Bob’s World

It looks like Sun is putting together a cloud offering to compete with the likes of force.com, Amazon EC2, Microsoft’s Live Mesh and all the other folks to strive to provide aPaaS (Platform as a Service) stack in the cloud.

At their JavaOne conference they announced an imitative they’ve code-named “hydrazine” (a highly flammable rocket fuel!). Robert Brewin, Sun Chief Technology Officer and Distinguished Engineer, described Hydrazine as a combination of Amazon’s Elastic Cloud, Microsoft’s Live Mesh and Google Analytics all rolled into one.

They envision JavaFX to be the GUI glue that holds the stuff together. Which is interesting - given that it’s not shipping Sun has already got the domain going - and has a pretty good description of it on their site.

The basic idea of hydrazine is that Sun is building a set of common services (discovery, personalization, deployment, location, content delivery and developer) that will allow developers to hook into when they are building Java applications (both J2EE and J2SE).

But the vision isn’t to just stop there. There will be (according to Sun) another layer that contains services for advertising, a market place, developer hosting and repository services, and more.

It looks like Sun is trying to create a flexible PaaS repository that utilizes all of their assets (Java, Solaris, Sun hardware, MySQL, JavaFX).

My thoughts on all of this? Much like JavaFX - it will sure be interesting to see if they can pull it off. Because just like Microsoft’s Live Mesh stuff - it’s all just a slide show andYouTube video at this point.

So this whole PaaS movement is really getting some legs - and everyone seems to be wanting to make sure that their tools and stack is represented. Assuming it’s all going work - and developers will actually use the stuff - it may mean the beginning of the end of the data center forSMB and SME customers.

It will certainly be fun to watch!

Yesterday at their 13th annual JavaOne Conference - Sun announced a new, ambitious plan for JavaFX - their answer to Adobe Flash, Adobe AIR, Microsoft Silverlight and plan ol’ AJAX.

Param Singh, senior director of Java marketing (and ex-Apple dude), apparently showed a demo (which had to be restarted twice) that tookFacebook and Flickr pictures and applied a “flocking algorithm” (no, I’m not making this up).

When you enter a person’s name all the pictures that have to do with that person “flocked” together out of a slowly moving mass of pictures moving on the screen. He then showed how pictures with similar colors could flock, etc.

The plan is to also allow the user to drag a app that is downloaded into the browser to their desktop to run without a connection to the Internet.

JavaFX will have a scripting language - not Java, not JavaScript, but that tried-and-true, non-standards based, Adobe-inspired ActionScript! Yeah!

Not.

Plus, at least initially, users will have to install a browser plug-in until the JavaFX stuff makes it into the standard builds of the JVM (Java Virtual Machine).

Oh, and they’re planning on bringing this to mobile devices in the fall of 2009.

By now you’ve probably guessed my take on this - “Oh goodie - yet ANOTHER damn, half-baked, me-too, non-standards-based, piece of crap just to muddy the waters of an already clouded pond filled with the refuse and lack of interoperability between competing companies trying to get developermind share and application lock-in.”

And, ordinarily, you’d be right.

But for this one, I’m going to take a wait and see approach. I’m interested to see what kind of back end programmatic, Java-linking, server-based goodies MIGHT be in there. It all depends on the execution - how quickly they can get it out in the wild (rumored to be “this fall”) and whether it can perform as hyped.

We’ll see..

In an official statement on his blog Kaj Arno, “VP of Community” for MySQL, as said that Sun has done an about face on making parts of it’s upcoming 6.0 MySQL release closed source.

To quote Kaj, “MySQL 6.0’s pending backup functionality will be open source…”

He blamed the experimentation of the business model on “a company considering an IPO” but that it “made less sense in the context of Sun, a large company whit a whole family of complementary open source software and hardware products.”

Ummm… yeah, sure.

I’m sure it had nothing whatsoever to do with the huge Community Edition (free version) users screaming “not fair” until their throats were dry.

It seems that the Community Edition folks have more time than money - so what did you think they would do? They have nothing better to do all day then bitch and moan about MAYBE not getting something for free (remote backup) and that it’s NO FAIR that those “rich” people actually paying a small licensing fee and keeping the company in business should get something they MIGHT not get.

People, people.

OK - so they’ve backed off of this issue on this release. But, you gotta know that at sometime, in the future, they are going to make some add-ons closed source - for paying customers only.

The good news is that most of the APIs are open - so those of you with more time than money can go ahead and spend time writing your own functionality that is equal to (or better than) the closed source one.

Then feel free to give it away - free.

Well, I hate to say I told you so - but I told you so. In late-morning trading this morning, Yahoo shares shed $4.69, or 16.4 percent, to $23.98, below Friday’s close of $28.67. If anyone is doing the math - that means that Yahoo’s market value tanked roughly $14 BILLION below the Microsoft offer of even this past Friday.

$14 BILLION. Nice job, Jerry!

I don’t know whether or not the shares will completely tank (right away) back to the $19.18 level they were before the Microsoft offer - but it’s clear: Jerry has only a little while before Wall Street is going to give him a serious thrashing if things don’t improve in a significant way.

On the other hand - if you’re not as cynical as me - you would see this as a great time to buy Yahoo (if you believe they can and will turn it around).

Let’s see - whose shares went UP this morning… hmmmm… oh, I don’t know… maybe Microsoft and Google? Yep. Both up 2% - not spectacular, but still, it’s a little bump.

