hbjzrc.com

The agreements establish coordinated technical support for Microsoft and Red Hat’s mutual customers using server virtualization, and the activities included in these agreements do not require the sharing of IP. Therefore, the agreements do not include any patent or open source licensing rights, and additionally contain no financial clauses, other than industry-standard certification/validation testing fees.

While Red Hat has flirted with such interoperability before by joining with Microsoft in the somewhat toothless Vendor Interop Alliance, this is its first direct interoperability initiative with Microsoft.

Follow me on Twitter at mjasay.

For years, Microsoft has insisted that open-source vendors acknowledge that its patent portfolio is a precursor to interoperability discussions. On Monday, Microsoft shed that charade and announced an interoperability alliance with Red Hat for virtualization.

Monday, Red Hat and Microsoft have together demonstrated that interoperability can exist independent of back-room dealings over patents. Microsoft has increasingly been forced to open its stance on patents by the European Commission, anyway, proving Red Hat’s resolute stance against patents was the right one. But this announcement suggests that Microsoft is maturing in its views on how to interact with open-source vendors.

commentary

Both Red Hat and Microsoft on Monday lowered their guns long enough for customers to win. They did so without encumbering interoperability with patents, which will be critical to ensuring that Microsoft can lower its guard further to welcoming open-source solutions to the Windows fold as a full partner.

It also suggests that Red Hat is maturing in its realization that it must interoperate with the old world of proprietary software even as it attempts to forge a new one of open-source software. Red Hat has long depended upon proprietary software: Red Hat Enterprise Linux’s success has derived from its support for Oracle and other proprietary vendors.

The deal includes several key components, all related to virtualization:

Pretty straightforward, as interoperability should be, and driven by customer demand for Microsoft technologies running alongside Red Hat’s, according to Mike Neil, general manager of Virtualization Strategy at Microsoft. The top Linux vendor partnered with Microsoft: this is a major win for customers.

Red Hat has long argued that patent discussions only cloud true interoperability, which is best managed through open source and open standards.

Red Hat will validate Windows Server guests to be supported on Red Hat Enterprise virtualization technologies.
Microsoft will validate Red Hat Enterprise Linux server guests to be supported on Windows Server Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server.
Once each company completes testing, customers with valid support agreements will receive coordinated technical support for running Windows Server operating systems virtualized on Red Hat Enterprise virtualization, and for running Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtualized on Windows Server Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

What most people don’t know is that Red Hat had been discussing interoperability initiatives with Microsoft for a year before Novell and Microsoft tied the knot, but Microsoft ultimately derailed the talks by trying to introduce a covenant not to sue over patents, similar to what it ended up negotiating with Novell. Red Hat rejected this unnecessary inclusion, left the bargaining table, and Microsoft connected with Novell to use interoperability as an excuse to attack open source.

Crucially, Red Hat’s interoperability deal with Microsoft does not include any patent covenants, the ingredient that torpedoed Novell with the open-source community:

iRobot co-founder Helen Greiner has resigned from her position as chairman of iRobot, effective October 24, the company announced Wednesday evening.

While both Greiner and iRobot have said the decision was mutual, some are speculating as to the reason behind her step-down.

iRobot co-founder Helen Greiner

Chief Executive Colin Angle, also a co-founder, was voted unanimously by iRobot’s board to take Greiner’s place. Angle will also remain the company’s CEO, according to a company statement.

(Credit:
iRobot)

Greiner speaks after being named a 2008 Women of Vision Award winner.

(Credit: The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology)

“Greiner didn’t go into detail about why she’s stepping down as chairman, and it’s hard not to speculate that it was at least partially involuntary–but at the same time, it’s easy to imagine that she has simply had enough of the grind and has decided to move on,” said Robert Buderi in an article on Xconomy, the only news outlet Greiner appears to have spoken to directly since the announcement.

