Compulsive Gamboling

"Why waste money and time on back-and-forth flights? And speaking of wasted time, I would have to use the new online travel system to book them," prattled the peripatetic Puss as he persuaded his editor to let him stay in Las Vegas for two weeks. So what if the bean counters wouldnt let him stay in a room? The gambling Grimalkin was willing to bet he could survive off casino comps alone.

During the Veritas Vision conference at the Venetian Hotel, Veritas CEO Gary Bloom dropped hints the software vendor may make yet another acquisition. "Certainly, we have the appetite to do more acquisitions and the financial resources to satisfy that appetite," said Bloom.

In the last 16 months, Veritas has acquired Ejasent, Precise Software and Jareva Technologies to pump up its utility computing muscle. "Im betting the next Veritas purchase will be a services vendor," Spence thought, as he rested his head on a slot machine and dozed off.

Soon he was being escorted roughly from the premises. It was an inelegant exit, contrasting sharply with the grand entrance of JBoss CEO Marc Fleury during dinner at TheServerSide Java Symposium. Fully attired as Batmans nemesis The Joker, Fleury emerged from a service door of the Venetians banquet hall, prancing among tables and yelling, "This industry needs an enema!"

Fleury was acknowledging his designation as the joker in a playing-card deck touting the 52 most influential people in the enterprise Java space created by The Middleware Company—which sponsors TheServerSides popular Java and .Net Web sites. The Whos Who deck, which also includes eWEEK reporter Darryl K. Taft, can be viewed at www.middleware-company.com/whoswho.

Spence awoke the next morning when gondoliers from the Venetian roused him from the hold of a vessel in the hotels faux Grand Canal. Two matrons took pity on the Kitty and kept him in style until NetWorld+Interop began.

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," thought the gossipy gigolo as he declined a free 32MB USB Memory Stick being handed out during Cisco CEO John Chambers N+I keynote. The show is still a shadow of its former size, and El Gato hears that next years N+I will set up at the Mandalay Bay, rather than try to fill the vast Las Vegas Convention Center again. As the Katt chatted with attendees, "power-sucking aliens" was the term used by one of them to describe new blades or service modules integrated with network switches.

The N+I IT folks did a great job shielding the show network from worms and such, but Spence heard that several worms may have ventured to the Internet after originating in the event network itself. "No defense like a good offense, perhaps?" laughed the Lynx.

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