Boston Public

From: spencer_katt@ziffdavis.com
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 12:18 AM
To: eWEEK readers
Subject: Livin off the land

Back from the road, Spencer was fidgeting in his cramped apartment when the idea hit him. Camping! But where? That very evening, the bucolic babbler was sipping from a bottle of cold duck, while a few yards away, the Boston Public Gardens swan boats glided by as a cousin to the boat birds roasted over Spencers campfire. There were other hot spots in the vicinity, so Spencer fired up his Wi-Fi-enabled laptop and checked out some upcoming conferences.

Scrolling to August, he found The SCO Groups Forum Worldwide Conference in Las Vegas. It would be a must-attend, he thought, given SCOs legal shenanigans and threats over its alleged claims to the Unix code. With the open-source crowd foaming at the mouth over SCOs actions, the legalistic Lynx wondered how thrilled HP might be not only to sponsor the conferences welcome reception at the MGM Grand Hotel but also to fill the strategic partner keynote spot with a yet-to-be-named speaker on opening day. Since HP currently has a large and growing Linux business, thatll be one keynote shuffle Spencer would love to watch. Which Palo Alto janitor would get the call? the Mouser mused. With food and drink always high on his priority list, the foraging Furball noticed while viewing the deets for Julys OReilly Open Source Convention in Portland, Ore., that some conference lunches are being sponsored by Microsoft. “Guess the open-source community is vendor- and platform-neutral—when it comes to free food,” laughed the Lynx.

Picking a feather from his teeth, the omniscient omnivore spied a bottle drifting in his direction across the lagoon. Popping the cork, he found a note inside from a Katt crony claiming intrusion detection system vendors are livid over a recent Gartner report that pronounced the IDS biz DOA. The vendors rebuttal is that Gartner put out the initial report, which also said firewalls will replace most IDS functions, only to generate a buzz around the release of its Magic Quadrant firewalls study. As his stomach rumbled, the gluttonous Grimalkin snagged a paper airplane launched by a swan-boat rider. It was from a Tabby tattler who said Texas Instruments may want to buy Intersil. Grabbing Intersils apps, chip sets and involvement in developing a WLAN standard seems like a good move, pondered the Puss. As a Boston Police Department anti-vagrancy cruiser pulled up along Charles Street, Spencer moved on. Emitting a gamy belch, he quickly exited the green and skatted to Fenway Pahk to see if he could slink under a Yawkey Way turnstile unnoticed. “Life is good,” cackled the Kitty.