Thanks Rich Green

Rich Green, Executive Sun VP of Software, did a fantastic job leading Sun Software over these past two and half years (Rich came back to Sun on May 1st, 2006) and I am really bummed to see Rich leave. Rich oversaw the most important and significant changes to Sun's software portfolio that Sun has ever gone through since we transitioned from SunOS to Solaris.

Rich has had a long and impressive history with Sun. He was VP of the Java Group, where J2ME, J2SE and J2EE were defined and developed. Rich was personally responsible for the success of Sun's Java strategy and platforms. Obviously, Rich did a great job.

Prior to leading the Java organization, Rich was VP of the Solaris Products Group and prior to that he managed the design and development of distributed object systems, network communication products, desktop integration technologies, software development tools and database systems.

Rich was a real thought leader in Sun's open source software strategy. The acquisition of MySQL can also be credited largely to Rich as well.

Rich liked to say, "Volume Drives Value." This is a simple but powerful concept: the more developers there are on the network, the more compelling devices and services they create, the broader the market opportunity for Sun's network innovations - hardware, software and services.

On Monday November 13th, 2006 - Sun open sourced Java:

Rich said at the time, "This undoubtedly is the largest single open-source contribution in the history of IT."

Mike Dillon, Sun General Counsel was quoted at the time:

The transition was tedious and legalistic, said Sun General Counsel Mike Dillon. "Java Standard Edition contains about 6 million lines of code," Dillon said. "Our legal team [of 190 lawyers] had to go over it, line by line, and look for all copyright marks and third-party involvements. Where Sun didn't have the correct licenses, we had to contact the owners, one by one and determine the rights." In some cases, Sun had to settle with copyright owners. Dillon said the company considered some of the 200-plus open-source licenses but settled on the GPL because "it has the largest development community at this time driving innovation, and that is what Sun is striving for."

Something that Rich and I shared in common was that we both love the movie Annie Hall. Annie Hall has more great lines than any other movie that I can think of. Woody Allen played the character Alvy Singer in Annie Hall.

Alvy Singer: "I remember the staff at our public school. You know, we had a saying, uh, that those who can't do teach, and those who can't teach, teach gym. And, uh, those who couldn't do anything, I think, were assigned to our school."

Thanks for everything Rich. Best of luck to you in all your endeavours.

Introducing MTConnect

By far the most fun and most satisfaction that I have had in my 32+ years in the computer industry and my 22 1/2 years at Sun Microsystems was working with Dave Patterson of UCB to create MTConnect.    While Dave and I were the catalyst that provided the guiding vision and roadmap for MTConnect, how any great standard becomes real were/are the many talented individuals that came together from manufacturing, the computer industry, academia, industry groups and most importantly customers to build a great, open and royalty free standard.  AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology provide the funding to make MTConnect real.   Without their leadership and money, MTConnect never happens.

AMT's membership includes machine tool and software companies used in the CAD/CAM industry. Machine tools are the large machines that are used to create a variety of parts such as engine blocks out of raw materials typically by using a variety of cutting devices. AMT's membership also includes software companies used in the CAD/CAM industry. This is a classic American industry. This industry employees many of my relatives who live in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Back to the beginning of the story.   I was ask to line up a Sun Manufacturing Executive to speak at AMT's Annual Member Meeting in October 2006. When my third contact at Sun was no longer available to speak, I called the President of AMT, John Byrd, to apologize that we had let AMT down. After finishing the half-hour long conversation with Mr. Byrd, Peter Eelman, VP of Marketing for AMT, called me and asked if I would like to do the keynote. While I was flattered that I would be asked to give this keynote, I explained I would Need to get up to speed on the machine tool industry.

To prepare for the Annual Meeting, I spent two days in Chicago at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) meeting with a number of companies in mid September. IMTS is the world's largest trade show of machine tool companies. I was very fortunate to have Paul Warndorf, ATM's CTO, taking me through IMTS introducing me to the largest as well as the most influential hardware and software machine tool-CAD/CAM companies.

At the end of the second day I met with John Byrd, along with a number of his VPs, to discuss what he learned. I told them I felt the machine tool industry did not have a manufacturing problem, but a computer science collaboration problem. When I inquired on the economics of our industry, I was told that the American machine tool companies have seen their domestic market share go from 70% in 1986 to 15% in 2006.

I made two suggestions for the machine tool industry:

1) They needed a wakeup call to start a revolution.
2) They needed to hear from someone who has led technology revolutions.

I said that I could, with proper preparation, do the wakeup call. The real challenge was that I knew of only one person who had the credentials to discuss the technology revolution that our machine tool industry CEOs would be able to relate to. That person was Dr. Dave Patterson of University California at Berkeley. I told AMT about Dr. Patterson's leadership with RISC and RAID. I said I would reach out to Dr. Patterson, but I felt the odds that Dr. Patterson would be available to do this, in a little over five weeks time, would be a long shot at best.

Fortunately for the American machine tool industry, Dr. Patterson agreed to change his busy schedule to come to speak at our member meeting.

There were numerous emails, con calls and meetings during that brief five week period to bring both Dr. Patterson and me up to speed as well as to collaborate on the wake up call and the revolution or "moon shot" as I called it.

The title of my talk was, "How The Internet's Participation Age Will Drive Dramatic Changes In The Machine Tool Industry".








Historically, the Machine Tool industry has been very Microsoft centric from the developer tools to the systems running the actual machine tools on the shop floor. I drove home the importance of open systems and open standards to AMT's members. I discussed the importance of taking advantage of the grid to reduce costs. Embracing standards has been a huge problem for our industry. In 2005, the manufacturing industry lost $90 billion dollars in data incompatibility costs. I discussed Sun's NFS Connectathons as a viable mechanism we could model to take standards from theory to reality.

The title of Dr. Patterson's talk was "Creating a Thriving Manufacturing Base in 21st Century America".







Dr. Patterson explained the "miracle" of university research. Dr. Patterson pointed to one example after another of university research efforts that turned into multi-billion dollar a year companies and industries. As he summarized his presentation, Dr. Patterson issued a set of challenges to the CEOs in attendance to start the revolution. There was a lengthy Q&A session after Dr. Patterson's talk.

The meeting was a tremendous success.   Dr. Patterson was brilliant and I was not too bad myself :-) in providing a wakeup call and issuing a set of challenges to our industry with a clear framework to accomplish these very important goals.

Next I will blog about what has happened in the past year since Dr. Patterson and I spoke in Lake Las Vegas at AMT's Annual Members Meeting.....

My 21st Anniversary * CommunityOne & JavaOne 2008

Today, May 4th 2008 was my 21st anniversary working for Sun Microsystems. I am in San Fancisco preparing for CommunityOne and JavaOne. 2007 on May 4th, it was hard for me to believe that twenty years had gone by so quickly.

