Also, more details on my current company to follow shortly.

Feel free to call me paranoid or skeptical. why? I really don’t see the point in Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) buying out Sun (NASDAQ: JAVA). It just does not make any straight forward business sense. Of course, as  pundits believe, Oracle  deliberately jumped into the deal to cut off IBM (NYSE: IBM) from taking over Sun, especially for the big enterprise accounts. Still many Fortune 1000 enterprises use Sun OS and hardware products, which often runs Oracle. If IBM takes over Sun, so goes the big accounts and as well the database market. So from a strategic point of view, while it may appear to make sense, there is more than meets the eye.

I am not going to dwell into why did Oracle buy Sun, rather the ramifications to Sun’s intellectual properties. Let’s get the basics straight: I am a big fan of Sun. Their intellectual capital is tremendous and their hardware is top notch.  I’d hate to see those IPs going astray. Now that Oracle owns Sun, while it may help protect their database turf from DB2, there is more headache lies ahead. Why?

1. Oracle is not a hardware company. If the super-agile Dell (NASDAQ: DELL)  is having issues with the hardware market, what would happen to Oracle? In other words, Oracle has very limited knowledge of running hardware business -  It’s a commodity business and a tough one.
2. Oracle software executions skills are highly questionable outside the database realm. Every wonder why they have to buy so many companies? For example, Oracle application server (for running Web sites) was a disaster. Answer: buy out WebLogic. The point is: it takes lot more effort, with less reward,  to manage operating systems and related tools. In other words, Sun Solaris is headed for the dead pool.
3. One of Oracle’s core business is high-margin consulting and trouble shooting services. I have seen cases, where you pay way more than you would for an attorney for their consulting services. Sun does not have any product/service for which business would be willing to fork-over top dollars that easily. In other words, there is no easy money out there with Sun’s products.

What Oracle needs to do:

1. Shed the hardware business as soon as possible. Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO)  may be a potential candidate with their new server offerings. Even the printer guys at Palo Alto, for the sake of improved market share, would be interested. I honestly believe, IBM may also be interested in it. But there is too much ego and prestige at stake here between Oracle and IBM, and the deal is unlikely to happen.
2. Heavily push the Sun software products into the Open Source realm. With Linux running wild, there is no money with Sun Solaris. Even sun had gloriously failed with their Open Solaris initiative. Sun failed to attract the developer market, which is already cornered by the Mac, Ubuntu and, to some extent RedHat.
3. JavaFX: This is a problem child with troubling times ahead. With iPhone, Android, Palm and Blackberry running wild, the potential market share is rapidly diminishing. Plus, it’ll be too expensive to maintain it as a product. Recommendation: Kill it. Or donate to a open source community and watch it die slowly, but at least it wont die  on Oracle’s hands. It’s a totally different discussion if Sun had secured, in writing, partnership deals with any wireless carrier.
4. ZFS: This is an amazing product and I would hate to see this go bad. Sun was trying to release it kinda-like-an-open-source-model while trying to exercise  control over the IP. Every other operating system (OS) desperately needs this technology. Oracle could come out as the good guys by removing the IP restrictions so that other OS  could benefit.
5. Netbeans, JRuby, and etc.:  It takes lot of capital to manage these products, with poor ROI, which won’t bode well with Oracle’s stock holders. Three years from now, I would be surprised to see most of these products in the market. Hopefully, the open source community would step in and help out.
6. MySQL: This is the most anticipated product with everyone wondering about its future anxiously. Lots of companies rely on MySQL for their database back-end: from Last.fm to Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO). Oracle needs to tread this issue carefully to reap the economic benefits of MySQL, while without alienating the startups.
7. Virtualization and cloud computing: Sun has all the ingredients to support next generation cloud computing. Is Oracle interested in it? Why not offer Amazon’s EC2-like hosting services? It’s doable, but requires patience and capital - would the shareholders support it?

Conclusion

Oracle claims that Java was one of the main reason for their acquisition. Amen, someone please better take care of Java. I do, however, believe IBM would have done a better job of taking care of Java. Whether Oracle gets any benefits out of this merger or not, certainly Postgress would as more startups are now seriously considering it as a MySQL alternative.  Finally, Sun has (or rather had?) an army of smart engineers. What would happen to them? There is no saying how Oracle would treat them. But I sincerely hope these smart engineers could form a new generation of open community delivering leading edge open source products. Just remember, one guy started the Linux revolution!