“I am excited about where the robot industry is going and how I can help shape the future through individual endeavors, work with the Robotics Technology Consortium, Massachusetts Robotics Cluster, and the various boards on which I serve,” Greiner said in a statement, which, like the company statement gave no explanation for her resignation.

Brooks is working at another robotics company, Heartland Robotics. iRobot said in September that it would not begin looking for Brooks’ replacement until early 2009.

The company is now down two major company leaders. Greiner’s sudden departure closely follows a September announcement that iRobot co-founder and famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology roboticist Rodney Brooks was leaving his position as iRobot’s chief technology officer.

iRobot was not immediately available for comment.

“Since co-founding iRobot in 1990, Helen has been an integral part of the company and played a large role in our success. We are fortunate that she will maintain a position on our board of directors as she continues to drive the robot industry forward,” Angle said.

Perhaps a speech Greiner gave when she was honored in June by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology as its 2008 Women of Vision Award Winner for Innovation (see video on right) is an indication of her next challenge.

Like Brooks, Greiner plans to remain on iRobot’s board and stay involved as a member of the robotics community.

This year, stories written about TechCrunch presenters will likely be less insightful than those about Demo companies, for two reasons. First, TechCrunch management has scared presenters into not pre-briefing the press. A few companies have wisely ignored this directive, but for the most part the writers and bloggers covering TechCrunch don’t know what they are going to get when they go to the show. Demo presenters have been pre-briefing journalists for weeks.

Demo, a show that’s been running since the late 1980s, attracts a regular group of venture capitalists and journalists who come to see what they know will be a highly-produced showcase of closely vetted companies. Demo charges companies to present to the crowd (the fee is now more than $18,000), and this has historically had the effect of filtering out poorly-funded companies from even applying to present. While Demo’s presenting companies are not always scintillating, the majority of them have solid business models. There have been notably cool demos at Demo, like the Palm Pilot, the Pleo, and the Moobella ice cream machine I mocked previously.

Second, there is no post-presentation showcase for TechCrunch companies. People who want to interview TechCrunch CEOs have to buttonhole the presenters immediately after the presentation in a special room set aside for interviews, or find them later in the hallways. There will be a demo hall for TechCrunch companies, but this “demo pit” is for companies that did not make the cut to present on-stage. Demo, in contrast, puts all its presenting companies in one big pavilion where people can wander between the companies and chat up the execs as they want, either before or after they see their presentations on the main stage. It’s a better environment for learning about the companies.

TechCrunch, in its second year, is the scrappier conference. Timed this year to run at the same time as Demo, it also has a tough approval process, but it doesn’t charge companies to present on-stage. Companies for which $18,000 makes a big difference are drawn to TechCrunch, as are those that believe that the new TechCrunch conference will get better press coverage than Demo. I expect that a much larger proportion of the companies at TechCrunch will have unformed business models and be further away from being ready for customer adoption, but there will still be many with solid, creative plans. TechCrunch last year brought us some really good Web 2.0 start-ups, such as Mint and TripIt.

On Monday, September 8, two major product launch shows kick off: DemoFall in San Diego, and TechCrunch50 in San Francisco. There will be more than 100 products officially announced at these conferences, and we’ll be covering the best of them on CNET blogs and on our Launch Week page.

For more on the rivalry between the shows, see “Are Demo and TechCrunch 50 fragmenting their audiences?”

We’ll have video crews at both shows. Natali Del Conte at DemoFall, and Kara Tsuboi at TechCrunch50 will be interviewing the most interesting entrepreneurs. Those videos will also appear on the roundup page.

Based on my experience with previous product launch conferences, it’s a safe bet that no more than a dozen of the companies presenting during the combined Demo/TechCrunch launchfest will be truly memorable. But there are plenty of opportunities still to seize market share on the Web, and we will try to find those dozen companies that have identified good ways to do it. CNET writers and video crews will be on-site at both events and will uncover the new products worth your attention.