CommunityOne will become more important than JavaOne by 2015 in my opinion. More important in the sense of the overall scope and reach. JavaOne will always be an important event, but the depth and breadth of CommunityOne should just continue to grow and mature. The open source model will continue to grow and evolve with new twists and turns that we can not even predict today. Last year at CommunityOne, Rich Green made the statement to Jonathan Scwhartz, that "today we have Robin Hood in reverse." Rich went on to explain that, "today, we have the rich taking from the poor." He was referring to large companies taking code from the small developer with little or no direct payback.

The truth, with open source today, is that most large companies are funding open source. This is no secret to anyone who is the business. The challenge going forward will be around creating new and interesting revenue opportunities so the small developer or small partner can make a living off being a developer in the pure open source world.

CommunityOne starts tomorrow and if it is anything like last year's inaugural event, it should be a great day. I was amazed at the attendance and excitement last year at CommunityOne. JavaOne starts and when you have Neil Young as part of your event, how can you go wrong? :-)

Identity Management Road Show in Dallas on April 22nd

On April 22nd2008, we had a:

Identity Management Road Show in Dallas

Need to move your business beyond compliance?

Find out how from the leaders in Identity Management.

Come join some of the leaders and experts in the field of identity management and learn about the best approaches to your identity management strategy. You will hear from key analysts, engineers, customers and some of Sun's identity partners, which will enhance your knowledge on the benefits Identity Management will bring to your organization.

You will see:

• Analyst presentation along with Q&A
• Sun engineers providing product content and demos
• Identity partners presenting use cases
• Customer testimonials
• Sun executives

Sign up for a road show event in your area. Each city has their own customized agenda, which will be available upon registration.

Happy 50th Birthday DARPA

Stephen Barr of the Washington Post has a great article titled:

The Idea Factory That Spawned the Internet Turns 50

Below is a snippet from Stephen Barr's article:

"Like many government initiatives, DARPA was born out of a crisis.

The Soviets launched the satellite Sputnik in 1957, beating the United States into space. At the direction of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, DARPA opened for business the next year, focused on helping guard the nation against technological surprises. The agency's mission has been evolving ever since, and today DARPA also works to create its own technological surprises that permit the U.S. military to overwhelm adversaries.

Unlike most federal agencies, DARPA operates with little red tape. It has only two management layers, encouraging the rapid flow of ideas and decisions."

It is it possible the Internet would have happened without DARPA? I seriously doubt it....

Greg's NYT "Thinking Outside The Company's Box"

Sun's CTO, Greg Papadopoulos is quoted in a very nice article in the New York Times that is called "Thinking Outside The Company's Box"

"How to resolve the tension between make and buy varies from one organization to the next. Sun, for instance, has created many important technologies in-house, including a family of microprocessors based on an original design and the Java language, popular with programmers.

Yet even companies that maintain their own powerhouse research-and-development units are increasingly aware that valuable ideas can sprout anywhere. For instance, Sun broke with its home-grown tradition this month, when it paid $1 billion for MySQL, which makes the most popular open-source database program.

Sun needs a database program to support its line of powerful server computers, which can be optimized to work with MySQL. To create a viable database from scratch might take Sun 10 years, Mr. Papadopoulos figures. Instead, Sun gets a vibrant product overnight — and immediate contributions from scores of
database engineers around the globe.

Having spent some time with the MySQL folks at a Sun off-site, I am extremely impressed with the MySQL team. These are very interesting times at Sun and in the computer industry. Thanks to npg for sending me this article.

As serious as a heart attack....

January 16th, 2008 will go down as a HUGE DAY for Sun Microsystems. On that day we firmly answered the question, "is Sun serious about Software?" Serious? We are as SERIOUS AS A HEART ATTACK! We announced on the 16th plans to acquire MySQL

Jonathan answered one of the concerns that some individuals had when he posed and then answered the question below.

Will you change their platform priorities?

Absolutely not.

Why not?

• Because the L in LAMP stands for Linux, not Looney.
• Customers prioritize MySQL's platform choices, not Sun.
• As with Glassfish, their number one download platform is still Windows and we're very committed to those developers, as well.

Sun has had a number of impressive acquisitions over the years, as well as some that did not work out quite as well as we had planned, and I believe that this will go down as a landmark acquisition for Sun Microsystems. I could not think of a smarter use of 1$ BILLION than to acquire MySQL.

Thanks Temitayo Olajide - Howard University Campus Advocate Talk

On Tuesday, November 13th, 2007, I was very fortunate to be asked to speak to Howard University by Temitayo Olajide. Temitayo is an extremely bright and passionate young man who is Sun's Campus Advocate at Howard University.

I really enjoyed the night at Howard University and I think the students enjoyed it as well. I was extremely impressed with the students at Howard University.

Realizing that the talk should be both technical and interesting, I decided to give my talk the above title.

The best lesson that I can pass on to young folks is on the magic of compound interest. The above story is from the great book "The Wealthy Barber."

I left the students with the following three things they should always remember:

• Life is short
• Death is certain
• If you do not make your own decisions now, time will make them for you.
  

Heisenberg Compensator on Sun's HPC Water Cooler Blog

This is one of the best spoof technical videos that I have seen in some time on the Heisenberg Compensator

I wanna be, I wanna be like Chris Melissinos - Virginia Tech Gaming Presentation

On the night of 6th of November 2007, Chris Melissinos - Sun's Chief Gaming Officer, put on the best presentation that the Virginia Tech (VT) students of the ACM in Blacksburg may have ever seen. Certainly the most interesting. These are not my observations, but that of the President of the ACM. Chris and I drove down to Blacksburg together that Tuesday. It was a very educational day for me, (see here for history of gaming) because I had a chance to get a better understanding of the entire gaming world from the expert on planet earth. It would be analogous to driving down to a physics seminar on Quantum Mechanics and you had the pleasure of spending four hours with Werner Heisenberg.

I have had the privilege of personally seeing many, many Sun and non-Sunluminaries wax eloquently to enthralled audiences.

At VT on November 6th, 2007 Chris Melissinos surpassed anything that I have ever witnessed before.

The audience was 60 extremely bright Computer Science students who are also members of the ACM at VT. VT is one of the top Computer Science and Engineering Schools that is well known for their deep Linux expertise.

The students started showing up early at 7:00pm and Chris spoke until 11:30pm with no breaks until we finally had to leave. The President of the ACM said:

"I have seen countless ACM presentations by every
company you can think of and I have never - ever -
seen this type of response and this amount
of incredible interest."

It was simply amazing to see CS Majors sitting on the edges of their seats for over four hours.

How this all happened was thanks to Jonathan's increased investment from 180 Campus Advocates to 500 this year. In the case of the VT Campus Advocate, it happens to be my son,
John, who has known Chris for six years and has been to Chris's house to see his amazing collection of every gaming system from Pong forward, asked Chris to speak at VT. Since I love to see Chris speak, I offered to drive Chris to Blacksburg from Ashburn.

