Internet Tubes

{sigh}

May 29, 2012 9:17:12 PM

Porting all new app development to Node.js?

This is a great blog post on one developer's reasoning behind making the mass migration to all things Node.js and Javascript. Great read and very compelling reasoning.

May 29, 2012 9:10:52 PM

Has interest in Cloud Computing peaked?

According to Gartner & Forbes...

Cloud Computing is now beyond it’s peak of inflated expectations and moving quickly into what they describe as a “Trough of Disillusionment”. Technologies enter the “trough of disillusionment” because they fail to meet expectations and quickly become unfashionable. Consequently, the press usually abandons the topic and the technology.

Ostensibly, this is mainly due to the waning interest in "cloud" and "cloud computing" according to Google Insights. Well take heed.. the trough will be very short lived, because we haven't even begun to see the true power of the cloud, not by a long shot!

via www.forbes.com

May 29, 2012 9:08:30 PM

Oracle prepares to enter PaaS wars?

According to Computer World, Oracle is preparing to enter the PaaS market, ostensibly in a parry against long-time rival SAP and their plans to dominate all things cloud by 2015:

Oracle may lay out how it plans to become a player in the burgeoning PaaS (platform as a service) market next week during a webcast event featuring CEO Larry Ellison and co-president Mark Hurd.

I'm not convinced Oracle is well positioned, despite their great wealth of technology. For one thing, they have both Oracle VM (which is Xen-based) and Solaris Containers (which companies like Joyent have used to underline their cloud stack). With SaaS apps, HCM, ERP, and everything else inbetween, a successful PaaS player need to be fully focused on infrastructure management, and not EVERYTHING under the sun. For my money, I'd bet that something like Cloud Foundry has better focus and will be more successful than SAP or Oracle combined.

via www.computerworld.com

May 29, 2012 6:41:20 PM

SAP as the #1 cloud company by 2015 ???!!!

I've been reading through some of the recent leaked memos here and here from top SAP/SuccessFactors brass. I like the energy in the emails, but I'm frankly puzzled how in 2.5 years they expect to maneuver such a HUGE ship onto the right path. It's going to take 6 months alone for the reorg to shake out and start gelling as cohesive teams. SAP is still an on-premise solution, and a SaaS approach is a HUGE lift, especially trying to move they key Fortune 2000 companies. On top of that, don't forget that any such ERP, HCM, or enterprise grade software would require significant intergration/configuration prior to Day 1 Go Live (regardless of whether it's on-premise or Saas). I'll keep watching - hopefully I will learn from the process (and other people's mistakes)

May 28, 2012 10:00:32 PM

Where is your data stored? In the cloud, which is in a box under my bed

May 28, 2012 9:48:56 PM

Now THAT's some really good gin!

Every once in a while, you run into a UC Berkeley HAAS grad who is doing something so amazing that he/she singlehandenly raises the HAAS brand up a notch. Tonight, my good friend Brian Bishop took me out to a super secret brewery in Belmont. On our way home, we ran into Davorin Kuchan (HAAS 2007 EWMBA), who operates Old World Spirits. We sampled an assortment of his goods, and settled on a bottle of his flagship Rusty Blade Gin. I'm not a big gin drinker myself, but the quality and presence of his gins may push me to give up my love affair with single malt scotches and start a new romance with gin. If you're a fellow HAAS alum or rum-lover, you HAVE TO try out his Blade and Rusty gins before they sell out. Drop him a line davorin@oldworldspirits.com at and tell him Nima (HAAS 2006) sent you! Oh yeah, and Brian was lucky enough to go home with bottle #374.

May 25, 2012 11:11:39 PM

Mobile (security) Mayhem?

Interesting article on the (lack of) mobile security for apps that access sensitive corporate information. Interesting factoid: "6 billion global mobile subscribers and over 35 billion apps downloaded to those devices"

May 23, 2012 10:33:17 PM

Science Fact: If you took all the veins in your body and laid them end to end, you would die.

May 23, 2012 10:22:41 PM

Yahoo Axis looks semi interesting...

It looks curiously interesting, but a whole new browser just to have a few novel features? Hmmn... it's gonna take a bit more for me to switch over from Chrome.

May 23, 2012 10:22:04 PM

Flickr Animal Balloons

For small human's school today, I volunteered teaching kids how to make animal balloons... so here is my Flickr Animal Balloon shot.

May 23, 2012 5:09:21 PM

Interesting read on the Facebook IPO debacle

From this article in business insider:

Earlier, we reported that the analysts at Facebook's IPO underwriters had cut their estimates for the company in the middle of the IPO roadshow, a highly unusual and negative event.
What we didn't know was why.
Now we know.
The analysts cut their estimates because a Facebook executive who knew the business was weak told them to.
Put differently, the company basically pre-announced that its second quarter would fall short of analysts' estimates. But it only told the underwriter analysts about this.
The information about the estimate cut was then verbally conveyed to sophisticated institutional investors who were considering buying Facebook stock, but not to smaller investors.
The estimate cut appears to have influenced the investment decisions of at least some institutional investors, dampening their appetite for Facebook stock, and crucially, affecting the price at which they were willing to buy Facebook stock.
As I described earlier, at best, this "selective disclosure" of the estimate cut is grossly unfair to investors who bought Facebook stock on the IPO (or at any time since) and didn't know about it.
At worst, it's a violation of securities laws.
This latest chapter in the Facebook IPO story began this morning, when Reuters' Alistair Barr reported that the research analysts at the company's lead underwriters—Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan—had cut their earnings estimates for Facebook during the company's IPO roadshow. This was highly unusual, if not unprecedented (I've been in and around the tech IPO business for almost 20 years, and I've never heard of it happening.)
Analysts cutting estimates is generally regarded as significant negative news for stocks. This is especially the case when the analysts who cut their estimates are very close to a company—and, therefore, are thought to have particularly good information.
(In the old days, before the implementation of Regulation Fair Disclosure, companies used to manage the market's expectations by telling trusted analysts to change their estimates. Reg FD banned that practice.)
The fact that some potential Facebook investors were told of the analysts' estimate cuts and others were not would seem to be a major "selective dissemination" issue.