What to expect
Launches at the TechCrunch show will all be Web 2.0 companies. Demo’s presenters likely will be mostly Web 2.0 launches, with a few traditional software and hardware companies in the mix. So what’s the real difference between the shows?

For the full rundown of everything that’s happening at the show, see the Twitter feed at the right of our roundup page, or go to the standalone Launchweek Twitter page.

While it’s unlikely Americans will ditch broadband for dial-up en masse, there are likely to be some people who find the $20 to $50 monthly fees for DSL or cable modem broadband service to be too high, when dial-up providers such as NetZero are offering new $9.95 service plans.

“I didn’t think I would ever go back,” the Tribune article quoted Zimmerman as saying. “It was terrible. But with this economy, you got to look to cut wherever you can.”

For several years, Internet users have been ditching dial-up Internet service for broadband service. But executives from United Online, which owns dial-up providers NetZero and Juno, said they saw the percentage of people dropping the company’s Internet service hit a new low of 4.3 percent during the fourth quarter of 2008.

For example, Verizon Communications offers a 1 megabit per second service for $17.99 with a one-year contract. Subscribers must also have a Verizon phone line. But if they don’t they can get the service for $19.99.

One Florida man, Arnold Zimmerman, 66, said that after his work hours got reduced and his stock portfolio tanked he was looking to make cuts.

AT&T is offering a special promotion for its 768 kilobits per second service for $9.99 a month. The special offer applies only to new AT&T DSL customers. And subscribers must also have an AT&T phone line, sign up for the service online, and agree to a one- year contract. Current AT&T customers can get the service with the same restrictions for $19.95 per month.

Some broadband users are considering going back to dial-up as the tough economic climate forces them to cut their household budgets, according to a story published Friday in the Chicago Tribune.

But I’m not entirely convinced people will cut back at all on their broadband even as the recession worsens. As CNET News has reported previously, some consumers are actually increasing the speed of their broadband connections to access more entertainment at home. Instead of cutting broadband services, these consumers are cutting their cable or satellite services and are using their fast broadband connections to watch free TV from the Net. They’re also watching some TV for free from over-the-air broadcast stations.

If you’ve got tips for saving costs by cutting back on technology, I’d love to hear from you. Please send me an e-mail at maggie.reardon@cbs.com.

Still, broadband services have been growing strong for cable and phone companies. And even though some higher-speed services are pricey, consumers can still find cheaper alternatives, especially if they are able to get DSL service.

Now, according to Xbox expert Dean Takahashi at Venture Beat, Jasper-infused Xboxes are finally being spotted out there in the wilds of the marketplace. And presumably, fans of the platform are singing hosannas at the prospect that maybe, finally, some of their brethren might be able to boot up Gears of War without fear of doom.

According to a blog called Joeygadget, “The key things to look for when buying a new Xbox 360 with the Jasper chipset is a manufacturing date (MFR) as early as 2008-08-06, Lot 8031 and up, and Team CSON.”

Update (12:57 p.m.): The story now reflects Microsoft’s response to a request for comment.

Actually, Takahashi poses the question of whether Xbox fans will go for the new machines. But I’m not sure why anyone would rather not have an Xbox with the new motherboard instead of one that could blow up–not literally, of course–at any time.

My question is, will the Xboxes with the new motherboard have a smaller power supply than the ugly behemoth that came with the original machine?

And this is important since, with Microsoft’s recent price reductions for the Xbox–the “Arcade” version of the console is now available for $199–it is likely that there will be large numbers of new buyers, especially this holiday season. Unless, that is, the economic situation holds buyers back.

Microsoft has attempted to handle the problems–and last year extended the warranty for the machine, leading some to feel that, at the very least, they would be covered if they got the three red rings around their console’s power button that indicate total hardware crash.

All along, the problem has been blamed on the Xbox’s original motherboard, a poorly designed piece of electronics that in many cases simply wasn’t up to the rigors that users put the machine through. But there had been indications that help was on the way in the form of an all-new motherboard, at once smaller, more efficient, less likely to overheat and less expensive, known as “Jasper.”