When I think about the stock symbol change from SUNW to JAVA, I think of extremely talented, passionate and hardworking Sun employees like Chris Melissinos. Chris is the perfect example of the type of leaders we must have to capture these new and emerging markets.

If you would like to listen to this event, the audio is here and the slides are here.

As a Sun employee, last Tuesday night was priceless.

Chris also blogged about this and has some great photos of the night as well.

SOA at Restaurants

My wife and I went to a restaurant in Leesburg, VA called Vintage 50. It is a good restaurant and when the owner stopped by I asked him what the key point to make money in his business. He said the number one issue is cross-utilization. I thought it was interesting that the most important issue in the restaurant business is the most important issue in the computer business. The owner went on to state that if you have a small restaurant, you can have more custom selections. As as restaurant grows in size (scales) the ability to easily share ingredients (components) to offer better utilization of the meals (applications) becomes extremely important. Next up is Home Theater SOA...

Sun-1 at the Irvine, CA Office

I was at the Sun Office in Irvine, CA last fall and they had a 1982 Sun-1 in the lobby. Below are two photos I took from my cellphone.

As Wikpedia states: Sun-1 was the first generation of UNIX computer workstations and servers produced by Sun Microsystems, launched in May 1982. These were based on a CPU board designed by Andy Bechtolsheim while he was a graduate student at Stanford University and funded by DARPA. The Sun-1 systems ran SunOS 0.9, a port of UniSoft's UniPlus V7 port of Seventh Edition UNIX to the Motorola 68000 microprocessor, with no window system. Early Sun-1 workstations and servers used the original Sun logo, a series of red "S"s laid out in a square, rather than the more familiar purple diamond shape used later.
The first Sun-1 workstation was sold to Solo Systems in May of 1982.^[1] The Sun-1/100 was used in the original Lucasfilm EditDroid non-linear editing system.

As I have first personally heard Scott McNealy say, "the first serial number was 15 so customers did not think they were getting one of the first systems."

Something cool to check out is the SUN Workstation Architecture, Andreas Bechtolsheim, Forest Baskett, Vaughan Pratt, Stanford University Computer systems Laboratory Technical Report No. 229, March 1982

Another interesting tidbit of Sun history that I learned at the 25th anniversary of Sun Microsystems at The Computer History Musuem was that Vaughan Pratt was the person who designed the famous Sun logo.

As Wikipedia points out, the Sun logo, which features four interleaved copies of the word "sun"; it is an ambigram

My all time favorite comment in the Unix kernel is:

/* You are not expected to understand this. */

I first saw this comment in 1987 when Neil Groundwater showed me
the button that he created with this on it.

As Neil Groundwater recently told me:

"Life with Unix" is by Don Libes and Sandy Ressler, ISBN 0135366577. Libes used to work at NBS/NIST. He told me that he saw the button on me in the elevator at the USENIX conference, in Washington, DC, Winter 1987. He admiredit and I gave it to him. I guess I made 50-100 of them.

"At the Phoenix, Summer 1987, conference Steve Jobs saw the badge on someone.
(I think Jobs gave the keynote address.) He said something like, "That means something, I know it," and the person later led Jobs (and his handlers) over to me and I gave him a badge.

I spoke at a U.K. USENIX they gave me a sweatshirt with the comment printed on it."

You can see the source code where this comment exists at this Bell Labs site.

Below is an email from Dennis Ritchie on this topic in April of 1992.

The full thread of this can be found at The Unix Heritage Society

From: Dennis Ritchie 
Date: 2 Apr 92 09:34:24 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ

People might be interested in more of the context
of the famous `you are not expected to understand this' comment.
(Tim Smith is wrong on the details.)  It was made somewhat in
the spirit of `this won't be on the exam,' not as a contemptuous
challenge.  Nevertheless, people did find it necessary
to understand it, and the comment was too flippant.

And of course, the real joke was that we did not understand
what what was really happening either:  the setu/retu mechanism
of pre-Seventh Edition Unix was basically unworkable,
because it depended inextricably on subroutine calling
conventions of the PDP-11 implementation, and more fundamentally
because it was not the right way to do things.   Specifically,
as the comment says, `savu' arranges that a routine
that subsequently calls `retu' jumps out not to
a location near the `savu' (as with setjmp/longjmp),
but to the routine that called the routine with the `savu.'

May 4th 1987 was when I started at Sun Microsystems

Back in my college days in the mid to late 1970's, we were all told that if you stayed at the same company for more than three years that you were killing your career. As the old adage goes, "it is better to be lucky than good" and I have been very lucky to be at Sun.

There are too many people to thank over the years. But, if I had to pick two, it would be Betsy (Maclean) Ferry who hired me and Neil Groundwater who has been my mentor over the years. Neil is the first user of Unix outside of the state of New Jersey and a certified Unix god. He is a retired multi-millionaire who does what he want when he wants these days.

Below is my first Sun t-shirt that I received on my first day of work. Still wear it :-)

Below is the wall in my office with seven Sunrise Plaques as the highlight.

Below is Scott McNealy's signature on my Sun 1982 to 1992 Ten Year Anniversary book. I may have prompted Scott on how I wanted him to sign this, I can't remember :-)

SunSpot Changing The Game

How many Sun employees earn our Java One passes is to help out in a lab or at a booth at Java One. In 2007, at Java One, I was very fortunate to help out in multiple labs. This is more interesting to me than attending the lectures because it is actually doing something, but more importantly, you are talking with folks who are doing interesting things with Java. The most exciting and standing room only lab was for SunSpot. I am sure it will be the same way this year as well. SPOT stand for Small Programmable Object Technology.

Above is the SunSpot kit that you can get more information on at SunSpotWorld.

The best place to get more information is at David G. Simmons SPOT blog.

The number of interesting applications with this is really limitless. What is also very nice about SunSpot is that it can be programmed with NetBeans.

Below is from the Sun SPOT introduction hands on lab from the listing of Java One curriculum that has Spot in the keyword.

BOF-1692
Session Title:	Introducing the Sun SPOT (Small Programmable Object Technology) and Sun SPOT Community: Java on Wireless Sensor Networks
Session Abstract:	The Sun Small Programmable Object Technology (Sun SPOT) is a commercially available, small wireless sensor that runs a version of Java technology called Squawk that is compliant with Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME). Users of the Sun SPOT and those interested in finding out about the platform are encouraged to come to this session and meet each other. The Sun SPOT platform, developed at Sun Laboratories, is a small, battery-powered wireless device with an application development environment based on the Java programming language. The Sun SPOT, smaller than a deck of cards, comes equipped with a 32-bit ARM processor and an IEEE 802.15.4 radio for wireless communication. Stackable boards include sensors and actuators such as accelerometers, light detectors, temperature sensors, LEDs, push buttons, and general I/O pins. The device can be duty-cycled to run for months on a single charge of its rechargeable battery. The small-footprint Java virtual machine, called Squawk, can host multiple applications concurrently and requires no underlying operating system. The full platform includes tools for programming, deploying, configuring, monitoring, and debugging a network of Sun SPOTs. The session is informally structured and includes several demos and presentations on existing Sun SPOT projects. Speakers include members of the Sun Laboratories Sun SPOT team as well as members of the Sun SPOT community. Those thinking of using the Sun SPOT for specific applications are encouraged to describe their ideas to the group, so it can discuss the suitability of the platform for the application. Attendees will find fruitful contacts and should leave with their questions answered.

