McBride, Darl McBride

Some like it hot, but the cool Kitty opted for air conditioning and open bars during his recent travels, which included Hotlanta and Lost Wages. HP World organizers must have thought the searing heat had gone to the Furry Ones head when he congratulated them for skipping idle chatter about utility computing and adaptive enterprises in favor of beauty products.

Unbeknownst to show planners, a slightly inebriated El Gato had traveled to the wrong end of the Georgia World Congress Center and had spent the bulk of the day at the Bronner Brothers Hair Show. Wondering which section editor would be clamoring for his in-depth product reviews on Hot Six Oil and Braid Spray, the now mahvelously coiffed Kitty was ready for a night on the town.

While watching the Padres brutalize the Braves, thanks to complimentary tickets supplied by baseball great Warren Spahn, a Tabby tattler informed the Kitty that HPs hope for a quick merger of systems—thanks to its Utility Data Center—might not be a cakewalk. E-mail seems to be the sticking point for HP and Compaq systems integration. As late as last month, former Compaq sites in Europe could not exchange e-mail with HP messaging systems.

Jumping from the frying pan into the fire, the Katt moved on to the SCO Forum and the scorching 100-plus-degree heat of Las Vegas. Spence was happily surprised to be once again enjoying an open bar and large amounts of food, courtesy of HP, but not surprised that HP decided to forgo any other role at the event. The company bowed out of planned keynote and Q&A slots at the show. HP wasnt the only company trying to downplay any current association with SCO.

The Kitty asked SCO CEO Darl McBride why Intel had withdrawn its much-trumpeted support of the forum. McBride unblushingly explained that Intel had never agreed to sponsor the event, so it had not actually withdrawn support. SCOs marketing department had gotten it wrong and had advertised Intels support erroneously for weeks, claimed Darlin Darl, only to correct the mistake just days before the event. “Yeah, thats the ticket,” cackled the Kitty. The Katt was further dismayed when a film said to illustrate a day in the life of McBride, shown prior to Darl taking the stage at the MGM Grand, turned out to be footage from James Bond movies. “Does McBride really see himself as a hero, or is he just trying to further enrage the open-source-code crowd?” pondered the Puss.

Just as it seemed nothing stranger could happen, SCO announced it had hired a senior staffer from the “enemy.” Gregory Blepp, a former VP at Linux vendor SuSE, is now a VP for SCOsource, the division seeking to protect licensing for SCOs Unix property. “I guess he didnt notice all the folks running in the opposite direction,” laughed the Lynx.