Disclaimer

I had hoped that Cisco would buy Sun: may be my point of view is skewed because of that!

At the beginning of her presentation, Mary just made a casual reference to her husband (Randy), who happened to be in the same classroom. Mary said “Randy has MS and is off the medicine for six years” and continued on. Hold on!! I was surely baffled and confused, did I hear it wrong? How can someone with MS be off the drugs. I was even tempted to interrupt her presentation, but decided to wait till the end. I convinced myself that the MS referred by Mary Ellen has nothing do with Multiple Sclerosis. To be honest, I didn’t pay any attention whatsoever to her presentation. To keep the story short, I rushed to Randy after the presentation to confirm what I heard. That’s how I came to know Randy and Mary Ellen  Drone.

Randy got diagnosed with MS way back in 1995, shortly after his marriage to Mary Ellen. Up until the diagnosis, Randy was a typical American dude or call it regular Joe - you know what that means. Both him and Mary Ellen had to endure the same trials and tribulations as Richard Cohen/Merdith Vera. Randy was put on numerous drugs as usual. You have seen people with diabetes and cholesterol taking numerous drugs on a daily basis. Just imagine how many tablets a MS patients had to take - ($2500.00) a month. As with any chronic disease, Randy’s situation only got worse and lost muscles strength on the leg, had to resort to crutches. Meanwhile, Randy also tried many other things - physical, medical, etc, - and nothing worked. Randy was not a religious or spiritual person until then. Someone then  recommended Randy to find solace with religion and god. Remember he had nothing more left lose, so he decide to explore the religious avenues.

I am sure you are all wondering about magic. In order to keep things in a non-religious perspective, I have taken the liberty of condensing  my discussions with Randy. Here it is, according to Randy.

The root cause for all the problems were the negative thoughts (Specifically “Self-Hatred”) and it’s internal manifestations. Or call it negative energy which makes things go from bad to worse. MS is real, but I was making it worse with my actions and path of self-destructing emotional andNon-spiritual thoughts. Exposure to Christian Spirituality and God, with the help of my pastor’s teachings about the spirit/soul/ body connection, helped me to put things in perspective, I started to manage my spiritual thoughts and energy, which took me off the self-destruction path. As I started to better manage my thoughts, I slowly started reducing drugs to point where I don’t need  MS drugs anymore.

To someone who does not know MS, Randy or his personal experience, the above statement would sound like a big baloney. Believe me, MS is real and Randy is also real. For me, what Randy has achieved through positive thoughts and Spiritual Growth and is amazing, call it a miracle.

Note: If you would like talk or meet Randy in person, write us an email. We’ll forward your requests to Randy, if appropriate. Please include the reason why you would like to meet  him.  Currently, he lives in Cumming, Forsyth County, Georgia, USA.

[after usual pleasantry exchanges, we delved into the issue at hand]

me: Saw your review about John Doe on LinkedIn? Why? Has anything changed?

Friend: Well, our company is in a free fall and everyone is preparing for the next job. As a result, everyone is giving others good LinkedIn recommendations.

Me: But.. wait, you hate this guy, right? how can you write such a review?

Friend: Agreed. I hope to never  see this guy after this job. But he has lot of friends in LinkedIn and I need his help to get the job.

Me: Hmm… Something is seriously wrong, I knew you are a righteous freak, so tell me the truth.

[after some more convincing and cajoling, my friend opens up!]

Friend: Honestly, he sent me a request for recommendation. Given the economic situation,  I didn’t know what to do - I couldn’t afford to either ignore or give bad recommendation. So I decided to take the high road by giving a good recommendation. I knew it was wrong, but what can I do.

Me: You know that your are passing the buck here, right? Someone in the near feature will go through what you are now enduring.

Friend: Yes, I feel for those guys, what can I do!

Me: Wait a minute here… those could be your friends. You friends could very well hire this guy based on your own review.

Friend: Oops, hopefully my friends would call me before hiring this John Doe.

I am not saying all LinkedIn recommendations are bad. But here are few things to watch out for:

1. Try to ignore recommendations from team members and subordinates.
2. Be alarmed if someone has numerous reviews. Obviously they are trying to hide something.
3. Before hiring our John Doe, check how many of his co-workers or team members in his current job were from his previous companies. If  none, then you got a hot potato in your hand; just move on. This is especially true for senior roles.
4. Ignore recommendations from vendors, which are useless. Vendors are always willing to give good recommendations to score future businesses.