Thanks John Gage! and JavaOne 2008

It was a great JavaOne in 2008 . It was very memorable on a number of fronts.

Below was the night of CommunityOne where ten of us on the System Engineering (SE) side of the house in Americas Software Practice went out for a nice dinner.

Above, starting on the left and going clockwise is Jeff Bounds, Pavan Venkatesh, Bill Green, Michael Drevna, Bruce Haddon, Peter Gratzer, Dave Edstrom, Jim Hoffmann, Ron Gregory and Scott Fehrman.

Above is Rich Green, James Gosling, John Gage (holding a Gold Duke Award) Jonathan Schwartz and Chris Melissinos on stage at JavaOne 2008 (video here) after Jonathan presented John with a Gold Duke Award.

John Gage is the most amazing person I have ever met. John is Sun employee #21, the first Sales Rep at Sun, The creator of Net Day, the person who coined Sun's tag line "The Network Is The Computer", “the most connected person ever" as Scott McNealy stated on the last day of JavaOne, the person who did more for Java than anyone else on planet Earth. Yes, James Gosling is known as the Father of Java, but IMHO, without John Gage, Java would have just been another language and not the dominant programming language that it is today. Without John Gage out there explaining the vision of Java, I really don't think Java would have won purely on its programming excellence.

This list of John Gage's accomplishments just go on, and on, and on... I have personally heard John Gage and Bill Joy tell the story on how John came up with Sun's tag line on a train ride in China. That tagline has and will forever stand the test of time. As a matter of fact, at the Odyessys in Technology - Sun Founder Panel that was held to honor the history of Sun Microsystems on January 11 ^th, 2006 at the Computer History Museum, I was the person that went to the microphone and asked John and Bill to retell that story. You can watch the video here.

I have often said that if I had to make a slow train trip across the United States and I had to make a choice between having a super model next to me or John Gage – I would choose John Gage in a femtosecond. John would be able to tell amazing and true stories for the entire trip of places he has been, famous people he has met and remarkable things he has done. BTW, I would make the same choice even if I was single :-)

Thanks for everything John Gage!

Above is Jonathan Schwartz, CEO for Sun Microsystems, John Edstrom, Sun Microsystems Campus Ambassador for Virginia Tech (as well as Campus Ambassador of the Month for Sun in February of this year) and James Gosling, the Father of Java. Oh yeah, I nearly forgot, John is my oldest son as well :-) Thanks to Jonathan and James for taking time out of their busy schedule for a picture with John.

A very special thanks to Chris Melissinos for taking time out of his busy JavaOne schedule to speak with my son John and introducing John to Jonathan and James.

Two Signs I Knew Sun Was Serious About Software

The first day I knew Sun was dead serious about Software was Monday August 29th, 2005. Of course Sun has always been extremely dedicated to the Developer and the operating system. This commitment goes back to Sun's founding on February 24th, 1982. Outside of the Developer and the Operating System, we never had a tremendous investment in application software. This made sense because of our strong Partner Network.

So what was it about Monday August 29th, 2005 that made me change my mind? This was the day that Sun Microsystems hired Dave Profozich. Dave came from a 20 year background in software and was a well known author of "Managing Change - with Business Process Simulation".

The reason this was so significant is because it clearly demonstrated to Sun employees that we are going outside of Sun to hire top individuals with significant software experience. The second day was in April 24th, 2006. That was the day when Scott McNealy turned the reins over to Jonathan Schwartz. Jonathan came to Sun via a software acquisition and gained fame at Sun with his fresh and creative look at Sun's software stack.

When I met Dave Profozich on that day in August of 2005, I told him that he picked a perfect time to come to Sun Microsystems. I went on to tell him that he will be a hero or a zero depending on the strength of his Partner program. He delivered, and today we have a very strong Partner Program in the Americas.

Dave Profozich is Sun's Vice President of Sun's Americas Software Practice.

I should also state that I highly recommend his book (plus I get $1 per book sold, since I work for the guy, just kidding :-) This book takes an interesting look at using simulation software to manage change. My favorite Chapters are 1 and 5. Chapter 1 is titled Battling a Random World. The chapter starts out with a quote by George Bernard Shaw, "The power of accurate observation is called cynicism by those who have not got it." This quote is even more powerful today. This chapter provides real life examples on how to think about this challenge.

Chapter 5 is titled, Competing and Neighboring Technologies. This chapter also starts off with a quote that certainly stands the test of time by Homer. The quote by Homer is "It is not possible to fight beyond your strength, even if you survive." Chapter 5 is extremely rich with great examples discussing optimization technology, scheduling technology, simulation based scheduling, business diagramming, CAD systems, workflow management, and ERP systems.

Even if you are not considering simulation software, I highly would recommend this book because it helps the reader understand the right way to think about managing change.

On April 5th, 2007 the Washington Post Business Section there was an excellent article by Rob Pegoraro - the Personal Technology Columnist, titled, "Draconian Windows Watchers".

Living in the DC area, I am a Washington Post paper customer, as well as an online subscriber. Mr. Pegoraro's articles are always insightful and well written.

In the article today, Mr. Pegoraro brings out some very important changes in how Microsoft is enforcing legal use of its Vista operating system. Mr. Pegoraro makes two points that stand out in my mind:

1) Instead of just checking to see if you have a legitimate license at install time, Vista will continue to check - FOREVER. As Mr. Pegoraro brings out:

"It's not enough to authenticate a new Windows setup once.
You must keep passing these tests. It's as if the Costco clerk who checks
your receipt on the way out of the store follows up by visiting your house
every month to verify that you don't have stolen goods."

2) The second point that stands out for me is the obvious challenge Microsoft has in not
only being accurate in determining who has an illegal copy of Vista, but more importantly,
how they should enforce these types of violations when discovered. Turning Vista into
"reduced functionality mode" sounds like a way to make some folks pretty mad if they
have legal copies of Vista or if Vista enters "reduced functionality mode" because of a bug.

Mr. Pegoraro provides many interesting examples in his article, and I would encourage everyone to read it.

This monitoring with Vista reminds me of the 1970s and early 1980s when software companies used to try every trick in the book to keep track of who was using their software with every type of copy protection known to man. It was a disaster then, and it will probably be a disaster now.

This exactly why eveyone should take a serious look at Open Solaris . We just want everyone to enjoy the best operating system on planet earth - FREE. We are too busy innovating and doing great things with the open source community to waste our time on such Big Brother monitoring efforts...

