the health-care industry much more than I had from just reading or hearing about it. I feel like I've lived it for a week," he said. "This experience will be a tremendous asset as I discuss technology solutions with health-care providers, and it puts me on the path to becoming a trusted adviser."

The VARs spent about half their time in classrooms getting briefed on the challenges of numerous hospital departments.

"It sounds clich, but I found it to be a life-changing event. To spend an entire week in a hospital, seeing every line of business and what they go through for patient care, as well as the back-end issues like patient records, patient billing and dealing with payers, it was great," said Greg Paetow, director of Mid-Atlantic business development for Melillo Consulting, Somerset, N.J.

SEEN AND HEARD
• A lot of words have been bandied about when trying to define the term "cloud computing," but few real definitions have stuck. Dell is looking to change that by giving the term an official, trademarked meaning through the United States Patent Office. Dell's trademark application for the term was originally submitted in March 2007 and has entered the Notice of Allowance phase, making it likely that Dell will be granted the trademark.

But that doesn't mean it will be easy for Dell to keep, said Keith Toms, an attorney with Bromberg and Sunstein LLP, Boston. The phrase "cloud computing" was filed by Dell and was not opposed as published on April 15, 2008.

"Dell pretty much has this through the USPTO," Toms said. "Whether or not they can defend it remains to be seen—and I'm skeptical about that. But the bottom line is: Dell will probably get this trademark."

Luckily for Sun or IBM or HP, though, it doesn't mean coughing up a nickel every time they use the phrase.