BillSaysThis

Formed over the past three years as a Java development tools powerhouse, WebGain news leaked today that the company will sell it’s TopLink OR mapping tool to Oracle, discontinue development of its market-leading IDE Visual Cafe/WebGain Studio (but make the source available to the Open Source community), and try to make a living off licensing and support revenues. The 120 person IDE R&D staff can kiss their jobs goodbye although the TopLink developers will get jobs at Oracle. Apparently, only TopLink was bringing in revenue while most of the R&D dollars were going to the IDE products. Given the good tools freely available from Sun (Sun ONE Studio, formerly Forte for Java/NetBeans) and IBM (Eclipse), combined with very tight corporate purchasing lately, this turn of events isn’t very difficult to understand. One does wonder, though, if the revenue plan will ever deliver back the sunk investment.

What an amazing game! A goal in the fourth minute, I thought, hey even if we lose, at least we scored first. Then, with the seecond goal, maybe we have a chance for a draw. After all, the Portugese have to wake up at some point, right? But then the third goal, McBride in the the 36th minute, I’m thinking we may win. Talk about wishing I had not stopped biting my nails! I was watching on tape and it was all I could do not to fast forward or walk over and check on the web but through sheer force of will I held myself back. And was it ever worth it! You can say Figo has a torn ligament in his ankle, you can say the Portugese defenders were asleep for the first half, I don’t care. We have the three points, we have the momentum, we have a legitimate shot to go through to the second round. What an amazing game!

3-2

3-2

3-2

Oh. My. God!!!

Hockey shocker – who thought the Hurricanes would win even one game, much less Game One on the road?

Steven goes deep with The critical question and let’s just say the answer isn’t 42

Some observations: There are more blondes and red heads on the Japanese squad than Belgium and even one dreadlocked Brazilian-born. The Belgians have a very odd looking all-orange uniform. If you though Sacramento fans were loud cheering on the Kings in Sunday’s game 7, you should hear the Japanese!

No host in the previous 17 Cups has ever lost an opening match.

Both teams are playing 3-5-2 configurations and through the first half neither was really able to generate any offense because they just didn’t bring enough players forward. On most runs I noticed only two offensive players on the attack and four or five for the defense. Easily shut down, then. But after the start of the second half, both teams started coming more aggressively.

Wilmots started the scoring in the 57th minute with a beautiful foot over head backwards. Suzuki (one of the blondes) two minutes later tied it after slashing through two defenders at the top of the box for a tap past the keeper. Inamoto, who plays for Arsenal in the English Premiership, put Japan into the lead in the 69th minute after some sweet dribbling around two defenders and a blast to the far corner.

Belgium is looking very tired and keeps giving up long on-side runs. With 20 minutes left, they have yet to make any substitutions (Japan has made two, losing their captain and best defender to foot/ankle injury) but the commentator says its because their bench. But Peter Van Der Heyden, starting right fullback, tied the match at 74:30 with a soft lift over the goalkeeper after the Japanese defense could not get a clear off a corner. The European side finally makes a substitution in the 83rd minute.

Inamoto almost put the Japanese team ahead with five minutes left, he put the ball in the net, but he was offside. Most of the players seem to have very little left in the tank! Just at the 90 minute mark, the Belgians were robed of a penalty shot after Japan’s keeper came off his line and took a dive to tackle a Belgian coming through to shoot. They couldn’t make anything off the corner kick they were left with.

All over, 2-2 tie. So for the first time in World Cup history, a host team does not win. But South Korea, the other host, did their part with a 2-0 win in Pusan over Poland.

Sometimes corporations luck out with a product that hits the sweet spot of the market and stays there for years. IBM has had such products for much of its corporate life; among the current is the AS/400 midrange line. Heck, I vividly remember attending the global product announcement of the AS/400 back in 1988 because my employer at the time, Central Holiday Tours, used an older System 34 that was in need of replacement. Getting a lease on an AS/400 was one of the first computer related deals I ever made.

Anyway, one of the ways IBM has been milking the customer base over the last few years has been a special program that tells the system how much effort to allocate to a certain type of application. A type that is used by many, if not all, AS/400 customers. A program that can cost anywhere from tens of thousands of dollars to millions.

But another company has been selling an application, called Fast400, at an apparently much lower price, that tells the system the same thing. Surprise, surprise, IBM doesn’t like it. So they’re trying to tell customers that Fast400 violates their license and IBM will not provide service to machines on which it is installed. Storage Solutions Group, the program’s publisher, points out that, contrary to IBM statements, their application does not modify the system in the way IBM claims and therefore does not cause any violatation of the customer license.

No, it just pulls a pile of cash off the IBM stack.

The scammer gets scammed – Savannah Says (Elizabeth Hanes) has posted the utterly hilarious Kizombe Correspondence for your reading pleaure

Oh behave! – those wacky Brits and the things they deep fry

The news is out, more on this breaking story later.

