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Defining Application Ready Networks with F5’s Ken Salchow

Michael Johnson — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:50:41 +0000

Ken Salchow, F5’s manager of technical marketing, talks about F5’s Application Ready Networks (ARNs). These road-tested architectures cover best practices and deployment support for specific solutions from F5 and major software vendors. F5 currently offers ARNs for Microsoft, SAP, and Oracle products. This podcast describes how ARNs benefit customers and why F5 believes they are important.

Tags: Application Ready Network, ARN, F5 Networks, Ken Salchow

The Reboot: Sonic Unleashed

Rio Pesino — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:37:50 +0000

In this episode of The Reboot, Sonic the Hedgehog fans went nuts after several screenshots and a video trailer of the blue-haired hero’s latest adventure, Sonic Unleashed, were leaked online. SEGA Europe later confirmed that the game will come out this year. In other gaming news, Sony and Harmonix were hit with lawsuits this week and a Super Famicom console signed by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto fetches thousands of dollars on Ebay.

Tags: The Reboot, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Unleashed, SEGA, gaming news, Harmonix, Shigeru Miyamoto

Welcome to Classic ScobleShow

editor — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:40:44 +0000

It started with an innocuous audio interview with the then-President of the Products and Technology Group at SAP AG, Shai Agassi. Then came Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz, sitting at a table with an umbrella. It wasn’t long before Scoble introduced us to Thomas Hawk (investment advisor by day, ubiquitous digital media creator by night). There was the Golden Gate Bridge walk (spread over three parts!), and then came pumpkins — lots of pumpkins. Somewhere between the Golden Gate Bridge and the pumpkin patch, conversations with entrepreneurs like b5media Founder and President Jeremy Wright and SmugMug CEO Don MacAskill.

There was lunch with Bill Gates and another lunch with Mark Cuban. We met folks from Salesforce and Zillow, SocialText, Retrevo and Maxthon. We met political bloggers and a presidential candidate on the campaign trail.

But one of our favorites? It’s an interview with Microsoft’s Gary Flake on Photosynth.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Robert Scoble is still the author of the incredibly popular tech geek blog, Scobleizer.com. He’s also the managing director over at FastCompany.tv, where ScobleShow editor and producer Rocky Barbanica is also now a senior producer.

Since that fateful first ScobleShow, Agassi has moved on to found Project Better Place, in order to pursue interests in alternative energy and climate change. Jonathan Schwartz is still at Sun, still blogging, and lots of the start-ups we met are still kicking around, some of them very successfully! It’s worth taking a few minutes to surf through the archives, or just wait to see what pops up in the Classic feed. Good for a few goofy laughs and a little insight into where we’ve been and where we might be going. Oh, and Thomas Hawk is still evangelizing for photo sharing and digital media, and still believes that the best pictures in the world have yet to be taken.

Tags: SAP, Shai Agassi, Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwartz, Thomas Hawk, b5media, Jeremy Wright, SmugMug, Don MacAskill, Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, Salesforce, Zillow, SocialText, Retrevo, Maxthon, Microsoft, Gary Flake, Photosynth, Robert Scoble, Scobleizer.com, FastCompany.tv, Rocky Barbanica, Project Better Place

Consumer-Directed Healthcare: Transforming the M&A Market

Paul Lancour — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:00:54 +0000

Join BearingPoint Senior Manager Kirsten Trusko in this podcast to explore consumer-directed health care and how it is affecting the mergers and acquisitions market. A rush of M&A activity is under way at the convergence of the banking, insurance and health industries. Companies in all three areas, as well as private equity and venture capital firms, are looking to capitalize on the market dynamics emerging with the growth of consumer-directed health care and the emerging vertical market of “health banking.”

While the complexities of cross-industry M&A are even greater than those for intra-industry transactions, the similarities between the industries contribute to a compelling business case. The key is a deep understanding of market direction and growth, a well-planned approach to the transaction and, equally important, clear confidence as to what happens post-transaction, both inside the company and in the marketplace.