April Fool's Pranks At Sun I Have Been Involved With

Sun Microsystems is known for some GREAT April Fools Day Goofs. One of the most memorable was when Bill Joy's Ferrari was put in a pond (on stands) at our original 2550 Garcia Avenue Headquarters.

Bill was given a small row boat to go get it :-)

I have been on two teams that have put together GREAT April Fool's Day Pranks.

The first one consisted of John Meyer, Neil Pierson and me. We hatched a plan for April Fool's Day 1997 when we found out Dr. Dennis Govoni would be in California for two weeks starting March 31st, 1997.

Dennis has his PhD. in botany and our first thought was to turn his office into a miniature rain forest, complete with flora, fauna, waterfalls, and so forth. But the expense and difficulty in locating appropriate materials for the goof ruled this out. Then we hit on the idea: let's use a Jurassic Park theme. This was just what we wanted. It was cheap, easy, and fun. Neil and I had five boys under the age of eight at the time so stocking the office with dinosaurs, Jurassic Park paraphernalia, and toys was certainly no problem.

Neil set up two live video feeds on Sun's world-wide internal network that would tie into our web page. This meant that anyone in Sun could see a real-time picture of Dennis' office and anyone who walked into it for two whole weeks and there was nothing Dennis could do about it.

The priceless moment was watching Dennis's wife Barbara get upset that we had dinosaurs eating her grandchildren :-)

To see pictures of the 1997 April Fool's Day Govassic Park Prank

The second April Fool's Day Prank was my favorite. We enlisted Steve Fritzinger for this one in addition to John, Neil and me.

I have to admit, as Steve Jobs would say, " SunCLONE ONE was insanely great!" We had tons of props in addition to all the "science" we needed to create - we had a working 427 cubic inch engine from a Corvette thanks to Steve Ferry and a 7 foot working robot thanks to some friends of Sun in Gary Grimes office.

Bill Joy's Wired article, "Why The Future Does Not Need Us", was of course a motivating factor in this April Fools Day Goof.

This SunCLONE ONE science makes string theory and any Grand Unification Theory look like tinker toys.....

Below is the internal announcement we (John Marselle send it out as if it was real - thanks to John Crane) sent out: At the end of this is the url to go see the full announcement with LOTS-O-PICTURES and even more detailed science behind this.

The priceless moment with SunCLONE ONE was when Sun's PR Department received a call from the Press asking if it was real. Yes, it is real, Sun is cloning humans. Please do not tell anyone :-)

John Meyer hosts these two April Fools Day Goofs.

Below is the email that was sent to all of Sun:

I am very proud to announce that Gary Grimes, Southern Area Vice President for Sales, has been promoted to President of Sun's newest subsidiary SunCLONE. It was extremely important to SMI that we select
the right person to lead SunCLONE. We needed a fast-moving leader to master this dynamic market. Gary Grimes was selected because, after careful examination, we have determined that Gary is not only the fastest VP at Sun but also on planet Earth. Gary is the only VP at Sun to have a racing license and could have been a world class driver if he had chosen to pursue a racing career. Gary has driven and owns some of the fastest cars ever produced and I know that the stress of a very fast-moving market would not be a problem for him. I needed someone who would not be distracted by some of the religious, ethical, privacy, and consumer issues that will undoubtedly crop up with this announcement. With his laser-like focus on execution, I feel that Gary is the right man for this job.

WHAT IS SunCLONE ONE?
=====================

I am very pleased and excited to announce that we have beaten every other company and Government lab in the race to clone a human being and have mapped the human genome and the human brain into JDNA/JMRI Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs). JDNA/JMRI EJBs are the first truly integrated software/hardware helix stacks that have mapped DNA and the brain accurately into a Java class with real-time sub-attosecond response time.

The SunCLONE ONE is the first product using JDNA/JMRI EJBs. This bio-robotic device fully captures all aspects of the human base unit such as IQ, personality, and a lifetime knowledge base. Plus, unlike the human revision, the SunCLONE ONE is field upgradable via our patented JDNA/JNLP protocol. The SunCLONE ONE was designed at our SUNdEnPjMsF World Class Secret R&D facility in McLean, VA.

TECHNICAL DETAILS of SunCLONE ONE
====================================

The SunCLONE ONE is Java/Jini/JXTA/JDNA/EJB/J_Quantum_Servlet SunCLONE(TM)-certified. Each "appendage" (or option) is loosely-metaphysically coupled but highly recursively-intelligently aligned. A fully configured SunCLONE ONE is made of self-healing kevlar with 340 undecillion (340 BILLION BILLION BILLION BILLION or a one-to-one mapping with the number of IPv6 addresses) autonomous MAJC processors embedded in the kevlar for a lifetime of work. All parts are self-diagnosing and every single data path has 1 million levels of ECC-based protection.

By using our patented SunCLONE DNA extraction techniques, we can do mass customization for each SunCLONE ONE. For example, if you want a SunCLONE ONE of yourself, no problem. Our home DNA extraction kit, available in supermarkets and convenience stores, will allow you to painlessly extract the needed samples of DNA in less than two minutes.

Working with every manufacturer of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems, we have created a process for taking MRI images of the brain using JMRI, our JDNA process, and leveraging them to have a truly integrated software/hardware helix stack that is the ultimate definition of the NetEffect. These MRI systems will be embedded in existing supermarket checkout line scanners and will automatically transmit an accurate 14.6 petabyte scan of your brain to SunCLONE headquarters using satellite technology.

To those of our customers who are concerned about Sun having access to every SunCLONE ONE owner's DNA and brain scans, we politely say, "Get over it, you don't have any privacy now anyway and we need to do SOMETHING to turn this economy around!"

LONE ONE
==========

Gary Grimes was the first to actually be cloned and have his own SunCLONE ONE. By extracting Gary's DNA and having Gary walk through a JMRI enabled MRI scanner, we were able to clone Gary and map his DNA/MRI brain scan into JDNA/JMRI Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs) working in a SunCLONE ONE. We have a working Gary Grimes(TM) SunCLONE ONE in the McLean, VA office. Through extensive testing, we have proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Gary Grimes SunCLONE ONE is identical to Gary's knowledge base and personality in every possible way. This test has been so successful that today we are announcing the proCLONEmotion (Sun patented term that means when your SunCLONE ONE takes over your normal job) of Gary's SunCLONE ONE to VP of Sales, GSO Southern Area. If there are any problems, the Pat Cox(TM) SunCLONE ONE can help out Gary's SunCLONE ONE.

See the URL at end of this announcement for a live webcam of Gary's SunCLONE ONE in action.


