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Can a dose of SOA relieve tension? Quote of the week: "[Independent business units] are constantly seeking to diverge in order to meet the specific needs of their customers. At the same time IT continues to work towards increased centralization. As you can imagine, this is creating some tension.... Is SOA the way that... SAP's Apotheker: 'Happy John Wookey joined us'; Business hasn't gotten worse SAP co-CEO Leo Apotheker said Friday that John Wookey, a former Oracle executive, is "a great software man" who will help the enterprise software giant push its software as a service meets on-premise applications strategy. Separately, Apotheker noted that business hasn't gotten worse from the outlook the company gave on... iPhone vs. Android development: Day 5 Today is the last day of a 5-day course on iPhone programming class led by Joe Conway from Big Nerd Ranch. During the course I've been taking notes on how development for the iPhone compares to development for Android. By the way, BNR also offers Android courses if you're interested.... Ulteo offers server based computing solution for Linux desktops, apps Ulteo is now offering what Microsoft and Citrix will not: a server based computing solution for the Linux desktop and Linux applications. The company, which late last year launched the first OpenOffice open source desktop online, has announced the availability of the Open Virtual Desktop... Insurers place first bid made in health reform game Right now insurers can pressure hospitals into forcing that decision on families. Should government have it? Can we set a standard for it? How would you split that baby of cost vs. life? by Dana Blankenhorn Watching the nanoworld in 4-D Caltech researchers have developed a new technique named 4-D electron microscopy to capture images of atoms in real time. They claim that their 4-D microscope will revolutionize the way we look at the nanoworld. Caltech adds that Ahmed Zewail, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and his colleagues,... Still more questions than answers about Microsoft Morro Over the past couple of days, I had a chance to ask Microsoft a few more questions about the disappearance of OneCare and sudden appearance of Morro (a codename and service that no one I've spoken with has heard a peep about until this week). Here are some more tidbits.... Word 2007 ruler tweak A much easier way to controlling the "crazy" ruler in Word 2007, without hassle or mass-customisation. by Zack Whittaker Mac OS X targeted by Trojan and backdoor tool Two new pieces of malware affecting Mac OS X appeared this week, a Trojan horse and a hacker tool for creating backdoors. Two pieces of malicious software affecting Apple's Mac OS X appeared this week: a Trojan horse with the ability to download and install malicious code of an... Ed Tech in a recession At the beginning of this week, I wrote about why the OLPC makes less sense than ever during a recession. Little green netbooks, though, aren't the only things that will get hit as the global economy tanks even further. Next year, our district is looking at a best... Teaming Up to Crack Innovation and Enterprise Integration There is a thought provoking piece in the November issue of the Harvard Business Review written by James I. Cash, Jr., Michael J. Earl, and Robert Morison. Morison is an executive vice president and director of research at nGenera Corporation, while Earl and Cash are... From Chapter Three: The Windows Culture The history of Windows, from 3.11 to Vista, is one of ad hoc adaptation to market conditions and expectational change among customers. To a large extent it's been about playing catch up to Unix and the Mac - with fascinating devolutions along the way. by Paul Murphy Government's star witness undercuts prosecution in suicide case Ashley Grills testifies that she, not Lori Drew, created MySpace profile for 'Josh.' Drew, she says, wanted to use the profile to 'humiliate' the girl who committed suicide. by Richard Koman Explaining SOA failure to the boss: here are some real good excuses 'On the bright side, 70% of our initiatives fail anyway' by Joe McKendrick Unsealed court filing: HP's Hurd had Vista concerns HP CEO Mark Hurd told Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in an e-mail last year that HP's call centers were "being overrun" by customers who were having difficulties upgrading to Windows Vista, a detail that was revealed in the unsealing of a court filing in the Windows Vista Capable lawsuit. ... Microsoft Big Brains: John Shewchuk There are lots of moving parts to Azure, Microsoft's cloud platform. One of the less-flashy but much needed pieces of plumbing is .Net Services, codenamed "Zurich." If there's a "Mr. Zurich" at Microsoft, that person would be Technical Fellow John Shewchuk. by Mary Jo Foley Gartner tries to scare businesses adopting open source The good news? Gartner says that 100 percent of businesses will be using open source within the next 12 months. The bad news? Gartner doesn't really seem to understand open source licensing requirements, and is trying to scare companies into adding bureaucracy around open source adoption. According to Gartner, companies... Microsoft: Free anti-malware for all (Windows users)! The other day Microsoft announced that it would phase-out sales of Windows Live OneCare subscriptions and roll out no-cost anti-malware during the second half of 2009. What does this mean for everyone involved? by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes How Apple gained the upper hand on Microsoft I've just been working my way through hundreds of emails released as part of the Vista Capable lawsuit and there's one phrase that keep coming across that might explain why Apple got the upper hand on Microsoft with Vista. by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes Ginkgo Biloba does not help either The Journal of the American Medical Association published results from a randomized test of ginkgo and found it does nothing to prevent either Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia. by Dana Blankenhorn