The convergence of banking, insurance and health is driving great opportunity to leverage strengths, capabilities and channels across market sectors to the benefit of consumers, companies and investors. But the risk of disappointing outcomes is especially high in inter-industry efforts without essential knowledge and planning. To improve the chances of a positive outcome, look well beyond the deep financial analysis applied to traditional intra-industry efforts. Finally, design and articulate a post-transaction operating model that can position you to take advantage of this dramatic U.S. economic shift.

Tags: BearingPoint, Kirsten Trusko, consumer-directed, mergers and acquisitions, M&A, private equity, venture capital, health banking, CDH

The Reboot: CES 2008

Rio Pesino — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 01:01:55 +0000

The Consumer Electronics Show usually isn’t a big show for gamers, but this year’s event was expected to be different. CES dedicated more show floor space for its Gaming Showcase and there were even rumors that Microsoft’s Bill Gates would reveal a new version of the Xbox 360 at the event. Instead, gamers who attended CES were disappointed with no announcement of a new 360 and a Gaming Showcase that was lacking in video games. However, there were some major gaming annoucements made at CES. Sony used the event to promote new Playstation Portable applications and show off its most creative game yet, while Microsoft unveiled several new Games for Windows, including Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and Space Siege. Texas Instruments also showed off its DualView technology, which could change the face of gaming forever. In this episode of The Reboot, host Rio Pesino gives you his take on what stood out at CES.

Tags: Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, Bill Gates, CES, BlogHaus, CESBlogHaus, DualView, Games for Windows, Gaming, Microsoft, Playstation Portable, PSP, Skype, Sony, Space Siege, Texas Instruments, Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, Xbox 360

Bags: Dan McWeeney’s Crumpler Part and Parcel

Michael Cote — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:00:47 +0000

In the continuing series of geek bag profiles, while at SAP Tech ‘07 in Las Vegas, I talked with Dan McWeeney about his Crumpler Part and Parcel bag. Dan shows us all the nooks and crannies of his bag, explaining that it fits all his computer junk well. The bag just works for said junk well, with no room, really for clothes.

Tags: SAP Tech, Dan McWeeney

Bags: Matthias Zeller’s Waterfield Cargo

Michael Cote — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:23:31 +0000

While at SAP TechEd ‘07, I talked with Matthias Zeller about his Waterfield Cargo bag. I have an over-active interest in laptop bags, so I’m always on the look-out for The Perfect Bag. Matthias’ seemed nice and he details the different compartments, pockets, and little things like if it fits under an airplane seat well. In a pinch, Mattias says, he can fit a t-shirt and socks in there. But, as we get into at the end, he likes to carry a large suit-case with him for the rest of his junk when traveling.

Tags: SAP TechEd, Matthias Zeller

Fine-Tuning Business Applications Around the World

Michael Johnson — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:00:17 +0000

Verizon Business is helping users of global corporate networks make the most of popular business applications such as Microsoft Outlook, SAP and ERP with its new Managed WAN Optimization Service. The new managed service helps companies speed application delivery, reduce bottlenecks and boost productivity. It is ideal for companies with distributed or global environments, or both that require standard performance of corporate applications across all company sites.

Tags: Verizon Business, WAN Optimization

The Rise of the Designer/Developer Mashup Developer

Michael Cote — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 21:25:51 +0000

While at SAP TechEd ‘07 Community Day, James Governor talks with Dan McWeeney about the new type of designer/developer role and methodology Dan has seen emerge recently.

Rather than build on an open source or closed source only stack, Dan says, these developers pull in whatever code, projects, tools, and data they need to make a sort of development tool-chain mashup. Many of these coders, Dan notes, aren’t traditional types of developers and are, instead, good at mixing together and integrating different stacks and services.

James and Dan then end up with a discussion about how commercial companies like SAP could support this process and the different ways customers, like Dan’s employer, Colgate-Palmolive could manage the support and risk.