MARKETING DETAILS of SunCLONE ONE
====================================

We have heard from our customer focus groups that celebrity SunCLONE ONEs would be a great option and so far we have experimented with the Ed Zander(TM) SunCLONE ONE and the Masood Jabbar(TM) SunCLONE ONE. While testing continues on these configurations, beta units are available at full price with no warranty, provided the customer is willing to sign our rather large stack of legal disclaimers.

Although some may feel that cloning is a "controversial" market for Sun to be in, we believe that everyone will eventually want a clone for the jobs that they do not want to do. Our customers have asked the question, "Obviously, the employees at your subsidiary will receive multiple Nobel Prizes, but how can you make money from something so well made?" We thought about this long and hard and decided not to sell the SunCLONE ONEs but lease them. We will freely auction off their services to the highest bidder at any time. For example, if someone wished to play a practical joke on his neighbor, he could place the highest bid and buy time from Sun to overtake the controls of the SunCLONE ONE and have it do whatever he wants. At this time we have no plans to allow Government agencies to buy time to control or monitor your clone, but this may change in the very near future if the stock market does not improve.

Continuing our line of top-quality slogans (no, not that stupid dog Network that we had put to sleep) from "The Network Is the Computer"(TM) to "We're the Dot in Dot-Com"(TM) our new marketing focus will be "We're the 'N' in DNA"(TM).

Please join me in congratulating Gary Grimes on his new role of SunCLONE President.

WHAT THE PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THE Sun CLONE ONE
==================================================

"This is really the fruition of our entire Sun Remote
Services(TM) (SRS) strategy. If we have problems at a
customer site, we can clone the right person in no
time. Let's say, for example, if a customer has a Java
question, ship out the James Gosling clone. A question
on vi or csh, a Bill Joy clone is on the way. Problems
solved!"

Larry Hambly
Vice President
Enterprise Services


"This makes my entire life's work seem insignificant."

Bill Joy
Sun Co-Founder
Employee #6

"I *am* a rocket scientist and I don't understand the physics
behind this. Not only have they created the SunCLONE ONE,
this group created a new branch of science -- amazing."

Dr. Rick Lytel
Distinguished Engineer and Director
RAS Computer Analysis Laboratory and
Physical Sciences Center


"This is so far beyond insanely great, I am at a loss for words..."

Steve Jobs


"When James Gosling, Ivan Sutherland, Bill Joy, Rob
Gingell, Mike Splain, Bob Sproull, Jim Mitchell and Greg
Papadopoulos all told me that the SunCLONE ONE would be
more important to Sun's future than NFS, the 386i,
SPARC, Sun Write/Paint & Draw, NeWS, DOE, Solaris, Java,
Jini, StarFire, Cobalt and the Serengeti line combined,
I was in absolute shock."

Scott McNealy
Sun CEO
Sun Co-Founder
Employee #3


"The SunCLONE ONE is the ultimate example of technology.
I tried to help out on some of the design work, but the
combination of computer science and physics involved
with SunCLONE ONE had Bill Joy and myself just
scratching our heads. This is so brilliant it is
scary ..."
Dr. Greg Papadopoulos
Sun's Chief Technology Officer


"I am putting everything I own into SUNW stock, so
should everyone else. If the SunCLONE ONE is half as
successful as I expect it to be, this will change the
economy more than anything I could ever do."

Alan V. Greenspan


"Now I wish I would have stayed. I would gladly have
given back the $245 million I personally made in selling
Granite Systems if I could have been a part of this. I
bet Vinod would come back as well."

Andy Bechtolscheim
Sun Co-Founder and
Employee #1


"Andy is right, Scott has begged me many times to come
back. If I could work with the SunCLONE ONE group, I
would quit my VC stuff and come back to Sun in a
femtosecond."

Vinod Khosla
Sun Co-Founder
Employee #2

"This is the ultimate use of the MAJC processor I
designed. They took my processor and did things with it
that I felt were absolutely impossible if I had not seen
it myself. Their patented atto-parallelization
techniques involving quantum spin rates is
mind-boggling."

Dr. Marc Tremblay
Chief Architect MAJC
Distinguished Engineer


"These new clones will be a big help in our FO plans
since OSHA does not require that clones have their own
cubicles. I am thinking about renaming HR to HR/CR
(Human Resources/Clone Resources). I will make an
announcement shortly that Officers of Sun can not be
cloned unless it is for non-business use."

Crawford Beveridge
Chief HR/CR Officer


"Constitutional scholars tell me that my SunCLONE ONE is
eligible for two more terms."


William Jefferson Clinton
Former President of the USA


"The SunCLONE ONE goes to 11."


Nigel Tufnel
Lead Guitarist
Spinal Tap

Sun CloneONE Headquarters

Best Books On Open [Innovation/Source]

Many folks talk about Open Source today. When I think of Open Source, there are many non-intuitive aspects that need to be understood to be truly successful. In that context, there are four books that are important to read and understand as it relates to innovation and Open Source. One of my favorite books (below is my copy and a must read IMHO) is Dr. Henry Chesbrough's book “Open Innovation”.

This much acclaimed book lays out, in very clear language, the important differences between “Closed Innovation” versus “Open Innovation”. There are many interesting points that are brought out in his book, two points that he makes in his book that I think are extremely relevant in today's open source world:

"We don't have to originate the research to profit from it."

"Building a better business model is better than getting to market first."

This book is a must read for anyone who is trying to understand Open Source. This book takes a higher level view that is important to understand prior to digging into specifics of software open source and is rich with real life examples.

Dr. Chesbrough has a new book that I am going to buy and look forward to reading called, Open Business Models".

The second must read book is Eric S. Raymond's landmark book, "The Cathederal and The Bazaar".

This book is often quoted in the world of Open Source. It is a great historical book. The two points from this book that stand out in my mind are:

"Often, the most striking and innovative solutions

come from realizing your concept of the problem was wrong".

Raymond quotes Antoine de Saint-Exupery:

"Perfection (in design) is acheived not when there is nothing more to add,

but when there is nothing more to take away."

The third book certainly worth reading is Clayton M. Christensen's "The Innovators Solution", which is, of course, the follow-on to "The Innovators Dilemma".

The most interesting chapter, IMHO, is Chapter 6, "How To Avoid Commidization". The main point that Christensen makes is that "The companies that are positioned at a spot in the value chain where performance is not yet good enough, will find profit."

Obviously, Mr Christensen's point can be easier said than done, but the examples in the book help the reader to find the framework to think about in the context of their own industry.

The fourth book that I find a must read as well is Chris Anderson's "The Long Tail".

The subtitle of the book, "Why the Fture of Business Is Selling Less of More" is the central theme of the book that is brought out in his Chapter 4, "The Three Forces of the Long Tail".

"Democratize the tools of production.

The results of this are more stuff, which lengthens the tail.

Democratize the tools of distribution.

The result is more access to niches, which fattens the Tail.

Connect Supply and Demand."

The result is it drives busines from hits to niches.

It is the examples in this book that I find are very compelling.

I know there are many other books, that I plan on purchasing and reading. Which books have I left out?

