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From: spencer_katt@ziffdavis.com
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 12:42 AM
To: eWEEK readers
Subject: IT matters again; Google gotchas; McNealy-mouthed mock-ups
“It beats sitting home playing the Sims,” responded the Rumormonger to a fellow attendee at the annual SIMposium conference of the Society for Information Management, in Beantown. Right out of the gate, IT researcher and author Don Tapscott beat up on his absent sparring partner, IT critic and “Does IT Matter?” author Nicholas G. Carr. “I have a big advantage in our debates, which is, hes wrong,” tittered Tapscott to the sycophantic SIM-ers.
As the famished Furball attempted to retrieve a roll of Smarties candy that had dropped under his seat, he overheard two attendees saying Indian financial services giant Karvy will soon take the plunge into the outsourcing market. The companys efforts will focus on accounts payable, technical services and transaction processing, said the duo, who suddenly became quiet upon spying the confection-craving Kitty crawling below them. Sated with sweets once again, the Mouser was amused when industry analyst Bruce Rogow began his talk by introducing himself as the Yoda of the IT community, noting that his pate resembled the sparse coif of the Jedi Master. Rogow, who has been crisscrossing the country chatting with IT leaders in his so-called CIO Odyssey, sees wintry budget freezes giving way to springlike growth strategies. But Rogow lost his Yodian serenity at one point, blurting out that he was too old for bs and saying, “We as a community need to step up. This room should be packed, but its not. Wheres the commitment?”
In a brimstone-avoidance maneuver, Spence skatted a couple of blocks to the Pour House Bar, where he and a friend raised a glass in memory of industry good guy Lew Platt, former Hewlett-Packard chairman and CEO. After drying a tear with a bar napkin, the friend praised Googles new blog search tool, in beta at google.com/blogsearch. “Maybe I can do a search to see if any bloggers know why, when you type News in the URL bar of Firefox, the automatic Google look-up sends you to the BBC News site, rather than to CNets home, as in former days.” Similarly, typing “ZDNetnews” in the Firefox bar sends you to ZDNet Japan. “Could Google be retaliating against CNet for some tough coverage over the summer?” wondered the Maven of Murmur.
Between rounds, Spence fielded a call from a crony who said that Suns “Rhymes with Hell” ad for its new server is not as funny as the ads Sun CEO Scott McNealy dreamed up but didnt get to run at www.sun.com/emrkt/rejected/index.html. The ads, which tout headlines such as “100% More Bitchin than Dell” and “Benchmark Studies Prove that Dell Sucks,” illustrate clearly who is currently in Suns cross hairs. Noting that Sun cant seem to exist without an enemy, the Mouser mused that the potty-mouth mock-ups recalled past McNealy stunts, such as leading his pet dog “Network” to a hydrant labeled Microsoft. “Ah, Scott. Still immature after all these years,” laughed the Lynx.