Free ZIP software from PKWare

Not sure how many of you recall, PKWare, the company that created PKZip program. They are offering free SecureZip utility for Individual use. Go to http://www.securezip.com/ for more info.
You could also try this link.

webMethods after Software AG

I have been having offline and online discussions with people about Software AG's acquisition of webMethods. Some of the concerns that we have discussed are:

• Combined Company has multiple overlapping products: Products from Software AG, webMethods and Infravio overlap in SOA Registry area. They would have to identify how they want to position these products.
• webMethods' History of Combining different finished products is not so great. They spent a hugh amount of time developing products such as Modeler, Workflow etc and took a long time to merge them.
• webMethods' History of Product Upgrade is not great either: Customers who upgraded from ActiveWorks/webMethods Version 4 Solution to their Version 5 and then Version 6 would tell you nightmares they have had trying to do the upgrade. Now the customers face a similar issue upgrading from Workflow to the new modeling tool.
• A foreign company: webMethods has had large Federal Accounts: DoD, Military using webMethods for EDI etc. Would they want to buy same software from a non-american company? It is not a fair world out there.
• Open Source: webMethods has been using Open Source Tools into its products for a long time now. It built first version of webMethods Manager and Optimize on Tomcat, Hybernate etc. It used embedded Tomcat Server for variety of purpose. But it has not been so great in contributing to Open Source. Now it faces increasing compitition from open source world itself. Without having partners in that arena, it faces a great challange in small and medium enterprises.
• Losing F2000 Customers: webMethods positioned itself as a solution provider in Fortune 2000 arena. That is a highly crowded space. Integration Tools from SAP and Oracle when bundled with respective ERP solutions promise a better value proposition to the Fortune 2000 companies. Fortune 2000 companies also find that their IT Teams tooled in Java and Java Servers are able to adapt to SAP and Oracle's J2EE solution easily compared to a non-J2EE webMethods (this is also being seen as a way to lower TCO by not requiring specialized webMethods skillset).

There are more things to discuss... will wait to hear comments.

IONA acquires LogicBlaze

IONA acquired LogicBlaze, a company with an open source Integration Platform apart from active supporter of Apache ServiceMix and ActiveMQ. They do not appear planning to provide support for LogicBlaze's products, which may cause worry for its 20 customers. But it means other Vendors may have a chance at these customers, unless IONA offers them an option.

Integration Space, Who remains?

After webMethods's aquisition, 0nly pure play ESB/Integration ISV that remains in the market are TIBCO (going strong and moving into other areas such as AJAX), IONA (which has developed a decent open source strategy as well as has a legacy of CORBA Servers to sustain on 2005 –ve, 2006 +ve) and Vitria (already burning money ;-ve net income in last two years). See the graph comparing their fortunes from Google Finance.

There are other integration tools such as Sterling Commerce (very strong in EDI and SupplyChain Space) from AT&T stable, and Seebeyond (now part of Sun), We have to wait and see how they grow.

Software AG to Aquire webMethods

Also see http://www.softwareag.com/Corporate/Company/latestnews/20070405_WebMethods_page.asp.

Why?
First Thoughts:

• I think all the 3rd Party ISV Integration Tools are losing market share (new license revenue as well as from existing customer accounts).
• Fortune 2000 companies are moving away from Home Grown Legacy applications to off-the-shelf Enterprise Applications.
• Off-the-shelf Enterprise Applications are promising better integration capabilities, as a result, clientsforesee a reduced need to perform internal integrations using Integration Tools.
• Proliferation of SAP XI and Oracle Fusion bundled with ERP Rollout has reduced size of market for ISV integration tools.
• webMethods' lack of footprint in J2EE space makes it less attractive (say compared against a JBoss, webSphere or webLogic based Integration Tool)
• Its investment in SOA Space (in terms of money spent in acquisitions of about 6 companies in last 4 years) did not pay off very well (compared to pure play SOA companies such as Cape Clear).

IONA Acquires C24

IONA is on acquisition spree. It aquired C24, a company that is in Finance Messaging Standards.

Are you about to start an Open Source Project? Here are Tips

John D'Addamio has written a decent write up on how to start an Open Source Project and some Tips around it. Well, Considering that he works for Microsoft (!!) as an Open Source evangelist, it is worth a read. On their own, these tips are excellent and holds true.

Wireless Mesh Network

I am facinated by Mesh Networks. But I never found a very good example to explain to someone. I finally found one at OLCP's site. (Kudos). Here is the link .

Windows Vista

If you wish to run Windows Vista and buying a laptop right now? What would you need?
Here is a readup. But make sure to look for Premium Configuration as otherwise, you will not be able to run the new "GUI" from Microsoft. Whoever said that you don't need more hardware to run a new Microsoft OS must be turning in his grave. Microsoft has always proved that their new OS will need more ram and more processing power then ever. Now it also needs more hardware resources. Read more about it here.

I would stick to XP and if I need to swtich, will switch to Mac or Linux. MacOS can give a similar or better GUI now and a cheaper configuration too.

Easy to use free accounting software from Microsoft

Microsoft is offering a free accounting software for USA. Check it out here...

