walls

The effects of open source on stock prices

Has open source been positive or negative for its primary (commercial) proponents? That's the question I asked myself yesterday about Red Hat, Sun, and Novell, and found the answer interesting. I looked at these three as they, more than any others, have results that can be isolated and directly attributed to open source. A company like IBM does a lot with open source, but it's harder to discern the effects on the company's stock price because its embrace of open source is less pronounced/distinct among its other corporate policies.

A quick review of the data suggests that the market largely bought into the early hype on the transformative power of open source, but has taken a cautious "wait-and-see" approach since the initial euphoria.

Take a look at Novell's stock price since 2003:… Read more

The future belongs to Linux

The rising generation of programmers isn't being fed .Net and Windows. It's growing strong on Linux and its associated LAMP stack, as Robert Guth of the Wall Street Journal notes. Microsoft thinks it has an answer to this trend toward Linux. It is very telling how far from reality Microsoft is by its response:

Microsoft hasn't been a player in the Net start-up world, in part because of the cost of its server product. Mr. Hilf tells [the WSJ] that Microsoft is trying to fix that with new licensing schemes that make Windows Server more affordable for start-ups....… Read more

When will Toshiba put out a Blu-ray player?

Today's Wall Street Journal has an interview with Atsutoshi Nishida, Toshiba's chief executive, that's kind of interesting for what it doesn't say. The article's headline is "Toshiba's Plan for Life After HD DVD" and the Q&A appears in the "Boss Talk" column, which seems to put executives in a warm seat rather than a hot seat. By that I mean there are a couple of hard-hitting questions ("Isn't the loss of the format war a blow to Toshiba's strategy?), but after you're through with … Read more

Wall Street Journal a haven for hard-core gamers. Who knew?

Yesterday I opened my Wall Street Journal and was struck by the advertisement staring back at me from the front page. Roughly two years ago the Journal started inserting one ad per day on its front page, talking it up as a prime advertising vehicle:

"The Wall Street Journal will provide the most valuable opportunity anywhere in any medium for advertisers who want to reach a large, affluent and influential audience," [said] L. Gordon Crovitz, the publisher of The Journal and executive vice president of Dow Jones & Company.

So who is this "large, affluent, and influential audience"? Gamers, as the inclusion of the $75,000 to $100,000+ advertisement suggests:… Read more

Loomia launches 'SeenThis' social app with NBC, WSJ, CNET

Social-news company Loomia announced Wednesday that it has launched a new application called SeenThis, which connects news sites with social-networking sites so users can learn what their people on their friends' lists have been reading. Loomia's inaugural partners in SeenThis are The Wall Street Journal, NBC Universal, and CNET Networks, parent company of CNET News.com.

Like many other "recommendation engines," Loomia's technology can suggest content items to a reader based on what he or she has already viewed. SeenThis goes a step further by using social-networking sites' APIs--the one that the current content partners are … Read more

Microsoft to serve up ads to Wall Street Journal online

Microsoft landed another ad-serving deal on Tuesday, announcing it will be the exclusive third-party provider of contextual and paid search ads for the Wall Street Journal online and several other Dow Jones-owned sites.

The move is the latest in a string of deals, following Microsoft's expanded ad-serving deal with Facebook in October. In December, Microsoft announced a deal with Viacom that it valued at $500 million, though it didn't provide specific details on how it came to that figure. Last month, Microsoft signed a deal with another financial information company, Edgar Online.

In addition to WSJ.com, the … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 646: Twitter Novel

EPISODE 646

Buzz Out Loud 642: Monkey see, robot do

EPISODE 642

A modern wall unit to be shaken, not stirred

As noted before, the dreaded '70s-era wall unit is making a 21st century comeback, in no small part because flat-screen TVs have obviated the need for the equally cliched entertainment armoire. And we're relieved to report that, unlike their predecessors, the newer generation doesn't require gouging one's eyes out.

Not surprisingly, the Italians have taken the concept to an entirely new plane. Their latest accomplishment is the "Monos" line by MisuraEmme, a flexible modular apparatus that includes a bar as well as appropriate space and compartments for all manner of media gadgetry in a museum-like … Read more