Tags: SAP TechEd, James Governor, Dan McWeeney, designer/developer, SAP, Colgate-Palmolive

Majority Desk - Wiimote 3D widget desktop

Michael Cote — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:48:58 +0000

While at SAP TechEd ‘07 in Las Vegas, James and I had the chance to get an exciting demo from Dan McWeeney and Eddie Herrmann. Having won the SAP TechEd ‘06 DemoJam, Dan and Eddie couldn’t compete this year, so they cooked up the Wiimote driven 3D desktop we see in the demo. It’s sort of like Minority Report with two Wiimotes. Built on a collection of open source project and Flex, Dan and Eddie’s Majority Desktop is quite the site to see.

As you may recall, Dan and Eddie have been on RedMonkTV before, back during SAP Sapphire ‘07.

Tags: SAP TechEd, Dan McWeeney, Eddie Herrmann, DemoJam, Wiimote

Online Communities: Office 2.0 part 2

Aron Pruiett — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:47:16 +0000

Dion Hinchcliffe moderates the panel of Diane Davidson ( Director of Customer Marketing, WebEx Communications ), Robert Duffy ( Online Communities Strategist, Intel ), Mark Finnern ( SDN Collaboration Wiz, SAP ), Josh Hilliker ( Intel vPro Expert Center Community Manager, Intel ) and Mike Walsh ( Chief Executive Officer, Leverage Software ).

Part two includes a question and answer session with the Office 2.0 audience. Viral marketing, construction concerns and support are all informative question topics raised through this continued online community forum.

Online Communities: Office 2.0

Aron Pruiett — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:59:28 +0000

Dion Hinchcliffe moderates the panel of Diane Davidson (director of customer marketing, WebEx Communications), Robert Duffy (online communities strategist, Intel), Mark Finnern[/ta] (SDN Collaboration Wiz, SAP), [tag]Josh Hilliker (Intel vPro Expert Center Community Manager, Intel) and Mike Walsh (chief executive officer, Leverage Software) during the 2007 Office 2.0 conference in San Francisco. Highlights include Intel’s Open Port and vPro Expert Center as well as SAP Developer Network strategies and directions.

With increasing demand being placed on transparency within online communities, will the value of open communication offset escalating portal supply? Are companies relying more on user participation to administer community FAQ’s and support?

Tags: Dion Hinchcliffe, Diane Davidson, Robert Duffy, Mark Finnern[/ta] (SDN Collaboration Wiz, SAP), [tag]Josh Hilliker, Intel vPro, Mike Walsh, Office 2.0 conference

A VC Panel from Office 2.0, Part 2

Aron Pruiett — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:28:43 +0000

From the 2007 Office 2.0 Conference, Sean Wise moderates a panel consisting of Sam Angus (partner, Fenwick & West), Jeff Clavier (managing director, SoftTech VC), Jai Das (investment partner, SAP Ventures), M.R. Rangaswami (founder, Sand Hill Group) and Gordon Ritter (general partner, Emergence Capital Partners).

In Part 2 of this investment discussion, questions from the audience are included in the conversation. Entrepreneurs are seeking less money — does this negatively effect the successful development of new companies? From a risk perspective, is less still more? Is developing value in early stages of a company the key to long term profitability?

Tags: Office 2.0 Conference, Sean Wise, Sam Angus, Jeff Clavier, Jai Das, M.R. Rangaswami, Gordon Ritter

A VC Panel from Office 2.0

Aron Pruiett — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:19:28 +0000

Investment knowledge surrounding venture capital and angel investment, its successes and mistakes are discussed. Is money the only return investors are looking for? Or is the value found through the team leaders from both sides of investment? Enterprise examples such as Virsa Systems, Mint and Salesforce.com are mentioned.

Tags: Sean Wise, Sam Angus, Jeff Clavier, Jai Das, M.R. Rangaswami, Gordon Ritter, venture capital, angel investment

Enterprise Collaboration, Part 2

Aron Pruiett — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:22:02 +0000

In part 2, Dan Farber continues his moderation of a discussion panel surrounding collaboration and Web 2.0 during the 2007 Office 2.0 conference. Panelists include Scott Dietzen, Etay Gafni, Sam Lawrence, Oliver Marks, Paul Pedrazzi and Jay Simons.