Curt Harpold and How To Program ,1000s of Processors

I had the good fortune of traveling with Curt Harpold down to Virginia Tech on January 28th, 2009 to listen to Curt present, "How To Program 1,000s of Processors". Curt wowed the ACM members on the challenges of programming lots of processors as well a the many tremendous features of Sun Grid Engine 6.2.

For complete details of this along with a video as well as Curt's complete presentation, please go to John Edstrom's blog entry here.

Balancing Act: Community Version versus Enterprise Edition

Thanks to Mabimal for the great questions and comments on open source monetization. Recently, on April 29, 2009 at 11:02 PM EDT, Mabimal asked the following:

Hello Dave,

Thank you so much for putting efforts on creating this article.

What i understood from this article is that, open source project cannot be a standalone project as it must be backed up by enterprise versions which generates revenue for open source projects as well, and when the feature of open source project gets stable it will be transformed to enterprise version.The developers and employees developing open source project gets their income from the revenue generated from enterprise versions.

I hope i understood exactly as u r trying to make me understand.
If not please clarify me.

Thank you so much.

Yes, you are absolutely right. That is the general framework. Where things can get a little more complicated are the corner cases. What becomes extremely important is the latency or delay between the Community Version and the Enterprise Edition.

Let me give you a specific example. Let's say we have a Community Version that has nightly builds. Let's also say that we have an Enterprise Edition that was being released semi-annually. If the Community Version introduces a specific feature that the market place is clamoring for. Let's use as an example a Enterprise Service Bus (ESB ) with a new healthcare protocol adapter. If the customer base is clamoring for this particular adapter, the obvious question jumps to the forefront:

Does the new healthcare protocol adapter have to "wait" until it is rolled into the Enterprise Edition from the Community Version?

There are different ways that some companies address this situation. Some companies believe that you never, ever support the Community Version and you simply tell the customer to wait until the healthcare adapter gets rolled into the Enterprise Edition. Other companies believe that you do support the Community Version, but do it from your PS services group at a premium cost with the idea that you move your customer to the Enterprise Edition as soon as the healthcare adapter is officially supported.

My personal view is that when you are designing your Community Version and Enterprise Edition monetization framework, that you carefully review what makes sense to have as plugins that can be rapidly supported in the Enterprise Edition. Keeping with the example above, it would certainly be logical to separate out the protocol adapters to allow for flexibility in official product support in an Enterprise Edition. I also believe that it is perfectly reasonable to have certain plugins as non-open source in the outer ring of the Community Version/Enterprise Edition monetization framework.

There is a hard core group of open source enthusiasts who firmly believe that EVERY line of code must be open source and the only two driving factors are indemnification and support. These hard core enthusiasts call anything that is not totally open source as being crippleware. I believe crippleware is software that has had a critical piece of code purposely removed from it. An example of this is not allowing saves to a file or limiting the size of a particular structure or file. I do not subscribe to this view that EVERY piece of code must be open source. I believe that it is a balancing act between the Community Version and the Enterprise Edition.

My 1985 version of the Sun Microsystems Catalyst

The book above is my 1985 version of the Catalyst. As it states on the cover:

A catalog of third-party referrral software and hardware from Sun Microsystems

Catalyst

Spring 1985


This Catalyst was "only" 360 pages in length. In the latter part of the 1980's, our Catalyst catalog became much larger. Why is this so significant? The number of high quality software and hardware Partners a computer company has will always be a fundamental requirement for success. Sun Microsystems has always been a very Partner centric company. Andy, Vhinod, Scott and Bill understood from February 1982 that Sun will live or die with their Partner network. Sun's Partner infrastructure is what I first noticed about Sun in 1984. Although, as my wife likes to remind me, I was too stupid to realize how successful Sun would be back in 1984.

The Catalyst was the "kerthump" factor that all of the Sales Reps (SRs) and Technical Systems Engineers (TSEs) used to drop from four feet above the customers desk to emphasize the strength of Sun's software and hardware partner solutions. You would simply not go on a sales call without bringing a long a few Catalyst Catalogs. On the back of the Catalyst was the price $24.95 We never sold it as far as I know.

It is fun to look through this Catalyst and see a 15 MFLOP board level array-processor that went for $14,900.


I am a HUGE believer in Sun's Partner ecosystem. Sun is first and foremost an infrastructure supplier and we depend on our Partners to complete a customer solution. I will be dedicating a reasonable number of cycles in Edstrom Photons-Electrons to discuss interesting technical solutions Sun's Partners are creating. I will talk later this week about where the name Edstrom Photons-Electrons comes from....

John Edstrom Campus Advocate of the Month For Sun

Congratulations to my oldest son, John, who was selected to be Campus Ambassador of the Month for Sun Microsystems. Increasing the number of Campus Ambassadors is one of Jonathan Schwartz's most brilliant strategic investments since he became CEO. John is doing lots of very interesting Tech Talks, on topics such as Chris Melissinos discussing Gaming, Solaris with Dr. Harry Foxwell at Virginia Tech that have been extremely well attended. There are many other activities that John has been doing (such as the NetBeans 6 demo he did for students and faculty) and you can read more about that here at his Sun blog.

John gave a nice interview about his activities as a Campus Ambassador at VA Tech.

Monetizing Open Source - The Framework For Success

I was asked on my blog regarding open source by Mabimal on April 17, 2009 at 05:49 AM EDT the following: 

Hello Dave,

It's nice to update my knowledge on open source, but i m always eager to know how do open source project get revenue. Can you please provide the details on that?

Mabimal, sorry for taking twelve days to address the real key point of open source. I should have taken the time to address it as part of the initial posting, but then thought I would do it separately. Since the 17th, things have changed for Sun Microsystems, but my core belief in the importance of open source and how we need to frame open source monetization has not changed.

First, my early thinking on open source has been largely shaped by Scott McNealy, Bill Joy and Rob Gingell. My thoughts on open source monetization has been largely shaped by Rich Green and the two founders of MySQL - Monty Widenius and David Axmark. I really believe that Rich Green was on the exact right track prior to him leaving Sun. 

Prior to Rich leaving, he was in the process of standardizing our software strategy much like MySQL had already put together. My personal belief is that it is absolutely critical to have the Dave Edstrom 4 Cs as I like to call them:

1. Clear
2. Concise
3. Compelling
4. Consistent

Consistent is the most important to really drive volume. You can not have each Product Manager rolling their own strategy. That will just confuse the marketplace. The marketplace being customers, partners, developers, employees, ....

Below is the high level monetization framework that MySQL used. You create a community or platform with your free Community Edition. You support your Community Edition with a binary, for sale Enterprise Edition that emphasizes the unique vertical markets or massive scaling aspects that customers are willing to pay for. I have heard the founders of MySQL say this countless times. Of course, there are professional services that can go along with this.

