Another Day, Another Enterprise Security Breach

Anti-virus giant Symantec says it did not know back in 2006 that source code for its software was stolen when it experienced a breach at that time.

The company surprised the public last week when it disclosed that hackers had obtained source code for its pcAnywhere software and other products, and that the code had likely been stolen in a six-year-old breach that Symantec had never disclosed.

Symantec said in its announcement that users should disable pcAnywhere until the company had time to update the software to ensure that hackers are unable to exploit holes they might find in the code.

The pcAnywhere software is a popular remote access program that lets administrators get into computers to troubleshoot and also allows mobile users on the road to access content on their office desktop. It’s also installed on point-of-access terminals in stores and restaurants to allow administrators to update software that’s used to process the information on credit and debit cards as they’re scanned at a register check-out.

What was unclear from Symantec’s disclosure, however, was just how long Symantec had known its source code had been breached. The statement left open the question of whether Symantec knew in 2006 that its source code was taken and only disclosed it this month after hackers claimed to have it.

But Symantec spokesman Cris Paden told Threat Level that the company did not know before this month that the pcAnywhere source code had been stolen.

“We knew there was an incident in 2006,” he told Threat Level. “But it was inconclusive at the time as to whether or not actual code was taken or that someone had actual code in their hands.”

Following the public claim of hackers earlier this month that they had source code for pcAnywhere and other Norton Utilities, Paden said the company went back through its logs and records and “put 2 and 2 together that there was a source code theft.”

Asked to clarify that the company indeed maintained six-year-old server logs that it could go back and examine, Paden said, “We keep logs as far back, as long as we have had software to keep logs.”

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/symantec-source-code-hack

If I'm a pcANYWHERE user (which would be hard to believe in this day and age) my question to Symantec would be this - who has had access to my information and for how long?

So much for an exhaustive investigation after the theft SIX YEARS AGO.

Too Little Too Late For RIM

Research In Motion's Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have bowed to investor pressure and resigned as co-CEOs, handing the top job to an insider with four years at the struggling BlackBerry maker.

Thorsten Heins, a former Siemens AG executive who has risen steadily through RIM's upper management ranks since joining the Canadian company in late 2007, took over as CEO on Saturday, RIM said on Sunday.

The shift ends the two-decade long partnership of Lazaridis and Balsillie atop a once-pioneering technology company that now struggles against Apple and Google.

With RIM's share price plummeting to eight-year lows, a flurry of speculation that RIM was up for sale has enveloped the company in recent months. But investors have pointed to the domineering presence of Lazaridis and Balsillie as one reason a sale would prove difficult.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/23/us-rim-idUSTRE80M04920120123

Sorry folks, this is like putting a band-aid on a machete wound.

The need to remove the two bumblers-in-chief from the top of the RIM hill was known by even the most casual of observers for years.  And the loss of lifeforce in terms of goodwill and market share has been too great for the patient to recover.

My guess is the new hire has been given marching orders to arrange the orderly winding down of the business and try to maximize the selling off of assets.   Color me cynical.   But for bleep's sake, don't blame me - take your case to the completely ineffectual board and useless executive staff that allowed the cancers to fester.

The Yin & Yang Of Jerry Yang

Let the naysaying begin.

Now that Jerry Yang has severed his remaining ties with the company that he co-founded, the news cycle is not going to be especially kind recalling his legacy at Yahoo. Invariably, Yang is going to get called out for having blown a chance to sell Yahoo to Microsoft for more than $47 billion. For all his considerable talents, the critics will say, he was emotionally unable to let go even though every indicator was flashing a "sell" signal at the time, and he thus flubbed one of the biggest business opportunities in recent history.

All true, of course, and with the benefit of hindsight we know how the story subsequently unfolded. But it is also too smug and too unfair. The absence of nuance also makes for a misleading assessment of the man as well as his contributions. Did Yang hang around too long for his own good? It's a subjective question but to be fair, only a handful of entrepreneurs made their marks in the technology business and then got out while their companies were still riding high. It's a very short list with Microsoft's Bill Gates at the top of the roster. The other big name is Michael Dell, who revolutionized how personal computers get sold (though he has since returned for a second run as chief executive.) I'd also include Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus who handed over the reins to Jim Manzi after revolutionizing how the business world did spreadsheet calculations with Lotus 1-2-3.