Dan gets more input about his question of how to federate a people centric concept. Separating signal from noise is also addressed.

Will improved bandwidth increase trust within social networks? Sales remain key to enterprise success. Is the customer’s personal information less valuable in an open environment or is their data imperative for innovation?

Tags: Dan Farber, Web 2.0, Office 2.0, Scott Dietzen, Etay Gafni, Sam Lawrence, Oliver Marks, Paul Pedrazzi, Jay Simons, social networks

Enterprise Collaboration

Aron Pruiett — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:15:42 +0000

Dan Farber recently moderated the discussion panel surrounding collaboration and Web 2.0 during the 2007 Office 2.0 conference. Panelists include Scott Dietzen, Etay Gafni, Sam Lawrence, Oliver Marks, Paul Pedrazzi and Jay Simons.

Although collaboration has existed in many forms over a long period of time. Dan addresses the panelists on what to expect from current online environments.

What is the value of an increasingly open online culture? Connecting developers and customers online create many fresh ideas, however, what direction will software, applications and communication take as people become center focus? Where will the successful results of prior enterprise collaboration go?

Tags: Dan Farber, Web 2.0, Office 2.0, Scott Dietzen, Etay Gafni, Sam Lawrence, Oliver Marks, Paul Pedrazzi, Jay Simons

Office 2.0 and the future of work

editor — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 18:50:41 +0000

Will the use of online apps change the way people work? That’s a question discussed by a panel at theOffice 2.0 conference, moderated by Om Malik from GigaOm: Steven Aldrich, VP of strategy & innovation, Intuit; Denis Browne, senior VP, SAP Labs; Danny Kolke, CEO of Etelos; Richard McAniff, corporate VP, Microsoft Office; and Jonathan Rochelle, product manager, Google Docs and Spreadsheets.

Also on TechOne: Larry Magid talks about the controversy and interviews Apple VP Phil Schiller about the pricing on the day of the original announcement. It was before the firestorm and Jobs’ “apology.”

Tags: Office 2.0, Om Malik, GigaOm, Steven Aldrich, Intuit, Denis Browne, SAP Labs, Danny Kolke, Etelos, Richard McAniff, Microsoft Office, Jonathan Rochelle, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, TechOne, Larry Magid, Phil Schiller

Guy Kawasaki Interview

editor — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:19:55 +0000

He’s funny, articulate and generally regarded as a visionary. In this interview Guy Kawasaki talks about his latest venture, Truemors.com, but not until he tells us why “life is good” for anyone wanting to venture out on the net. Whether you watch this for the advice or the humor, you won’t be disappointed spending a few minutes with Larry and Guy.

In addition to Truemors, Guy is managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of eight books including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

Tags: Guy Kawasaki, Truemors.com, Entrepreneur Magazine, Apple, Macintosh, UCLA, Babson College

The Blogger’s Corner at Sapphire Vienna 07

Michael Cote — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 06:09:07 +0000

In these highlgiht’s from the blogger’s corner at SAP Sapphire Vienna ‘07, James Governor first talks with SAP’s Nils Herzberg about “seeker/solvers” in communities and discuss other Enterprise 2.0-ish concerns. See Jame’s reports from Walldorf last year for more. James then get a unique “demo” from Social Media Group’s Maggie Fox.

Tags: SAP Sapphire Vienna, James Governor, SAP, Nils Herzberg, Maggie Fox

Who is the InfoSec Sellout? (And does anyone care?)

Martin McKeay — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:32:16 +0000

The Information Security Sell Out has been an anonymous, outspoken critic (aka troll) of the security community for much of this year. He’s hidden behind his anonymity, attacking researchers and the security community in general. But anonymity is only an illusion on the Internet, especially when you’re attacking the people whose job it is to hunt down hackers for a living. On Tuesday, security blogger Cutaway claimed to have had the identity of the Sellout revealed to him by anonymous sources. Shortly after this information came out, the Sell Out’s page disappeared from the Internet. The Sell Out claims it was hacked, but it was suspiciously timed with Cutaway’s post and the Sell Out’s claim of having a weaponized Apple worm.