For
Xbox 360 users, the so-called red ring of death is a worst-case scenario that can cause nightmares about total system failure and the inability to play any more Halo 3.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

For its part, Microsoft wouldn’t say whether any Jasper Xboxes were on the market yet. “We are constantly updating internal components on our consoles,” the company told CNET News, “and therefore will not comment on details of specific components or manufacturing processes.”

Since the introduction of the console, in late 2005, some users have suffered through a well-documented series of quality control problems and some have endured system failures on machine after machine after machine.

The ‘red ring of death’ is the last thing any Xbox 360 user wants to see, as it indicates massive system failure.

Either way, it sounds like the era of the red ring of death, at least for new buyers, could well be drawing to a close.

To be sure, those whose original model Xboxes haven’t crashed don’t really have a choice, and I don’t see hordes of owners of the console rushing out to buy a new one. But if you’ve been holding off on buying one, and find that you have a choice, what would hold you back?

Another site, the Xbox 360 DVD Drive Database, reports there is no “substantial evidence that it’s out yet.”

When I misplaced my Kindle last year, I not only lost the device, but also any means of reading several e-books that I was in the middle of.

That all changed on Wednesday. My Kindle is no closer to home, but by downloading the new Kindle app for the
iPhone (which also works on my
iPod Touch), I was able to recover access to my virtual library. Not only that, but thanks to Whispersync, I was able to start reading right where I left off. Whispersync is Amazon’s technology for keeping one’s place in a book across multiple Kindles or cell phones.

Ina Fried's Kindle is still among the missing, but thanks to the new iPhone/iPod Touch application, she was reunited Wednesday with her electronic library.

(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET)

At the same time, I won’t be deleting that iPod app even if I do replace my Kindle. The option of reading on my iPod will help for my commute to work and for those trips where I can’t bear to carry an extra device.

The experience highlights both the pros and cons of the “digital locker” approach taken by Amazon with Kindle content. Although some have criticized the fact that one can’t resell or give away their Kindle books, the site does provide other aspects of true ownership. In this case, I didn’t need to re-buy anything and as soon as I entered my account information, I had access to every book I had purchased for the Kindle. (Periodicals don’t work on the iPhone or iPod Touch.)

That said, I’m not sure I won’t go out and buy a Kindle 2 eventually. The iPod Touch reading experience, while fine for short bursts, isn’t the easy-on-the-eyes phenomenon I had with the Kindle. It’s harder to buy books and I can’t read newspapers or magazines. Also, I suspect it will do a number on my iPod’s battery.

Ultimately, the end result is likely to be that I will just be reading (and buying) more electronic books. And, in the end, that’s exactly what Amazon wants.

As for reading on the iPod Touch (or iPhone), I found it quite acceptable for my 15-minute public transit commute to work. The iPod’s small size makes it easy to read on a crowded train. One can even hold the iPod and flip pages in one hand while hanging on to a handrail with the other hand.

Although I don’t think the “I lost my Kindle” crowd is the target market, I must say it was very satisfying to wake up Wednesday once again having access to books that had seemed lost.

Those with suspended Twitter accounts will now see this message.

Twitter founder Evan Williams tweets about the company's plans to hire a spam engineer.

That person would likely work closely with the “spam marshal” that was hired in August.

(Credit:
Twitter)

However, the suspended profiles remain viewable in Profile Search, and people may still stumble across the suspended sites with the rogue links that way, notes Chris Boyd, research director at security specialist FaceTime Communications.

The company is looking to hire a spam engineer, preferably one who has worked at a big search or e-mail company, according to a tweet by founder Evan Williams.

(Credit:
Twitter)

Twitter is stepping up its actions to fight spam, which has been plaguing the site since earlier this year and appears to be spiking this week.