Cisco executives played down the potential for serious conflict [with other server vendors]. “We see this not as a new market, but a market transition,” said Padmasree Warrior, the company’s chief technology officer. “Any time there is a major transition occurring, there will be large companies that have to compete in some areas.” The technology driver behind this transition, according to Cisco, is virtualization software.

Hmm… because of virtualization, Cisco is going into the server market? Not sure if I’d buy into this theory. However, I do like the notion of more server vendors.

Honestly, I don’t think Cisco will survive in this new market. why? Cisco brand stands for solid products at a higher price. In other words, higher margin products with good quality - a non-existent in the server market.  Also, Dell rules the server market - due to the economy,  more and more companies are turning to Dell for their server needs. My friend David puts it elegantly by comparing Dell to Trabant - It works, but feels and looks  cheap [check out my tweets].

Here is my recommendation for Cisco to not only survive, but thrive, in the server market. Buyout Sun Microsystems to take over their hardware division, and let Sun manage its software division. Why?

• Make no mistake, Sun got some amazing technologies, but never got the credit they deserve.
• While Dell is the Trabant, Sun is the Toyota of Servers - exceptional products with better quality, which could eventually provide higher margins.
• Cisco’s strength is marketing, which Sun seriously lacks.
• If there is one company that could threaten Google and Amazon’s cloud computing, it is Sun. Sun pretty much has the necessary software components to rival Google and Amazon. Cloud computing is the  future and Sun will help Cisco to get there.
• Sun already has top-notch client base.
  
• CIOs and CTOs would love this merger and would welcome with open arms.
  

My prediction (rather wishful thinking) is that someone is going to buy Sun - I am passionate about their software products and would like them to live on.

Before you do anything, take an inventory of the situation and let your employees know about the real deal. Do not try to hide the obvious.

During these tiring conditions, employees look for leaders, not managers. CEOs should lead from the front. Always remember:

1. It takes more money and effort to fire and then hire people. You are better off holding on to them to the extent possible.
2. You don’t want your employees to bolt the moment the economy shows signs of recovery.
   

Ways to conserve cash:

1. Renegotiate any lease and monthly recurring items you have in place - office rent, printers, phones, etc.,
2. See if you can eliminate any of the monthly commitments by switching over to inexpensive (or even free) alternatives. For example, you probably don’t need to have hosted exchange solution for emails. Can you live off of Gmail? This should save you anywhere from $100 to $500 easily on a monthly basis. Another example would be switching from mama-bell to VoIP providers. Better yet, use Skype to eliminate all your monthly phone bills.
3. Don’t not pay for conference call providers, there are plenty of free ones out there.
4. Migrating from WebEx to DimDim should save you some money.
5. Every company has at least few mediocre employees - let them go. But try to hang on to above average employees as much as possible.
6. Take a pay cut; this should start from the top. Every employee should know how much their CEO is making during tougher times. If not, it’s likely that your CEO is making boatload of money, and he/she does not want you to know about it. Be the first one to jump ship when the economy recovers.
7. Employees need good chair; we don’t want them to hurt their back. Any other furniture does not matter; go cheap on the furnitures. Better yet, you should not be spending on furniture and unnecessary items these days.
8. Cut back on the meal expenses. I did not mean eliminating them. Try to order inexpensive meals rather than gourmet stuff. In other words, pizza is still the best way to bond with the team and  show your commitment while keeping the costs down.

Points to remember:

1. 1. • • During these tiring conditions, employees look for leaders, not mere managers. CEOs should lead from the front, starting with their pay cuts.
        • Implement uniform cost cutting measures across the company. Don’t try to have different standards for non-management resources; you never want your employees to think that they got the raw end of the deal.

Apple laptops definitely has the cool factor written all over it. But a Dell laptop with Ubuntu does bring the same functionality to the table. Since most of the developers use either PHP or Ruby (at least in the startup world), there is no need to have Apple computers - it’s a different story if you could afford it.

These days you could get an  excellent laptop,  Intel Dual core laptop with 3GB,  for around $500 to $700. Also  developers don’t need Microsoft office suite,  Google Docs and Open Office serves really well.  Bottom line, companies don’t have to shell out top dollars for a good development laptop.

