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- Is Intel branding at risk of dilution?
- Why are Autonomy and Fast at each other's throats?
- HP revolutionises colour printing with mono option
- 2006 predictions already coming to fruition
- New laptop trend threatens public speakers
- IT still matters, just not how it used to
- Cheeky Selfridges milks iPod virgins
- What to expect in 2006
- Is Systinet sale final nail in UDDI coffin?
- Get healthy in the office: print more
Jason Stamper's Blog: January 2006 Archives
Is Intel branding at risk of dilution?
January 27, 2006
I thought that when Intel announced that its new tag line is 'Leap Ahead' - a line, incidentally, which for some reason makes me think of Paul McCartney's seminal work 'We All Stand Together', performed of course with the Frog Chorus - that it would discontinue the 'Intel Inside' tag that had preceded it. So isn't it going to dilute the 'Leap Ahead' branding a little if it continues to use the 'Inside' mantra for certain products, as it has continued to do with 'Xeon Inside'? Answers on a postcard please...
Why are Autonomy and Fast at each other's throats?
January 25, 2006
If you thought that hostilities in the enterprise search and information management sector might have died down after UK-based Autonomy bought its bitter rival Verity, you'd be dead wrong. It's just that Autonomy has a new fierce rival: the Norwegian firm Fast Search and Transfer (Fast). Autonomy says Fast is dishonest, has accounting questions, and exaggerates its customer wins. Fast says, well, pretty much the opposite.
HP revolutionises colour printing with mono option
January 23, 2006
I thought I had seen it all when Canon said a good way of getting fit is printing more in the office; but I've just seen that HP has a revolutionary new printer innovation - a mono printer that can print in colour.
Can't most colour printers already print in black and white if you change their configuration? Well you might ask, because yes, most can. So how is a mono printer that can print in colour different from a colour printer that can print in mono? Again, well you might ask.
2006 predictions already coming to fruition
January 20, 2006
In a faux-humorous blog covering my predictions for 2006, you'll remember I anticipated a come-back tour from Earth, Wind and Fire. Quite a few of you expressed a certain amount of surprise that a) this was likely and b) that I'm old enough to remember those dinosaurs of orchestral rock.
Well, to silence my sceptics, if you check out this page you'll find they've already played a series of dates in Osaka, Japan this month, and they even have a new album out. Uncanny eh? (And no, I'm not that old.)
New laptop trend threatens public speakers
January 19, 2006
A good example of the new trend of going along to a presentation and then spending your time playing with your laptop instead of listening to the speaker. Very much like going to a U2 concert and then listening to your iPod while the Edge is soaring through With or Without You. Sacrilege, no?
This is from the GPL v3 launch in Cambridge, Massachusetts at MIT. You can read all about it if you missed this important event (important in the open source world, at any rate) by reading Simon Phipps' blog here. You might want to read the notes even if you did attend, since it's clear you weren't listening.
IT still matters, just not how it used to
It's been two years since Nicholas Carr wrote his now infamous article "IT Doesn't Matter" for the Harvard Business Review - an article that wound up the IT vendor community a treat. So two years on, is it any clearer to what extent IT still matters, if at all?
Cheeky Selfridges milks iPod virgins
January 16, 2006
Why take an iPod lesson for free in the Apple Store on Regent Street when you can pay £65 for the privilege just around the corner in Selfridges on Oxford Street?
It may seem like a no-brainer, but then again I've seen the Apple store on Regent Street so busy that the only way to get the attention of an Apple expert is by pulling the fire alarm (why buy an iPod in the first place when you can spend all day in an Apple Store fiddling with theirs?) So there may actually be a few well-heeled punters out there who would pay for some personal attention in less frenetic surroundings.
Perhaps Selfridges is hoping that a few punters will be unaware that they can get free help with their iPods at the Apple Store, and will instead pay sixty five hard-earned notes for the 40-minute iPod how-to with them instead, as described in a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.
But if you don't fancy the busy Apple stores or stumping up £65, why not get the hang of your iPod from the comfort of your favourite armchair by simply visiting the pretty comprehensive tutorial on Apple's website, here. Or from the independent iPod hints and tips site, iPodTips.com. If you still can't get the hang of what, let's face it, is a fairly intuitive system, then perhaps your best bet is to get yourself a copy of iPod and iTunes for Dummies. No offence.