Info Sec Sell Out

Tags: Information Security Sell Out, troll, hackers, Cutaway, Apple worm, Info Sec Sell Out

Bringing The Coolness to enterprise software - SAP Colgate-Palmolive Imagineering

Michael Cote — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 07:01:41 +0000

In this interview from SAP SAPPHIRE 2007, talks with Colgate-Palmolive developers Ed Herrmann and Dan McWeeney about their Imagineering Fellowship with SAP. After showing their development skills with projects like SAPLink and layering Ruby on Rails on-top of SAP’s platform, Ed and Dan were selected to help SAP innovate new and exciting technologies on-top of their platform, business intellegence in particular.

Tags: SAP, Ed Herrmann, Dan McWeeney, SAPLink

Kaval Kaur on Entrepreneurship, Part 2

Kamla Bhatt — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:20:21 +0000

In the second part of our conversation, Kaval Kaur talks about how Virsa got funded and how they built the company. What tips and advice does Kaval offer for entrepreneurs?
(more…)

Tags: Kaval Kaur, Virsa

Freshtopia.net - Get Tough or Die Farms

Oscar Grimm — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:51:50 +0000

We spent the weekend at the Get Tough or Die Farm (a.k.a. Tanja’s mother’s house). When neighborhood cats and children aren’t disappearing in the “Tomato Triangle,” they’re dodging the assault of the trained attack rabbits, and let’s not even mention the sunflowers. It was a most relaxing weekend, filled with fantastical danger, intrigue, permaculture, Melissa’s artwork, and the most gorgeous home-grown produce we’ve enjoyed in recent memory. We started each morning with a trip to the garden where we picked fresh vegetables and fruit for breakfast, which we then ate on the garden patio. Saturday’s breakfast conversation turned to the luxury of garden-grown produce, and just how striking the taste difference can be between that and even [merely] local organic foods. There really is something powerful in produce less than 24 hours off the vine. Alas, not everyone can be so lucky, so if you don’t have a garden or access to one, you might consider joining a CSA, or better, make friends with someone who does have a garden. (Read: ‘Will videograph for food”)

Melissa and Patrick were kind enough to share some of their resources with us:

Seeds of Change is a great source for certified organic seeds, as well as information on backyard gardening.

For the strawberry lover, check out Strawberries and More. The Gardeners Network provides a nice overview of organic alternatives to conventional garden treatments.

Big Thanks to Melissa, Patrick, Leo, the Princess and Mr. Poopers, for their hospitality and tomatoes!

Tags: permaculture, Seeds of Change, organic, gardening

Kaval Kaur on Entrepreneurship

Kamla Bhatt — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 22:24:27 +0000

Kaval Kaur is a co-founder of SUFI, an incubator and angel investment company with offices in the USA and India. Kaval and her husband Jasveer co-founded Virsa, which was later acquired by SAP for a few hundred million dollars. Virsa is part of SAP’s Governance, Risk and Compliance business unit. I caught up with Kaval at the TiECon 2007 in Silicon Valley, where she was one of the master of ceremonies for the two-day event. I wanted to find out Kaval’s journey as an entrepreneur and how it all started. In Part I of our conversation, Kaval outlines how her journey and chief financial officer began. Founded in 1999 as a services company, Kaval and Jasveer had to change the course of their business midstream after the dotcom collapse and 9/11. Pushed to refocus and reinvent Virsa became a product company focusing on a nice market: security and compliance in the ERP space. How did they do that? What were the challenges they had to face?

Tags: Kaval Kaur, SUFI, Virsa, TiECon 2007, Silicon Valley, entrepreneur

Developer community gardening and getting through the firewall

Michael Cote — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:01:19 +0000

At Sapphire 2007, Coté and Thomas Otter talk about gardening developer communities, pulling customer feedback into the community, getting more use from internal blogs and wikis, how Cluetrain thought applies to developing software, and making content creation easy for developers.

Tags: Sapphire, Thomas Otter, developer, blogs, wikis, Cluetrain