Checkout Deals of America for dirt cheap on-going laptop deals.

Of course, if you are building an iPhone application or some super duper graphic stuff, you will need to go with  Apple computers.  This is an exception not the norm, unless you have the money to burn.

Disclaimer: We are Ubuntu lovers;  myGPSID runs on Ubuntu!!

Fast forward to now: I recently purchased a new laptop, which came pre-loaded with Vista. To be honest, I am pleasantly surprised and don’t have any issues. Granted, I don’t use too much of Vista, but  I can tell you that all the peripherals (printers, scanners,  etc.), WiFi and everything works out of the box without glitches.

Microsoft has just launched a new web site just for Windows Vista users: answers.microsoft.com. It’s currently in beta, and  is a support forum in the Q&A format. The biggest distinguishing factor is that anyone can participate and contribute, which is a huge deal. How many times have you wondered about vista-compatible peripherals? I am glad Microsoft is opening up their support arms for the public to participate. Look at none other than Ubuntu for public participated support forums. These days most of the people know the basics of computers, provided they know the resolution, could navigate around to resolve issues by themselves. But up until now, there is no one single place where consumers can turn to address their Vista issues. Hopefully Microsoft Answers will fill that void.

I believe Microsft is on the right path - if only they could attract enought public to participate and contribute.

As we are nearing the end of 2008, we need to start reflecting on our startup madness of 2008. Following are the list of ideas that were overrated and over-hyped for year  2008. Definition of over-hyped: over 100 companies working on the same idea.

1. Social Networking: The over-arching theme was to build a social network for almost anything. Do you know a verb? lets start a social networking about it!!
2. White-labeled and Hosted Social Networking solutions: You would’t believe the number of companies offering these services.
3. Video Delivery: Thanks to YouTube, everyone jumped on this band-wagon without realizing how cost-prohibitive to match up to YouTube.
4. Online Advertisement: There were so many ways to manage advertisement that I keep losing track of them.
5. Video Editing/Advertising: This is a bye-product of YouTube’s success.
6. FaceBook applications: FaceBook did an amazing job with their platform. But lets face the truth, how many apps are really useful?
7. Internet Radio: This is a great concept and does not make any business sense due to the frigging royalty models. The Record Companies have easily won the battle for 2008.
8. Twitter Maniac: Twitter is becoming the preferred method of news distribution for many of us. But too many companies have tried copying twitter and failed. I guess, being first to the market really helped twitter.
9. Web 2.0 API Platform: Pretty much everyone now offers APIs. On a recent count, there were over 1000 web 2.0 APIs at  ProgammableWeb. Even myGPSID has its fair share, so I can’t complain too much about it. Oh, you have a subway? You should create Web 2.0 APIs to sell more subs.
10. Google Killer - Quil: Even though we all love Google, part of us wants to have options. We feel that Google will become the future evil. But it is pretty obvious that killing Google is not an option anymore.

I can’t imagine companies are still chasing fancy and dumb ideas in this economy. This clearly shows that why we are heading into recession, also why we deserve it.

What I don’t like about this business idea?

• Scheduled for launch in 2011.
• Speed is only  2Mbps, that too in 2011.

Why I consider this a dumb idea:

• It takes lot of money to own and operate a satellite, plus they come with an expiry date. It is not like an undersea fiber optic line, which can be used for very many decades. Just look at Sirius and XM to understand the satellite business.
• Burgeoning WiFi Max and other Long Range Wireless technologies. I expect these technologies to mature in few years and the cost of  operating such a long range wireless network will keep coming down. Thanks to Spint, Clearwire, Intel and Google for spearheading the WiFi Max roll-outs.
• Issue inherent to satellites: 1) Latency, 2) Need for clear view of the sky for dish/antenna and etc., These are not back-breaking issues; they can be solved, but takes lot more money to do so. However, Latency cannot be completely eliminated.

The operating costs will be so high that it will be impossible to make money on this commoditized broadband business.

Does this idea has any merit?

• The only time I see this technology is of any value is when Katrina-like situation occurs, where the Cell and WiFi towers are completely destroyed. The Long Range Wireless technologies will be able to resolve this issue over time. However, who cares about Internet during Katrina-like situation - only FEMA. Consumers will have other life pressing issues to worry about.