ShadowRAM: January 22, 2007

Benioff Going Green

The company's Salesforce.com Foundation "will work to neutralize the effect of [its] greenhouse gas emissions from its major areas of carbon consumption, its office locations, corporate travel and data centers."

The news was announced with much pomp and verbiage at a San Francisco press event last week presided over by the always-loquacious Marc Benioff, company CEO and chairman, and general quote man-about-town (Marc is known for his way with a snappy quote about nearly anything).

The company is investing in a set of renewable energy products. It will help build and maintain the Rosebud Sioux St. Francis wind farm in North Dakota, another wind farm in Alaska. Personal favorite? A "family dairy farm methane energy project" where, presumably, the cow-created methane is recovered and put to good—rather than evil—use.

The whole idea prompted one jaded Salesforce.com watcher to rejoin: "Surely Benioff himself is one of their biggest areas of gas emissions."

Seen And Heard
Big Blue treats treats IBM Fellows like pashas, and a defection from their ranks is rare. So when top software architect, Don Ferguson, left for Microsoft, eyebrows rose. Ferguson, now Microsoft's "technical fellow in platforms and strategy," isn't talking about his new gig—not surprising, given his taciturn nature. "I do not like blogging," Ferguson blogged last year. "I don't like talking. My nickname in college was 'Silent Don.' I am from rural New England. This blog used all my words for the next three days."

IBM reportedly responded by whacking his blog from developerWorks. It resurfaced after yelping from the blogosphere about IBM's attempted airbrushing-out evidence of deserters. Armonk repented and promised to sin no more: New policy calls for alumni blogs to remain accessible.

So word is starting to sink in—in fly-over country and also in such hippy-chic communities as Burlington, Vt., that Cingular service there sucks. That means that iPhone adoption in such venues is not gonna take off no matter how slick the device. Not even pothead Vermonters will fork over $600 for a touch-screen-enabled paperweight.

Speaking of which: How can Cingular make its "fewer dropped calls" claim with a straight face?

Calling In The Feds
"We're under investigation by the SEC. We can't file financial reports, and nobody's buying our stuff. Dammit, people! Get me Jack Bauer!"

Yes, it's true: Dell has joined Cisco in the product-placement ranks on Fox Network's "24," with several scenes in the season opener showing Dell LCDs prominently inside CTU's Los Angeles bunker. Of course, all the phones are still hooked into Cisco gear. But as good as all the equipment may be, none of it helped Jack Bauer or the feds halt a fictional suitcase nuke from detonating in downtown L.A.

Don't worry, there are still 19 hours remaining for Jack Bauer to save the world. And maybe Dell's first half '07 sales.

Rumors have it that Dell wants to get into the game biz in a big way. Too bad that PC thang isn't working out for it.