What to expect in 2006
January 12, 2006
It's de rigeur to come up with some predictions for the year ahead at this time of year, so here are mine.
IT spending will go up slightly,
Storage volumes will double, nightly.
Viruses, trojans, spybots, rootkits,
Yet more malware from Internet misfits.
Google shares hit a thousand dollars,
Sarbanes Oxley feels a few more collars.
Mergers and acquisitions, IPOs and fundings,
Stock markets fall, let's hope for soft landings.
Palmisano, Ellison, Ballmer, McNealy,
'Co-opetition' wins prizes, so get touchy-feely.
BPM, SOA, CRM, SIP,
More three letter acronyms for vendors to ship.
Open source software is able to flourish,
While Big Blue and SCO redouble their skirmish.
IT governance - that's the Next Big Thing,
But IT costs will continue to sting.
Galloway and Hitchens enjoy their scrap,
David Cameron puts Tories on map.
Property prices in London go higher, and
There's a comeback tour, from Earth Wind and Fire.
Is Systinet sale final nail in UDDI coffin?
January 11, 2006
Mercury Interactive's announcement earlier this week that it is to acquire UDDI repository specialist Systinet could be taken to show that the UDDI standard has utterly failed to live up to its expectations. One of its leading proponents has just been taken out. So is UDDI the web services standard that missed its mark?
Get healthy in the office: print more
January 04, 2006
Those boffins at Canon have come up with an excellent reason why you should print more, and it's not their intention one little bit that in the process you might actually use more Canon printer consumables - honest.
The company conducted independent research into the health of UK office workers, and found that we're all a rather lazy bunch of so and so's. One in five UK office-based employees admit to doing no exercise at all, with only one in 20 looking to join gyms in the New Year.
46% of the 1,500 questioned said that they work more than 8 hours a day (1 in 10 claiming to work more than 10 hours a day) and 42% of these workers sit in front of their PC from between 6 and 10 hours in any working day. "With many workers not even leaving the office to get lunch," Canon opined, "the health and fitness of UK employees is in question."
Canon's answer is the Alternative Office Workout, said to, "help UK employees use their workplace to get active." It suggests walking up the stairs instead of using the lift, walking over to talk to colleagues instead of emailing them (how antiquated!), making lots of tea and washing up afterwards and even tidying your desk for 10 minutes at the end of each day.
According to the company, "Other top tips include taking a break from your computer screen every 45 minutes to prevent eye strain and headaches; print off documents instead of reading them from your computer and introduce a team exercise plan including lunchtime runs and regular walks around the office." Did you spot the hidden Canon sales pitch? "Print off documents instead of reading them from your computer." Ha! And Canon sells printers and printer consumables! Stone the crows!
It all makes a certain amount of sense though - if you print most things that you would normally only read on-screen then you will need to spend 10 minutes a day tidying your desk, because you will have a mountain of printed materials to find a home - or bin - for.
According to Canon carrying boxes around the office also burns loads of calories, which is just as well because you'll be carrying a small forest's worth of scrap paper around the office on a daily basis. Print more, carry more, and use the stairs instead of the lift - no wonder you'll be needing to make more cups of tea. Better lace it with an isotonic sports drink while you're at it.
Still, perhaps the thing isn't all a thinly veiled marketing ploy after all. Canon says it recruited Amanda Ursell, one of the UK’s leading health experts to devise the Alternative Office Workout, so it can't be a Great Big Conspiracy, can it?
In other amusing news from Canon, statistics show that the simply hilarious act of photocopying one's ass at the Christmas party is alive and well.
Surveying its own technicians, Canon said 46% of those questioned stated that they had been called out to repair a printer/copier due to ‘non-work related’ incidents, two-thirds reported up to a 25% increase in call outs over Christmas, and 32% of technicians had been called out to repair broken glass which had been sat on, or to fix paper jams that revealed evidence of embarrassing images. Perhaps if you follow the Alternative Office Workout, then you won't break the glass when you sit on it next year. Perhaps not.
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