The latest job posting “is another sign that Twitter is maturing as a business and is using its VC funding wisely,” says a post on the Stop Twitter Spam blog. “And it’s a refreshing move by a company who seems to understand that cutting engineers when your product is ‘ready’ is a short-sighted move that will hurt you in the long run.”

Twitter also has changed the way it handles suspended spammer accounts, replacing the entire suspended page instead of redacting the Web links but leaving them in the profile section.

The hiring move was praised by the Twitter community.

“All in all, a good move to combat the increasing amounts of rogue profiles clogging up Twitter–and kudos to them on waving the banhammer at so many spam profiles overnight. Quite the bloodbath, from the looks of things,” Boyd wrote in a blog post.

That only tells part of the story, however. In truth, the service never caught on with music fans. SpiralFrog’s downloads were locked in Digital Rights Management at a time when most of the front-running music services, such as iTunes and Amazon, were freeing songs from copy-protection software, enabling them to play on numerous devices.

The company saw two CEOs come and go, conflicts between managers and founder, Joe Mohen, and perhaps most significantly, the company struggled with debt.

Update, 10:38 p.m. PDT:
To include more background on factors that led to shutdown.

SpiralFrog representatives weren’t immediately available for comment.

New York-based SpiralFrog made a splash in August 2006 by attempting to offer music free of charge to the public while supporting the site through ad sales. Media outlets such as The New York Times, Reuters, and USA Today questioned whether the site might one day challenge Apple’s iTunes.

In SpiralFrog’s situation, the company couldn’t overcome “a macro-economic perfect storm” says a source close to the company. The sagging global economy, combined with “the collapse of the capital markets” and rapid compression of the ad markets,” led to the company’s demise, said the source.

In addition, SpiralFrog’s music library was always much more limited than iTunes, Imeem, or other competitors. After signing a licensing deal with Universal Music Group, the largest of the four major record companies, in the summer of 2006, nearly two more years would pass before the start-up signed a second top label: EMI.

(Credit:
SpiralFrog)

Some argued that SpiralFrog’s business model was the answer to illegal file sharing.

This meant that SpiralFrog never was able to offer songs from Sony Entertainment Group or Warner Music Group, which account for a large chunk of overall music sales.

The deaths of these companies come at a time when executives at some of the top labels are questioning whether ad-supported sites boost music sales or cannibalize them.

According to a story published last month in Digital Music News, SpiralFrog’s debt was coming due and the story suggested the company may not have the means to repay it.

Here’s the obvious question raised by the demise of SpiralFrog and Ruckus; is the ad-supported music sector seeing a shakeout?

But the model has yet to be proven. SpiralFrog is the second ad-supported service to shut down in 2009. Ruckus, which catered to college students, also shuttered operations.

SpiralFrog, the pioneering ad-supported music service, quietly closed down on Thursday. SpiralFrog’s site went dark at about 4 p.m. PDT.

A year ago I wrote that SpiralFrog was borrowing money to fund operations and avoided a debt crisis by renegotiating the loan terms. At the time, SpiralFrog had borrowed more than $9 million, but in March 2008 was given an additional year to repay it.

A source close to the company told CNET News that SpiralFrog has ceased operations and assets have been surrendered to creditors. To keep operations going last year, the company issued secured notes in order to borrow at least $9 million from several hedge funds and others.

We’ve assumed that Twitter would be integrating Twitter Search (formerly Summize) into the main site for a while now. It seems that Twitter has accidentally confirmed this integration. A topic on Get Satisfaction, talking about new behavior for nudges, shows a screenshot of a newer version of the site, featuring Twitter Search. According to this shot, Twitter will implement keyword search via a box on the right side of the page. There is no word yet on when this update will go live.

Twitter Search integration?

Update
Biz Stone, from Twitter, tells us that the screenshot comes from an admin account where they try different things out from time to time. Even though he doesn’t give a timeframe for the update, Biz says that, “…we’ll definitely be integrating the search.twitter.com goodness into Twitter proper soon.”

(Credit: Twitter on Get Satisfaction)