ComputerWorld: Opinion: VMware, Cisco say data center OS is on its way

John Webster at ComputerWorld waxes philosophical on events at VMworld 2007.

"As hard rock throbbed and steam rose from the main stage, I sensed tectonic plates shifting."

(Is this a networking editorial or a romance novel with Fabio on the cover?)

VMware Inc. President and CEO Diane Green sees a data center operating system coming. … one has to admit that VMware is much more than a hypervisor. And if VMware sees a data center operating system on its road map to the future, then an operating system is what VMware will surely become. …

Speaking the next day at this event, Cisco Systems Inc. CEO John Chambers preached the virtues of data center fabric on the horizon. What's that? Recall those early depictions of Ethernet as a cloud. Now imagine a data center cloud populated by servers, storage and Cisco's "intelligent" networking gear, all managed by Cisco and its partners -- starting with VMware. As proof, Chambers ran a demo of Cisco's VFrame provisioning virtual machines under VMware. So adding the data center operating system and the intelligent data center fabric yields "The data center is the computer," I guess.

Great. We used to say "the network is the computer." Now "the data center is the computer." Why can't we let the computer be the computer? What's wrong with the computer that the computer can't even be a computer? Why must you always judge the computer? Why can't the computer just be itself instead of trying to hold to some arbitrary standard that the computer's parents came up with? What if the computer doesn't want to do binary math all day? What if the computer wants to do stand up comedy, performing at comedy clubs in the East Village? Maybe the computer doesn't need its entire future planned out for it! Maybe the computer just needs to figure out what it wants to be in life, Computer's Dad!

Why does no one understand the computer?

InformationWeek: Web 2.0 Summit: U.S. Becoming Less Relevant in Global, Internet Economy.

In a speech on technology trends, Mary Meeker, managing director of Morgan Stanley's global technology research team, said the U.S. has become less relevant over the years to the global economy.

The U.S. share of the global gross domestic product has declined steadily since 1999 to 19% today from 22%. While this has been good news for other countries, it hasn't been a favorable trend for the U.S.

In Svedeesh:

In a speech oon technulugy trends, Mery Meeker, munegeeng durectur ooff Murgun Stunley's glubel technulugy reseerch teem, seeed zee U.S. hes becume-a less relefunt oofer zee yeers tu zee glubel icunumy. Bork bork bork!

Zee U.S. shere-a ooff zee glubel gruss dumesteec prudooct hes decleened steedeely seence-a 1999 tu 19% tudey frum 22%. Vheele-a thees hes beee guud noos fur oozeer cuoontreees, it hesn't beee a fefureble-a trend fur zee U.S.

APC Magazine: Device Driver updates causing Vista to deactivate

After weeks of grueling troubleshooting, I've finally had it confirmed by Microsoft Australia and USA -- something as small as swapping the video card or updating a device driver can trigger a total Vista deactivation. …

So pirates haven't been slowed down at all, and the rest of us -- the legitimate purchasers -- are left to live with Windows Activation. You really need to ask the question - who's benefiting here? Certainly not users, and given the amount of discontent this is likely to cause, arguably not Microsoft either.

When I reviewed Vista for HardOCP, it didn't even take updating the device driver to trigger deactivation. The thing rebooted on me when I breathed on it funny…