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From: spencer_katt@ziffdavis.com
Sent: Monday, September 27, 2004 12:42 AM
To: eWEEK readers
Subject: A flight of stares; CyberTrust in endless loop; Suns SCOrn; drive jive
Spence juggled several nips of Jack Daniels in one hand and his laptop, which was playing one of his new “Star Wars Trilogy” DVDs, in the other whilst he jetted back to Boston from a jaunt around the left coast. With his headphones keeping him blissfully unaware of the umbrage his fellow passengers were taking at his monotonous mouthing of the movies epic music, the Mouser was musing on how the space saga eventually comes full circle. “Much like the way the name Cybertrust seems to have come full circle,” the Kitty cackled to himself. Cybertrust is the newly born security company created by the megamerger between TruSecure and Betrusted. Spence recalled, although few others would, that the PKI software Betrusted sells came from a company called Baltimore Technologies. Baltimore bought the technology four years ago from GTE, where the name of the division that had developed it was—you guessed it—CyberTrust.
Certainly, Suns relationship with Unix has come full circle, too, thought Spence. As speculation mounts over whether SCO is planning to take legal action against Sun as it prepares to open-source the code for Solaris, Sun seems to scarcely give a shrug. John Loiacono, Suns executive vice president of software, told the Tabby, “We believe we stand on a very solid legal foundation.” Sun hasnt discussed the matter with SCO, Loiacono said. “When we did deals many years ago with them and their predecessors, who had the license rights at that time, we knew full well what we wanted to do, so we didnt need to have that conversation again now. This isnt something we just did in the last few months; this is something we started a long time ago and has taken a long time to happen.” While SCO spokesmen havent said theyll go after Sun, they have stated that even though Sun has paid over $100 million for broad rights to Unix, there are still restrictions on what it can do with the source code.
Fueled by Jack, Spence remained aloft, even as his flight landed. As the fermented Furball jumped into a cab, he cringed at a cacophony in his khakis that turned out to be his new “Star Wars” ring tone. The caller claimed that the word on Wall Street is that EMC is likely to invest aggressively to build out its information life-cycle management capabilities. OuterBay Technologies, CreekPath Systems and Quest Software have all been mentioned as acquisition targets.
Battling a boozy belief that his cab driver was actually Yoda, the diminutive Jedi instructor, El Gato recalled hearing that Microsoft has found a way to make sure its sales team is constantly being instructed in the dark side of the Force—even while driving. In its never-ending battle against the Linux rebellion, the Redmondian empire has implemented an internal training program called Drive Time. As sales folk drive to and fro, theyre expected to listen to CD updates that instruct them on Microsofts policies and how to discuss Linux with customers. “Yikes, even Darth Vader needs some occasional easy listening in the cockpit,” laughed the Lynx.