Archive for August 2006

My Zaurus C3200 Linux PDA

By Joshua Chalifour, 25 August 2006

I thought that I really wanted something significantly smaller than my four-year old laptop but with a hard drive and more functionality than a standard PDA. After a few weeks of research and reading articles about different devices, I decided to buy a Sharp Zaurus SL-C3200. Strangely, these are not sold in North America so [...]

Bias and Time

By Joshua Chalifour, 24 August 2006

This is about consulting-in-the-world. :-) (excuse my weak, philosophy in-joke) Paul Murphy posted a thought-provoking piece concerning consulting bias (plus), called Corporate loyalties and the temporal disconnect. He calls attention to the idea that people cannot really claim to be unbiased. We are wise to disclose bias so that we know how to deal with [...]

Company Acquisition is Customer Acquisition

By Joshua Chalifour, 21 August 2006

A lucid read from AMR Research (I found this by way of The ERP Graveyard), which nicely discusses issues involved in enterprise software consolidation. I’m linking to this because I just mentioned in my previous post, the notion that the Infors (Golden Gate Capitals) of the world may be buying all the enterprise software vendors [...]

More Noticings from LinuxWorld Expo SF

By Joshua Chalifour, 21 August 2006

After attending LinuxWorld Expos for a few years, I noticed a certain trend starting… that is, desktop Linux usage appears to be visibly on the rise. Considering I was attending a Linux-centric show, one would think that’s a given–but it’s not. I’ve been paying attention, informally (this is no scientific survey), to what people use [...]

A Few Noticings at LinuxWorld SF

By Joshua Chalifour, 18 August 2006

I had a few small problems getting in. They don’t care much for analysts masquerading as wizened party crashers with large yellow balloons depicting the faces of thousands of homeless linux users who’d like to make Moscone Center their home. Not that I’d do that. Virtualization seems to be quite the theme these days. The [...]

What’s Going on with SMB Linux Accounting?

By Joshua Chalifour, 10 August 2006

WebCPA published an overview of some of the issues involved in Linux and open source deployments for the SMB crowd. It mostly focuses on some of the financial packages available, mentioning companies like ACCPAC/Sage, Open Systems, and InsynQ as offering their solutions for a Linux platform. The article, while providing what I thought was a [...]

GPLv3 and Corporate Contrarian Hype

By Joshua Chalifour, 4 August 2006

The latest draft of the third GPL version is provoking a lot of argument, posturing, and controversy. I’m glad its careful drafting process is taking the amount of time it is. I think it’s useful to widen the sphere of public awareness on the issues the license addresses. Some of the most controversial issues, such [...]