Despite the claims of the Greens to be open source advocates, their website, according to a diligent reader who checked out Netcraft's analysis, runs Microsoft-IIS/4.0 on NT4/Windows 98. In the interests of fairness, here's what the other parties (or their IT contractors) are running:
A visiting SAP executive acknowledged recently that, yes, membership of WTO aside, it's quite possible to pick up an inexpensive copy of its (not inexpensive) R/3 suite on CD at the markets in Shanghai, "but it won't help you much -- you won't get the support or maintenance".
He may no longer be the National Party’s IT spokesman (the mantle has passed to Helensville MP John Key. Who?), but Maurice Williamson will surely continue to get invitations to the Computerworld Excellence Awards. In past years Williamson has provided more laughs than the paid entertainment. This year, with the awards being presented in the same week he was suspended from caucus, he had more material to work with than he could use. (Actually, he was under instructions from his lawyer not to use it.) Williamson -- presenter of the e-business of the year award -- more or less obeyed, allowing himself to loudly declare his love of winning (as opposed to his party’s tendency to come runner-up?). He then dramatically mock-signalled his surrender to the party hierarchy. But not very convincingly.
We got this one again this week and couldn't help tweaking it. It's the one about the definition of Marketing:
With the SCO controversy cracking along times already seemed to be good for intellectual property lawyers serving the IT industry. They just got better with news that Qualcomm is to sue Texas Instruments over TI allegedly breaching a patent licencing agreement with Qualcomm to do with cellphone chip technology. (TI is disputing the claim, saying it is "without merit".) We might note that if we were Qualcomm, we might get a new general counsel or at least make him change his name: the present holder of that position is a Mr Lou Lupin. But then they love their odd names stateside: take a squiz at the spokespeople in any of the stories about the SCO Linux suit.