Modern Headhunting

El Gato was glad to be back home in Boston, where the political scandals seem quaint when compared with the three-ring circus being conducted in Cali for the governors seat. While home, the Kitty got a new lesson in high-tech headhunting when he checked out the XML Web Services One show under way in Beantown.

As Don Box, a lead architect from Microsoft, gave his keynote address, he spotted Ximian CTO Miguel de Icaza in the audience and yelled, “Miguel, I brought an employment application. Your ass is mine!” Microsoft has been trying to scoop up all the XML and Web services talent it can, but Spence thinks Box should consider writing an updated “The Art of the Deal” for the new millennium.

The Katt soon began annoying patrons at a trendy Hub seafood joint as he loudly chatted on his cell with tipsters and downed Buzzards Bay ale. One Tabby tattler tried to convince the Kitty that the in-house rumor at BMC was that Dell may be looking to acquire the company. A Dell spokeswoman laughed and told the Furball, “Really, I heard EMC was going to buy them” and quickly added, “But Dell doesnt comment on rumors or speculation.” “If Dell needed monitoring tools, BMC would certainly have the Remedy,” mused the Mouser.

Spence got another call from a tattler, who said the Kittys June 30 column, which said IDS vendors were up in arms over a Gartner report that declared the IDS biz DOA, may have been read by someone in D.C. A few weeks ago, Pentagon officials called on Gartner analyst Richard Stiennon to explain why he thought IDS was dead. To add to the fun, the DOD invited a whos who of IDS vendors and security experts to the meeting. Several vendors representatives, including Greg Shipley, CTO of Neohapsis test labs, took the analyst to task for claiming that none of the IDS vendors products ran faster than 600M bps. Shipley said his lab tests found that most of the products ran well above 750M bps. Stiennon, who admitted his research methods involved calling some Gartner customers and asking how they liked their IDSes, remained unconvinced.

Unable to afford scalpers price for a Red Sox ticket, the Tawny Titan heard from an East Coast paralegal while he watched the game from a saloon near Fenway Park. The legal eagle claimed two large Linux customers are eyeing racketeering charges against SCO for asking for money before it proves its case. They would need about four more companies to come forward, claimed the tattler. “Seems like a dream come true for some attorney general,” said the Furball.