They expect me to wait 57 freaking days for the new Springsteen album? Someone up there either wants to drive me crazy or into serious agony! Shore Fire Media put out a press release today stating that a new Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band recording, The Rising, will be in stores on July 30. Backstreets.com has the track listing and some other tidbits; My City in Ruins will be on the disc but not 41 Shots. “The sound is very recognizable and very different,” Springsteen said. “If you have all of our other records, you don’t have this one. We picked up the level of intensity. I can’t wait for people to hear this record.” Gawd, this is going to be a long two months!

[thanks to garret for the initial notice]

At 9:24 a.m. Well, since I’m waiting here from 9-12 for the plumber anyway… The problem I’m having is that, only on premium movie channels (HBO< Showtime, Starz), I frequently (but not always and not predictably) have signal problems where the picture pixilates, fades to black, freezes, displays various green splotches and loses the sound as well. Previously the support rep said to power cycle the Tivo box while this is happening. Tried that Friday night when Jeremiah was on and it did not help.

Update 9:46 a.m.: Finally off the generic jazz muzak and alking to a real person but he puts me back on hold to read up on the previous case entries. Still no sign of the plumber. Turned on the TV and the problem was not happening, checked several of the channels. But it did happen last night as soon as I tuned into The Sopranos.

Update 9:54 a.m.: Well, off the phone with a couple of suggestions but no solution. “Maybe it’s the cable box.” is the current position. We’ll see. I was told to power cycle the cable box and if that does not help, try switching the two cable boxes. Swell. I suppose I am the first person to EVER call in with this problem. Right?

Denmark-Uruguay yesterday, Argentina-Nigeria this morning, England-Sweden this afternoon. Some terrific soccer. England have to be disappointed with their result; the team did not live up to expectations, fell down after a strong start, and continued their 34 year streak of not defeating the Swedes. Argentina are just the opposite, squeezing passed the very young Super Eagles 1-0 on a super header by Batistuta off a Veron corner kick. Today’s two games showed off the fearsome nature of corners, as England’s score also came off of Sol Campbell’s head. Nigeria gave up corner after corner and you knew sooner or later the South Americans would take advantage. Still, the draw has to have the Nigerians thinking they may have a chance to advance even after the loss if they can manage a draw and a victory in the next two games.

Every commentator says the reason soccer isn’t more popular here in the States is because of the predominantly low scores. May I beg to differ? I think the real reason is that soccer is simply too casual, too loose. Watch the play after a foul, when a player gets in the general vicinity of the spot where it occured he just spins the ball in front of him and kicks it. Watch after a ball goes out of bounds, when a player takes several steps passed where the ball went out and tosses it into play. Consider that the clock doesn’t stop for goals and injuries and instead the referee keeps track in his handwatch.

All those go against the American grain. NBA shot clocks go into tenths of a second. NFL fields are marked with every yard and use chains to measure for first downs. Even the NHL uses instant replay on disputed goals.

Then there is the issue of control. In American sports, the head coach/manager retains very close rein on the action, in many situations running onto the field/court to argue individual calls. In soccer, once play starts the coach has very little to do when the ball is in play except to send his (at most) three substitutes.

Sure, Americans would probably find the game more exciting with more scoring. One could make a similar comment about hockey although that sport continues to make headway; I expect that seeing the Carolina Hurricanes make their franchise first-ever Stanley Cup Finals appearance this week will light up the South, especially if the series goes six or seven games.

But Americans are a pretty uptight bunch and I think that’s the real reason soccer, the ultimate in sport everywhere else, goes nowhere in the U.S.

Aren’t we all? – If you’re having a hard time believing the Nets are in the Finals, well, you’re not alone.

I know, I’m just as surprised as you that I waited 16 days to see Attack of the Clones too. What the hell. We did make the extra effort to drive to San Jose and see it at a digital projection theater. Not incredible but nice to have, worth driving a few extra minutes if you live near one of the 20 theaters across the country which have it.

Don’t bother to see it if you expect logic and amazing acting. This isn’t that kind of movie. The special effects are state of the art and the integration of digital creations with real people is undetectable. Yoda, as many others have said before, rocks. The aliens of planet Kamino, scientists who create the clone army, are amazingly beautiful and you will believe the characters are people in suits even though they’re not. Hayden Christensen, the 20 year old Anakin, did not meet my expectations for the role and Ewen McGregor is usually a much better actor. Christopher Lee just rocks and at 80 years of age shows no signs of slowing up (remember his Sarumen in Fellowship of the Rings?).

Will George Lucas direct Episode Three as he has One and Two? I kind of hope he doesn’t. As good as the technology is here, he seems too enamored of it and we end up with weaker acting and plotting than ought to be the case. Still…

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Karl tried to change the world and failed but props for trying, buddy! And more props for getting rid of the Star Wars background image that was making your page so hard to read<LOL>