Virtualization: Out With the Old Problems, In With the New

Virtualization projects can help organizations improve key business metrics, but with these benefits also come risks that these projects could cause issues with end-user experience, visibility into application performance , and bandwidth utilization.
While performance issues can impact business metrics, more than 20 percent of organizations surveyed for Aberdeen Group's December study, "Virtual Vigilance: Managing Application Performance in Virtual Environments," experienced significant improvements in the performance of business-critical applications after conducting virtualization projects.
"The potential benefits from virtualizing an enterprise infrastructure go beyond cost savings and improved flexibility," said Bojan Simic, research analyst, Network and Application Performance at Aberdeen Group. "Benefits could also include business goals such as responsiveness to customers' needs, employee productivity, and the creation of new business opportunities."

Spreadsheets Out, Rolling Budget Forecasts In

"Not to beat about the bush, but the budgeting process at most companies has to be the most ineffective practice in management. It sucks the energy, time, fun and big dreams out of an organization. In fact, when companies win, in most cases it is despite their budgets, not because of them."
These are the words of Jack Welch, the former General Electric (NYSE: GE) chairman, in his best-selling book, Winning. He is not alone. More and more CFOs at American companies are reaching the same conclusion.
As a result, they are following their European brethren in adopting rolling forecasts while moving away from the traditional budgeting process that many view as flawed and counterproductive.

Microsoft Opens New Sluice for Celebrity Juice

Microsoft launched a beta version of a new celebrity gossip site Thursday called "Wonderwall.com."
The new site is loaded with pictures of celebrities that visitors can click on to read news stories, features and commentary about the stars.
For example, Wonderwall.com on Thursday displayed a zany photo of "The Dark Knight" actor Christian Bale wielding a knife, which, when clicked on, led to a story about the top 10 celebrity meltdowns caught on video and audio.
Bale and other celebrities such as "30 Rock" actor Alec Baldwin, Michael Richards of "Seinfeld" fame and eccentric actor Gary Busey could be seen and heard profanely berating those around them.

Celio Redfly: Not Quite a Smartphone's Best Friend

You might think your smartphone is pretty brainy, but is it clever enough to essentially replace your laptop while on the go?
Salt Lake City-based Celio is betting you want a bit of both devices at the same time. It has come up with Redfly, which looks like a tiny laptop, but is actually a keyboard and screen that harnesses the processing power and storage space of smartphones that use Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows Mobile operating system.
It does enhance some phone features, but given its price, relative chunkiness and limitations, I won't ditch my laptop -- even part time -- for one of these just yet.

Mac Bloggers Gobble Up Games, Mark Time on MacBooks, Send iPods to Souper-Upper

Hard news has been scarce in the Apple-focused blogosphere this week -- time to come up for air? -- but there's still plenty of interesting chatter.
In some of the more interesting recent threads: Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has apparently run into a supply chain issue that's delayed the delivery of its new aluminum unibody 17-inch MacBook Pros, Rapid Repair is Frankenstein-izing iPods with 240 GB hard drives, and some bloggers are watching TV on their iPhones.
Plus, iPhone owners seem to be downloading way more than their fair share of mobile games.

Teens Face Sex Offender Prosecution Over Racy Cell Phone Pix

Though youth is fleeting, images sent on a cell phone or posted online may not be, especially if they're naughty.
Teenagers' habit of distributing nude self-portraits electronically -- often called "sexting" if it's done by cell phone -- has parents and school administrators worried. Some prosecutors have begun charging teens who send and receive such images with child pornography and other serious felonies. But is that the best way to handle it?
"Hopefully we'll get the message out to these kids," says Michael McAlexander, a prosecutor in Allen County, Ind., which includes Fort Wayne. A teenage boy there is facing felony obscenity charges for allegedly sending a photo of his private parts to several female classmates. Another boy was recently charged with child pornography in a similar case.

Street Corners, Internal Organs, Watery Depths: Google Is Watching

Now you and your friends can play "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?" with Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) new mobile technology called "Latitude," but you, or they -- all of you, as a matter of fact -- can be Carmen.
All of your movements can be geographically tracked through cell tower signals, and everyone you let in on the game can potentially be your own personal stalker, following you by smartphone or regular old PC. Google's idea is that friends want to let friends know where they are, so they can link up more easily.
To be fair, the program does have privacy controls that let you allow different people different levels of information access. Still, the idea of adding one's minute-by-minute whereabouts to Google's vast storehouse of knowledge has a certain creep factor. What's next? A Google spinoff of the Truman Show? If you knew, would you tell me?

The past week or so has been a time not just of evangelism on the Linux blogs, but also of reflection.
Specifically, even as many Linux bloggers pondered the best ways to spread the Linux love, others have performed the equally useful function of taking stock of where things stand in the Linux world.
To wit: Following up on its "State of the Penguin" report from late last year, the blog of Helios recently posted a look at the state of Linux in the business world, specifically.

The key to a successful business plan often hinges on who gets there first with a market-revitalizing product. Being first may not guarantee instant success, but it certainly makes those that follow behind play catch-up.
Marketcetera's Automated Trading Platform may prove to be just that key for Graham Miller, CEO and cofounder. Early last month, his company brought to market an open source trading platform for traders, hedge fund managers and brokers and dealers.
The idea for this trading platform grew from his dissatisfaction with available products he used during his 10 years of managing trading platforms and strategies for Wall Street hedge funds. Stanford University computer scientists Miller and CTO Toli Kuznets founded Marketcetera in 2006. Their unhappiness with the long implementation cycles and costly maintenance that proprietary automated trading software required led the two on a quest for a lighter-weight, more flexible replacement platform.

With apologies to Oliver Stone, I have a conspiracy theory of my own regarding the real reason for the recent delay in the transition from analog to digital television.
Those endless public service announcements reminding us all of the previous February switchover date have become just so darn popular with TV viewers that the government and broadcasters have decided to turn them all into a reality series. The estimated 6.5 million homes left in the U.S. that still aren't ready for the switch will have to search, "Amazing Race"-style, across the country for the last 1,000 converter coupons available. They'll be hidden in the more inhospitable, dangerous parts of the U.S. (the Everglades, Death Valley, Wall Street) and those who survive immunity challenges by successfully wrestling alligators, gila monsters and Bernie Madoff will also have to lose at least 50 pounds before choosing a bachelor/bachelorette to share their lives and digital converter box with.