Easy to use free accounting software from Microsoft

John Battelle's Searchblog: Google Has My Credit Card Number Now

John Battelle's Searchblog: Google Has My Credit Card Number Now has a very nice write up and on that if you read comment from Sadagopan, you probably do not want to use google checkout any more.

Sadagopan's weblog on Emerging Technologies,Thoughts, Ideas,Trends and Cyberworld

On Sadagopan's weblog on Emerging Technologies,Thoughts, Ideas,Trends and Cyberworld, he says that time of web 2.0 has come.

In a way it is true. The way web is designed and running till now is such that only techies (not geeks, just techies) found it usable. Even to send an email, it made it so complex with stuff such as return receipt etc. Hopefully web 2.0 will make internet accessible to rest of the folks.

Windows X’s Shrine

Do you want to make your Windows XP look like Vista? Check out Vista Transformation Pack by Windows X here.

Microsoft, Netware and other Linux Vendors

What does it mean with the lastest hoolabaloo about Microsoft tying up with Novell?

IMHO, Microsoft has succeed.
What about Linux Distros? Well, if Novell faced an issue (Interesting enough, SUSE was going pretty well), other Linux Distros will surely face a similar issue. If Novell was just interested in getting 300MN$, it would have easily sold of SUSE to someone such as Oracle, Sun or Google (i am sure Oracle would be interested).

What about other large Linux Supporters such as Oracle? Well, Microsoft is trying to kill Linux Completely. In fact, in mid-to-large server segment, Linux is (and was?) first real threat to Microsoft. Solaris achieved a status and is just maintaining it as a leading Unix OS. Mac OS X is still years away from becoming the darling of corporations in running their mail servers and directories (Exchange, Actrive Directory are probably most sold products of Microsoft in server segment). Linux based mail and ldap have become easy to setup and maintain. Companies like oracle had performed sufficient harm to the whole scenario by buying off various small opensource entities such as SleepyCat/Berkley, which were running as backbone of many such Linux based system.

What is this occuring? A reason behind why this may be occuring is partially becausing of IP Laws as well as how the licenses are structured. OpenSource companies have to find a way to make product seperate from the company. Right now buying a company allows the buyer to literally kill the product. It should be structured such a way that product remains alive even after company is purchased by someone else.

What about Patent Laws: US need to something about the law. If someone finds a new way of holding a pencil that will make writing easier, can he patent it? I think with the current law, I can (provided I get the right lawyer to get it worded correctly). Patents were about technology and innovation, but instead they have become a legal battleground. If nothing is done about it, the market will be shrunk.

What does the threat lie now?
What about Other OpenSource based OS? OpenSolaris? Mac X OS? Would Microsoft go behind them too? There are several other opensource operating systems, all of them have a problem now.

What about the 100$ laptop that Media Lab of MIT was building. It was supposed to be running a flavour of linux. Now, if Linux is in danger, then this project is also in the danger. A laptop running Windows Vista will need atleast 800$ of cash, which means no one can afford it any more in 3rd and 4th world countries. So we can forget about educating kids with easily available technology, atleast for 30 years (assuming that patterns expire in 30 years).

Windows XP and Service Pack 3

Mary Jo Foley writes " Windows XP Service Pack (SP 3), which Microsoft officials said in January to expect in the latter half of 2007, now has slipped into 2008" at http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/index.php?p=54&ta.... That is a lot of bad news for Windows Users, but probably good news for Sun and Various Linux vendors. What this is going to do is, force lot of Windows Users to determine if it is good for them to stay on Windows with some of their apps, or move to Vista or other platforms for better management. Just to think, if Sun ties up with Dell to ship Sun Solaris on AMD based Dell boxes or even Intel based Dell boxes.. what could happen?

Free Antivirus?

Are you looking for a free Anti-Virus for your PC? Look no further, there are two simple solutions.

If you are running Windows 2000 or XP, there is Grisoft's Free Antivirus... It may be lacking some of the features and It may be annoying a bit... but it works, and it gets updated regularly. Updated: There is a new version available out there, so if you already downloaded one, be sure to download the updated one now.

If you are running Windows XP, then you have an option of using Google Pack. Follow the link on this page and you could download Norton Antivirus 2005 which is part of Google Pack for free.

Uptime on Windows NT/W2K

I was trying to find out how to find uptime of my W2K laptop (not sure why Microsoft did not provide such utilities bundled with OS itself, or as an option to install). Then I stumbled onto a link, which finally directed me to the Uptime Utility's URL at Microsoft.com. Here it is again for you all to download and get going: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q232243/.

Free WiFi HotSpots and Security concern

Well, if you are dependant on WiFi, then this article is really useful to understand implications of using Freely available WiFi signals. Apart from that, this article also applies to using free WiFi Signals available around your home (unauthorise use of such signal is not legal).

Check out the link at ZDnet.

GE: Laptop with data on 50,000 staffers stolen

Well, Looks like Data Thives have started targeting Corporations too. Companies would have to look at data security outside their organization, apart from their internal organization itself, as almost all the companies have data travelling outside always in one or other form.

Google and Microsoft

Well, Wouldn't you think that Google competes with Microsoft?

Hint: Let me ask you a question. If you need more information on Microsoft, which search engine will you use?



Well, Google does provide a search page configured to search for microsoft specific sites. Difficult to believe? click here.