You've Gotta Hand it to Larry!

Ellison Moves Quickly to Push Aside IBM, Plunges Into Competitive Server Market - WSJ.com:

"One person familiar with the situation said IBM's final offer over the weekend was closer to the latter figure, making Oracle's $9.50 offer a financially better alternative in the view of Sun's board and more likely to close. Oracle has to pay Sun a $260 million breakup fee if it terminates the transaction.

Another person said IBM was pressing Sun's board to revoke change-of-control provisions that would give a large number of Sun executives two years of salary in the event of a sale. Yet another person familiar with the matter said Oracle didn't hesitate to accept those provisions, characterizing them as 'a rounding error' to the software giant."

Jazz Buff & Financial Modeler!

Behind AIG's Fall, Risk Models Failed to Pass Real-World Test - WSJ.com: 

"Gary Gorton, a 57-year-old finance professor and jazz buff, is emerging as an unlikely central figure in the near-collapse of American International Group Inc.

Mr. Gorton, who teaches at Yale School of Management, is best known for his influential academic papers, which have been cited in speeches by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. But he also has a lucrative part-time gig: devising computer models used by the giant insurer to gauge risk in more than $400 billion of devilishly complicated deals called credit-default swaps."

AIG relied on those models to help figure out which swap deals were safe. But AIG didn't anticipate how market forces and contract terms not weighed by the models would turn the swaps, over the short term, into huge financial liabilities. AIG didn't assign Mr. Gorton to assess those threats, and knew that his models didn't consider them. Those risks have cost AIG tens of billions of dollars and pushed the federal government to rescue the company in September.
...
The turmoil at AIG is likely to fan skepticism about the complicated, computer-driven modeling systems that many financial giants rely on to minimize risk. As chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which owns insurance companies, Warren Buffett has been sounding the alarm about the issue for years. Recently, he told PBS interviewer Charlie Rose: "All I can say is, beware of geeks...bearing formulas."

As Text Messages Fly, Danger Lurks - NYTimes.com

"“The act of texting automatically removes 10 I.Q. points,” said Paul Saffo, a technology trend forecaster in Silicon Valley. “The truth of the matter is there are hobbies that are incompatible. You don’t want to do mushroom-hunting and bird-watching at the same time, and it is the same with texting and other activities. We have all seen people walk into parking meters or walk into traffic and seem startled by oncoming cars.”"

Real artists ship, dabblers create concept products

"Pretenders don't quite understand that design is born of constraints. Real-life constraints, be they tangible or cognitive: Battery-life impacts every other aspect of the iPhone design - hardware and software alike. Screen resolution affects font, icon and UI design. The thickness of a fingertip limits direct, gestural manipulation of on-screen objects. Lack of a physical keyboard and WIMP controls create an unfamiliar mental map of the device. The iPhone design is a bet that solutions to constraints like these can be seamlessly molded into a unified product that will sell. Not a concept. Not a vision. A product that sells."

From "Why Apple doesn’t do “Concept Products"

Sun's Web 2.0 Bubble Accessory

Sorry, I just can't hold my tongue on this one. There has been a number of technology pundits waxing on about whether or not we're in another tech bubble. I couldn't decide myself either. It sure feels like there is enough froth around Web 2.0 and Me-To startups to say yes. But having lived through the first one, something is missing... Could this be it?

Sun was one of the biggest benefactors from the first tech bubble selling servers by the boat load. Startups were building sites and buying hardware as fast as they could. Well, if you have not seen Sun's new "Black Box" announcement, then following the link in this posts title will take you to the Sun site. Although the Black Box is seriously cool for the hardware nerd set, this feels like a Web 2.0 Bubble Accessory. I think I just found my Web 2.0 Tech Bubble indicator. Sort of a canary in the coal mine if you will. If Sun starts selling these things in real quantities, then you'll know we're in a new tech bubble.

JavaOne: Heard at Scott McNealy's General Session

  • The most attended session on the first day of JavaOne was Java Business Integration: A Foundation for SOA
  • Sun purchased SeeBeyond this morning. Scott McNealy stated:
    This is not an example of stunt acquisition!
  • Java owns the Mars Lander market.
  • It's taken 10 years to achieve 1 billion Java smart cards on the market, but it's expected to reach 2 billion within 3 years.
  • Brazilian HealthCare has standardized on Java for the nations healthcare systems and has written 2.5 million lines of code in 4 months
  • There are 4.5 million Java technology developers and 550 user groups and 912 Java Community Process program members.