QlikTech: Next Gen Business Intelligence?

This seems to be a very interesting product.

Bush in 30 Seconds

Its amazing how many feelings you can create within just 30 seconds.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
--Mark Twain

The IT industry is shifting away from Microsoft

I'm not sure if this is really true, but this article has some good points:

- last quarter was the first in Microsoft history where earnings were flat

- Microsoft slashed price for MS SQL Developer Edition by 80% to compete with MySQL

- a discounted "Student & Teacher Version" of MS Office is now available - buyers do not have to prove they are students or teachers

- still, home users switch to OpenOffice/StarOffice. One of the reasons is Microsofts Product Activation.

- Licensing 6.0 was unsuccessful, far from 100% of Microsoft customers signed up. Microsoft added free training, home-use-licenses etc. to make it more appealing. But it still does not work. The Thai government now gets a 95% discount on Windows+Office list price: 36$. There are probably many other similar deals. What will this do to Microsofts profit in the medium/long term?

- "The fact is, if you are negotiating with Microsoft, and you pull out a SuSE or Redhat box, prices drop 25 per cent from the best deal you could negotiate. Pull out a detailed ROI study, and another 25 per cent drops off, miraculously. Want more? Tell Microsoft the pilot phase of the trials went exceedingly well, and the Java Desktop from Sun is looking really spectacular on the Gnome desktop custom built for your enterprise, while training costs are almost nil. It isn't hard to put the boot in to Microsoft again and again these days -- being a Microsoft rep must be a tough job. And whatever it does, people are still jumping ship."

- despite its announcements a year ago, Microsoft has not managed to make its products more secure: Blaster, DCOM/RPC etc. The fact remains that security has been getting worse every year since Windows 95 was released. One hell of a track record. The fact remains that Microsoft's entire infrastructure is based on fundamentally flawed designs, not buggy code. These designs can't be changed. To change them, Microsoft would have to dump all existing APIs and break compatibility with everything up till now. Microsoft and its customer are addicted to backwards compatibility in a way that makes a heroin addict look silly.

These are interesting point. However, how many home users are really shifting to Open/StarOffice? How many companies that had an expiring software assurance contract have not renewed under licensing 6.0?

If Microsofts profits start to erode significantly, this could mean they stop playing in fields where they make huge losses - like ERP, XBox, etc. It could also mean they are getting even more agressive especially in the ERP field, because this area has not yet been significantly impacted by open source software.

Gigapixel Images

Amazing what you can do with digital photography - this guy has created the first Gigapixel (40,784 x 26,800 pixels) image by stiching 196 images. See also his Gallery of High Resolution Digital Images.

Dave Winer about beauty in women

"I think people expressing themselves honestly is where beauty comes from. We all need love, to be heard, appreciated, admired, cared for, but so few of us accept that we're entitled to it. We see our imperfections and want to erase them. But when I see an imperfection, I see something real, and to me that's beautiful ... I don't love women for the attributes that the inflight magazines idealize, quite the opposite. I find the airbrushed, silicon-corrected bodies to be worse than ugly, they suck life out of all they come in contact with. Beauty is in the reality, in the expression of reality... Do what you enjoy, and what you can do, and then and only then will you be beautiful. The things you think are imperfect are the things that make you so pretty. Hey if you want to know where I'm coming from, go get a copy of Joe Cocker's You Are So Beautiful. In his crackly, squeaky imperfect way he speaks for every man who has ever loved a woman. Hey I know I'm a dork, but I love you. Now if we can all accept that about ourselves and each other, think of all the fun we can have. You are so beautiful to me. You are so beautiful to me. Can't you see? You're everything I hoped for. You're everything I need. You are so beautiful. To me."

Es kommt nicht auf den Kritiker an

“Es kommt nicht auf den Kritiker an. Nicht der Mann ist wichtig, der das Straucheln des Starken analysiert oder der dem Tatkraeftigen nachweist, wie er noch besser haette handeln koennen. Der Ruhm gebührt dem Mann in der Arena, dessen Gesicht von Staub und Schweiss und Blut gezeichnet ist, der tapfer ringt … der die Begeisterungsfaehigkeit kennt, die restlose Hingabe, der sein Leben einer grossen Sache widmet. Nur er kann ermessen, welcher Triumph ihn im besten Fall erwartet. Er weiss aber auch, dass er im Fall des Scheiterns wenigstens in Ehren scheitert und dass er nie in einem Atemzug mit jenen Teilnahmslosen und Kleinmütigen genannt werden wird, die niemals Sieg oder Niederlage gekostet haben.” Theodore Roosevelt

100 Rules for Project Managers

My JPMCCC 2003: 5,6km in 33:13 Minutes

25th hour

Great movie. Makes you think about your own life...