More best of Computerworld Blogs in 2009

Yesterday's post was so popular, I'm doing some more. [I thought it was just there's not much IT news around? -Ed.] In IT Blogwatch, we look back over some of the forgotten Computerworld blog posts of 2009.

By Richi Jennings. December 31, 2009, which isn't a blue moon, nor the last day of the decade. [Pedant -Ed.]

Your humble blogwatcher selected these bloggy morsels for your enjoyment. Not to mention Cat Face 18...
 
 
Remember when it was IBM that was going to buy Sun Microsystems? Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols does:

Sources from both companies tell me that such a deal is in the works and it may be completed as early as this week. ... Sources indicated that what IBM wants is Sun's software businesses, not its x86 and SPARC server lines.
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I've heard some people wonder why, with all of IBM's interest in Linux, "Why are they buying Sun, when they could buy Novell?" The reason is simple. IBM has never had, and continues to have no interest in being a Linux distributor. IBM Global Services, which delivers integration, support, and service to Linux customers, is how IBM makes it billions from Linux. IBM is perfectly happy to let Red Hat, Canonical,and all the rest have the distribution and first-line support business.

Sharon Machlis set the wayback machine to 1996:

I'm going through a lot of old papers. ... Best archaeological find so far: "@Computerworld Launched January 8," from 1996. That's quite a long time ago in Web time (half a year even before MSNBC appeared online).
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An accompanying image of the January '96 home page includes a prominent profile of Netscape with logo and a forum query "1996: The Year of the Intranet?" It's interesting to read some of the crystal-ball gazing from that time. Our then editor in chief said he was a self-proclaimed online junkie even back then, but argued that print and online wil go hand in hand.

Seth Weintraub offered this novel way to keep the grass low:

Google ... hired goats to clean their brush. No, they aren't "kidding". ... In California, the high rate of brush fires makes it a legal requirement that landowners remove excess brush from their land. The conventional way to do this is, of course, to use lawnmowers and other CO2 belching machinery.
...
It wasn't immediately clear if the goats have access to Google's famous employee perks nor what they were going to do with their 20 percent time. This isn't entirely new to the Valley either, Yahoo has a goat-staff working for them too.

Joyce Carpenter proved there's nothing new in this world:

Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief of Dow Jones and managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, calls those who aggregate others' content "parasites or tech tapeworms in the intestines of the internet." ... He has in mind Google, possibly Techmeme, and possibly our own IT Blogwatch.
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Before he makes too much of this, he should check out the sites in his own little world. I've been quite troubled by the excerpts that the Voices sections of All Thing Digital have been publishing. For example, they recently posted an excerpt from our pages. Our post / their excerpt. Fair use or parasite of the Internet? ... I say that Dow Jones benefited from aggregating content from Computerworld and other publications. Is he mailing us a check?

Barbara Krasnoff did too:

Sometimes I wonder what's on Mark Zuckerberg's calendar. Along with notes for birthdays and holidays, I'm beginning to suspect he has an early February reminder that goes something like, "Make draconian change. Anger users. Back down."
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But it's interesting to note that this is not the first time Facebook has had to react to member anger. Almost exactly a year ago, in February, 2008, Facebook faced demands from several thousand users that they be allowed to permanently delete their accounts and all content associated with it. ... It's almost as if Zuckerberg ... has an annual appointment to try to keep -- and possibly use -- as much member content as possible, whether or not the members are still part of the service.

Amir Lev answered our questions about backscatter spam:

This week on Security Levity, I want to talk about the junk email that hits your inbox as a result of spam. It's not exactly spam, in the usual sense of the word, but it's just as annoying. It's a phenomenon known as backscatter.
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If the spammer forges your email address to be the 'sender' of millions of spam messages, you're likely to end up with a messy inbox. It's not just out-of-office messages that you'd see. In fact, any sort of reply can cause backscatter. Here are three more examples...

Ken Gagne asked, "What good are LinkedIn recommendations?"

In this economy and job market, it pays to be proactive in keeping your professional profile up-to-date. On LinkedIn, this means seeking out recommendations from your supervisors, direct reports, and co-workers.
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I have a public profile that anyone within or without my LinkedIn network can see. But the options of what to list on a public profile do not include the text of recommendations — just their quantity. ... What if I am applying for a position at a company outside my network? Can they use LinkedIn to discover what my past and present co-workers think of me? If not, then the value of a recommendation seems extremely limited.

Meanwhile, Robert L. Mitchell offered this reality check:

If you're using software as a service (SaaS), it might sound like a good idea to use integration as a service (IAS) offerings as well. After all, why build your own custom integration links to share data with other enterprise apps when you can place those integration headaches in the cloud, alongside the application that needs them? But there's a few things you should know before making that choice.

And finally...

• Cat Face makes a snow cat

 

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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him as @richi on Twitter, or richij on FriendFeed, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itblogwatch@richij.com.

 
 
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