Microsoft shares rose nearly 2 percent, or 57 cents, to $29.81 (as opposed to a 10% drop when they made the bid at $29.24 ). Shares in Google went up nearly 2 percent as well (up $11.15 to $592.44).

Looks like both Steve Ballmer and Sergey Brin can each by a small South Pacific Island today - courtesy of a greedy Jerry Wang. Thanks, Jerry!

Well, it looks like Microsoft told Yahoo adieu today - officially pulling its $44 billion off the table. I mean its $49 billion offer off the table.

Yep - ol’ Steve Ballmer & Co. added another $5 billion to the pot - and Jerry Yang declined - with his hand outstretched. Seems that Jerry, who obviously doesn’t believe a billion is a billion in this day and age - wanted ANOTHER $4 billion.

In a letter from Ballmer to Yang, he states that Microsoft also won’t be looking at its option for a hostile takeover, stating that Yahoo! likely “would take steps that would make [it] undesirable as an acquisition.”

Really? You think?

So it’s over. There will be no Microhoo. Boo hoo (for Yahoo!).

Like I mentioned in a previous post - sit by your computers as the markets open on Monday and sell Yahoo short! That stock is going to tank like no body’s business.

While you’re there - pick up some Microsoft - their stock is going to go up.

And Jerry - for goodness sake - LAWYER THE HELL UP! Everyone and their dog is going to take a crack at you from your own shareholders, to the DOJ for that “crazy little partnership” with Google, to Microsoft (dunno what yet, but guaranteed - it’ll be something).

To Microsoft: I wouldn’t have bet you would have walked away from this deal. But, hey, Steve - glad you took a man pill and did. It would have truly been one of the biggest mistakes in the history of the company. And how would that have looked now that Bill has only a couple of months left?

I went out to an upscale “casual dining” restaurant (Cheesecake Factory) - and just wanted to grab some lunch from somewhere without a drive through (for a change).

The people were very nice, the surroundings and ambiance was terrific. Then I get the menu. This thing was (literally) 21 pages long! It was so big - that it actually had advertising in it. Like a magazine.

There were about a million choices in every category: Appetizers, Lite Fare, Soups & Salads, Sandwiches, Pasta, Steak & Chicken, Entrees, Desserts, Beers, Wines By The Glass, Wines, Mixed Drinks…

Ummm… all I wanted was a club sandwich.

Luckily - on page 14a, subsection 4, paragraph 8, line 13 - I did manage to find a club sandwich.

Now, I don’t know about you - but I’m the kind of guy who orders the same two dishes from a particular restaurant every time I go there. I’m not huge on “experimenting” on a new dish. For me, what I like is what I like.

I stuck to my guns and the sandwich was very good (the portion size was as big as my head - and enough to feed a family of 5 in Holland). But, it took me about 10 minutes (and a basket of yummy bread) to plow through all the choices.

The food was good, the experience was good - and maybe next time I’ll try something else…

Now contrast that to In-N-Out Burgers (a hamburger joint here in California and Nevada). They have a menu of two things: Hamburgers or Cheeseburgers. The only variation is how many patties you want and whether or not you want onions on it (you also need to request pickles if you like).

They have one size of drink, they have one size of fries. They have 3 kinds of shakes (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry). That’s it.

Easy. Consistent. Yummy. You know what you want even before you’re at the counter (or drive through order station). And because there are only a few variations - they can crank out absolutely fresh, made-to-order food in record time.

That got me thinking about all the other ways where having too many choices can paralyze the sale - or worse - leave potential revenue on the table. It’s our jobs as business people to make sure that our offerings are clear to our customers - and that we make it easy for them to say “yes”.

Like almost everything in life - choice is great… in moderation.

According to Fortune magazine - AT&T is talking about giving customers of the new iPhone model (rumored to be introduced next month) a $200 rebate in exchange for a 2 year contract.

Hmmm…. it’s not APPLE giving the rebate, but AT&T. And, if you activate your iPhone via Apple, you still have to make a 2 year commitment… so… hmmm.

What is AT&T thinking?

Well, since it’s customary here in the US for carriers to subsidize $100 to $200 on handsets (give them the razor, sell them the blades) anyway, and given the average bill for an iPhone customer is $100 per month - it’s a pretty good bet.

Granted, AT&T doesn’t get to keep all that money - they still have to fork over a percentage to Apple of the monthly revenue - but even if their payback is 3 months - it’s still a good investment for them.

It’s funny - but as of now - Apple won’t be promoting the rebate in their stores - and it sounds like you’ll have to buy the new iPhone directly from AT&T to get the discount. Or not. It’s still unclear on the procedure for the rebate - but if I were AT&T, I’d make them come into the store.

That way I can sell them a headset, mobile charger, iTunes gift card and more. Oh, and I’d also lock the phone so that people can’t just buy the phone, unlock it, and change carriers - OR charge a huge early termination fee and tack the extra $200 rebate on to the penalty.

Since the release date of the iPhone 2.0 hasn’t been announced, and the feature set has not been announced (but will probably be a 3G compatible phone with GPS built-in), AND AT&T has been building out their 3G network for the past year… it will be interesting to watch.

Besides all the ’squishy’ information that is available (read: speculation) - Apple is absolutely jonesing to sell 10 million iPhones THIS year.

I’ll reserve my judgment until things are more firmed up (read: announced) - but there might just be an iPhone in my future…