Something that MySQL did was list the questions to determine whether or not you or your company should go with the Community Edition or the Enterprise Edition. This really helps the individual determine their own skill sets and and needs. Please see below:

The image below is what is commonly called inside Sun, the Rainbow or Donut Blue Print for Open Source Monetization. The key to this is that the light green is the community version/edition and the orange is the Enterprise Edition. The Enterprise Edition is based on a revision of the Community Version, but also has the massive scaling, industry specific addons , 24x7 support, best practices, hot fixes and enterprise monitoring that large enterprises will want/need **IF** they do not have the in house expertise. My personal opinion is if you think you will make all your money off professional services and indemnifcation, you better go back and do some more financial modeling. Speaking of Professional Services, this is predicated on having a strong support and services organization.




I believe that we will see another layer to this model and that is cloud services. You can not simply throw your applications into a cloud and think you now have a cloud. That is like putting a 638hp Chevrolet Corvette LS9 ZR1 engine into a Vega and thinking you now have a sports car :-) More on adding the cloud layer to the donut or rainbow later.

Hope this helps Mabimal ....

Jim Fiori Performance God

Jim Fiori recently presented at Virginia Tech's Association for Computing Machinery Meeting. My oldest son, John, blogged about Jim's GREAT 2 1/2 presentation. Jim's slides are also here.

If I was told, "Dave, you get to pick one person on planet earth to solve the most difficult software performance problem mankind has ever seen, and if this person fails, the earth as we know it burns up in an attosecond."

I know exactly who I would pick: Here's a hint, it would not be Bill Joy, Dave Patterson, Steve Bourne, Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson, Neil Groundwater, Grace Hopper or Bjarne Stroustrup.

No disprespect to those computer legends above, but I would select Jim Fiori. Jim Fiori is a great example of Malcom Gladwell's Outliers primary premise, which is you need to get to 10,000 hours of actual hands on experience, along with selecting the right parents, being born at the right time and finally, being in the right place at the right time - Jim Fiori meets all of these criteria.

Jim Fiori is a Principal Field Technologist at Sun Microsystems and is THE GOD IN SOFTWARE PERFORMANCE TUNING AND PROBLEM SOLVING.

Why I Do Not Have An iPhone (yet)

I am growing tired of answering the question, "Dave, why don't you have an iPhone yet?"

First, do I think the iPhone is amazing technology? You bet. Do I think Steve Jobs is an absolute genius? Without question. Is Apple a great company? Yes, they are an amazing company. But, let me list what Apple should do for the iPhone if they want me as a customer (yes, I realize that Apple does not care if I am a customer :-)

1. No cut-n-paste. Are you kidding me? When friends tell me, "Dave, you just don't understand the Apple lifestyle." Yes, I guess that is true..... When I hear on podcasts that Apple is researching the best methods for implementing cut-n-paste, I just have to laugh. If this is true, let me give you a hint, go ask the folks at Palm, they have it figured out.
2. No removable storage. It is very handy to have the ability to remove a SAN disk.
   
3. Not all apps can take advantage of the horizontal mode. This is ridiculous.
4. The battery is not removable. Yes, the most recent updates help, but Apple is not there yet. I want the ability to carry a second battery with me.
   
5. It should be a reliable phone. If I had a dollar for every time a friend said to me, "hey, I am using my iPhone so we might get dropped and I will have to call you back", I would have enough for at least a dinner out :-)
   
6. The iPhone is simply too proprietary for me and I believe that it stifles the amount of innovation we would otherwise see with the iPhone. Yes, Apple does a great job with ease of use and overall experience, but I prefer freedom.
7. The idea that Apple will "brick" your phone is just repulsive to me.
8. I want real keys to type on, not a picture of a key. Yes, I know this dates me :-)
9. The App Store has so many rules on what type of app it allows that, IMHO, it stifles true creativity and true competition. Checkout this article at the New York Times titled: Apple's Capricious Rules for iPhone Apps
   
10. No Java for the iPhone. Hopefully this might change someday....
    
11. No voice activated calling.
12. You can not record video.
13. I do love the features of the G1, but have not gotten one yet. The Palm Pre sounds VERY promising as well.
    
14. NO MULTI-TASKING THIS WILL SERIOUSLY LIMIT THE i-Phone
15. I will keep my old Treo 650 that just works great as a phone and basic PDA with a limited browser, until there is something that is at least as good as the G1.

If Apple addressed these, would I buy an iPhone? In a femto-second.

10,000 Hours: Bill Joy, Bill Gates and The Beatles

Thanks to Neil Groundwater, long time friend, mentor and Unix legend, who sent me this fascinating article called A gift or hard graft? written by Malcom Gladwell.

The premise of the article is:

"This idea - that excellence at a complex task requires a critical, minimum level of practice - surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is a magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours."

Gladwell discusses the great amount of time that Bill Joy invested to hone his programming skills:

"According to Joy, he spent a phenomenal amount of time at the computer centre. "It was open 24 hours. I would stay there all night, and just walk home in the morning. In an average week in those years I was spending more time in the computer centre than on my classes. All of us down there had this recurring nightmare of forgetting to show up for class at all, of not even realising we were enrolled.""

Gladwell tells a great story of Bill Joy at Berkeley:

"In 1975, Joy enrolled in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. There, he buried himself even deeper in the world of computer software. During the oral exams for his PhD, he made up a particularly complicated algorithm on the fly that - as one of his many admirers has written - "so stunned his examiners [that] one of them later compared the experience to 'Jesus confounding his elders' "."

The legend of Bill Gates and the amount of time is well documented. What is not well documented is just how hard and long The Beatles worked. I was always under the impression that John Lennon and Paul McCartney were just pure musical geniuses and it just easy. Gladwell corrects this perception:

The Beatles ended up travelling to Hamburg five times between 1960 and the end of 1962. On the first trip, they played 106 nights, of five or more hours a night. Their second trip they played 92 times. Their third trip they played 48 times, for a total of 172 hours on stage. The last two Hamburg stints, in November and December 1962, involved another 90 hours of performing. All told, they performed for 270 nights in just over a year and a half. By the time they had their first burst of success in 1964, they had performed live an estimated 1,200 times, which is extraordinary. Most bands today don't perform 1,200 times in their entire careers. The Hamburg crucible is what set the Beatles apart.

The article ends with a very interesting point about the importance of being born in the years 1954 or 1955 with great summary of Sun's founders:

"By the way, let's not forget Bill Joy. Had he been just a little bit older and had to face the drudgery of programming with computer cards, he says he would have studied science. Bill Joy the computer legend would have been Bill Joy the biologist. In fact, he was born on November 8 1954. And his three fellow founders of Sun Microsystems - one of the oldest and most important of Silicon Valley's software companies? Scott McNealy: born November 13 1954. Vinod Khosla: born January 28 1955. Andy Bechtolsheim: born June 1955. "

Now I know where I went wrong in life, my parents waited four years too long to have me :-)