Monday, September 06, 2010

Hurd: From HP To Oracle

Steven Paul Jobs, called Steve Jobs, co-founde...Image via Wikipedia
New York Times: Former H.P. Chief May Move To Oracle: In an e-mail to The New York Times, Mr. Ellison called the H.P. board’s action “the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.” .... Oracle, which Mr. Ellison founded 30 years ago, is the world’s largest database software maker; Mr. Ellison has been its only chief executive. For years, the company has been a close partner with H.P., which sells computing systems and services to corporations. But since Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems, in a deal that closed early this year, Oracle and H.P. have become competitors in the market for computer hardware..... Ellison remains heavily involved in Oracle, but the day-to-day operations are largely overseen by two presidents .... During his tenure, H.P. surpassed I.B.M. as the No. 1 technology company, as revenue increased to $115 billion a year, from $80 billion.

I have not read up much on this Hurd story, and I am reading now only because Larry Ellison seems to have become personally involved.

What happened?

Mark Hurd was the top guy at HP. He was never accused of having sexual relations with a marketing consultant to the company. Looks like the two had dinner together.

It is like finally the FBI said, Martha Stewart has not been proven guilty of what she was originally accused of, but since we went after her, we have decided she lied to us on one small detail of when were investigating, so Martha went to jail for a few months because she was not found guilty of what they thought she was guilty of. That was mediocre, sexist men going after a rare woman entrepreneur, a billionaire.

Mark Hurd did not have a relationship with this woman. He had dinner. Originally the HP Board thought maybe some form of impropriety took place. But by the time they found out that was not the case they realized they had already been going after him. So they had to get him for something.

And so they found some small detail.

I have not read much up on Hurd. Actually for the longest time I was angry they kicked Carly Fiorina out and got someone else.

Larry's language is pretty strong. I agree with the Apple idiots part. Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison are best friends. This perhaps gives Larry an opportunity to express again his anger at Steve Jobs' ouster from Apple back in the 1980s. That might be motivation enough. Otherwise Hurd is no Steve Jobs. Even Larry would agree. But the point is taken. They should never have fired Steve Jobs.

At the end of the day what has happened is Oracle has made a smart human resource move.

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Search Neutrality

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...Image via CrunchBase
New York Times: Bits: Texas Attorney General Investigates Google Search: “Given that not every Web site can be at the top of the results, or even appear on the first page of our results, it’s unsurprising that some less relevant, lower quality websites will be unhappy with their ranking” ..... The issue is front and center as Google moves into many new business areas, including local business listings, shopping comparison and travel...... Microsoft finances Foundem’s backer and that its antitrust attorneys represent the other two.

Google has become big enough that it should warrant an anti trust poke. I don't think there is any merit to this Texas cowboy approach to Google, but this tells me Google has become really big now. Looks like Microsoft might be playing some behind the scenes roles. That is unfortunate. Microsoft is losing big in mobile, and its Windows is going archaic, and you can do with Office you can do online for free these days. The idea that Bing is lagging because Google is anti competitive is whispers.

The next thing you know some of these people will want Google to make public its search algorithms. If you think SEO scheming is bad enough today, imagine what after that. Coke has its secret sauce, as does Pepsi, as does KFC. So does Google have its secret sauce.

Microsoft is not losing to Google in search. Microsoft never really was in the ring in the first place. Microsoft has an Economics major CEO. What can it expect?
Google Public Policy Blog: Texas Inquires On Our Approach To Competition: our success is earned the right way -- by building great products, not locking in our users or advertisers...... recent filings have revealed that the company’s own servers overheated, explaining their reduced traffic.

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Privacy, Digital Literacy, Technology, Social Values

JP Rangaswami / BTImage by Ribbit Voice via Flickr
Confused Of Calcutta: JP Rangaswami: Musing About A New Kind Of Literacy: There’s a new game in town, where the surveillance is all digital. Where everything we do is monitored and recorded and analysed and used, ostensibly to help us. Ostensibly. A world of digital fingerprints...... We’ve gotten used to the idea of people “following” us in a digital world, subscribing to stuff we publish. Here we know that others are watching us. ..... Many of the things we do are recorded, and we know about it. Many of the things we do are recorded, and we give permission for that recording to take place. Some of the things we do are recorded with our permission and we don’t understand enough about it..... A new kind of literacy is needed.

This post by JP, the guy who introduced me to Twitter, (@jobsworth) touches upon a topic that took Facebook by storm not long back. So what is privacy? What does it mean today? Does it mean any different than it used to?

Privacy is not a technological breakthrough, it is a social value. The ongoing debate on privacy is an interesting intersection point between technology, its possibilities, and a fundamental social value.

We do want our search results to be smart. We want out smartphone to know us like it is nice to have our barber know us. It feels like a privilege. Bloggers wanting page hits are not exactly trying to hide, and that is most bloggers, almost all bloggers. Sharing of ideas is about getting out into the open. And perhaps that is why blogging in my personal favorite social media tool. You can't give me too many page hits. There is no ceiling I have in mind. I am not complaining.

But there are personal details I would not want to share, and I don't put those online. But my propensity to mostly stick to ideas means I don't have to get overly cautious. Come, let's talk.

Facebook's privacy options are not even that complicated. But the fact that the average person rose up in arms on the issue shows that which JP calls "literacy" is for real. People need to be educated about what is going on and what their options are.

People have the option to share. People have the option to not share. And they need to know. But just like universal literacy in the old sense was never really achieved, I don't see how digital literacy will be any different. In which case we have to be watchful of instances of abuse and possibly even criminal activity. I guess the online world is not all that different from its offline counterpart then.

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