Give Yang credit for not being a short-timer. In an age where the aspiration is to flip half-baked companies to suckers too dumb to figure out they're getting hosed, Yang was there for the long haul. We're not kind to our fallen heroes but this is a great American success story and we should consider a track record of accomplishment dating back to 1995. If Yang's legacy includes blowing the Microsoft deal, then let's also include his myriad contributions in laboring to build one of the biggest Internet properties in the world. For whatever warts you want to pick at, Yahoo remains a company that weathered the dot com bust, the post-9/11 slump, and the Great Recession. How many other can make the same claim? It wasn't always smooth but Yahoo also managed to survive a drastically different technology landscape where the likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter were the new Internet stars.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57360574/cap-the-naysaying-and-give-jerry-yang-his-due/

Yes, Jerry Yang blew a tremendous opportunity by rejecting MSFT's overture.   And sure, Yahoo! has sort of lost its way by attempting a one-stop-shop approach to the web.   But geez, can we give him a little bit of love?   The article made mention of his standing as an "Internet pioneer."   How many other folks can you say that about and be right?

When you are talking about companies that helped bring the web to the world's collective consciousness, Yahoo! has to be one of the companies mentioned along with Netscape, Google and MSFT.   Around the same time the famous Internet Tidal Wave memo was making the rounds in Redmond, Yahoo! and Sequoia Capital were wrapping up their first-round funding.   That was 1995 - almost Precambrian by Internet time.

So before you pile onto the dissing bandwagon, pause for a second and consider Jerry Yang's role in bringing the web up from its infancy.

And remember, he'll probably be ignoring all the catcalls as he sits on a giant pile of money... I'm not a big believer in "he with the most toys wins" - however, I can only hope JY has a wry smile on his face now.

Has MSFT Finally Gotten It Right With Smartphone?

“GORGEOUS,” raves The Huffington Post.

“Best-looking smartphone operating system in the industry,” gushes Slate.

“Far superior to most if not all theAndroid smartphones,” saysTechCrunch.

Sounds like the usual adulation for a gadget from Apple. In fact, they’re actually accolades for a new product from Microsoft.

Microsoft?

Exactly. Long ridiculed as the tech industry dullard, Microsoft actually has a hit, at least with the technorati. It’s cellphone software called Windows Phone — and they need it to be a blockbuster here at Microsoft Central.

Yes, Windows and Office products are ubiquitous and highly profitable. But they’re about as inspirational as a stapler. While the likes of Apple have captured our imaginations with nifty products like the iPhone, Microsoft has produced a long list of flops, from smart wristwatches to the Zune music player to the Kin phones. Steve Jobs used to deride Microsoft for a lack of originality. In his opinion, the company didn’t bring “much culture” to its products. With Windows Phone, though, Microsoft is finally getting some buzz.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/technology/microsoft-defying-image-has-a-design-gem-in-windows-phone.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1326072308-otItIkyLX+T0KyyzgGpCCg

It took longer than I expected - but it looks like Redmond has finally thrown down the smartphone gauntlet.   It will be interesting to see how far it integrates with their enterprise suite (Office365, anyone?).

Will RIM Kill The Two-Headed Monster (Chairmen???)

Under intense pressure from a group of shareholders, Research in Motion Ltd. is preparing to unveil a corporate shakeup at the beleaguered BlackBerry maker that could see co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie relinquish their titles as co-chairmen of the board, according to sources.

Barbara Stymiest, an independent director who joined RIM’s board in 2007, is believed to be the leading candidate to replace Messrs. Balsillie and Lazaridis as chair, sources familiar with events said.

A committee of seven independent directors of RIM’s board, including Ms. Stymiest, have been examining the company’s board structure, including the merits of having an independent chair rather than a lead director and the “business necessity” for Messrs. Lazaridis and Balsillie — who are also co-CEOs — to hold significant board titles.

http://business.financialpost.com/2012/01/03/rim-leaning-toward-new-chairman-sources/

Too little and too late.

Attempts to plug the gaping holes in the SS RIM's hull are now playing in the theater of the absurd.

RIM's board has played lapdog to the two overlords for more than a decade - so NOW they realize the error of their ways?   Sorry kids, I'm not buying this.   It's waaaaaaayyyyyyyy behind schedule and the smartphone train left the station many moons ago.

There are no Lazaruses that can resurrect them.

VW Pulls The Plug On 24x7x365 Access

Carmaker Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) has agreed to deactivate e-mails on German staff Blackberry devices out of office hours to give them a break.

Under an agreement with labour representatives, staff at Europe's biggest automaker will receive e-mails via Blackberry from half an hour before they start work until half an hour after they finish, and will be in blackout-mode the rest of the time, a spokesman for VW said.

The new email regime applies to staff covered by collective bargaining so it would seem board level executives will still be slaves to their Blackberries.

Very few companies have taken such drastic measures to force workers towards a better work-life balance.

Telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) introduced a "Smart-Device-Policy" last year that calls on workers to claim communication-free time when they are off work, in exchange for a promise that management will not expect them to read e-mails or pick up the phone all the time.

"Mobile communication devices offer a great amount of freedom, but also embody the risk of no longer being able to switch off," the company said.

Kasper Rorsted, the chief executive of consumer goods maker Henkel (HNKG_p.DE), told a German newspaper last month that he was imposing a Blackberry-free week for the management board between Christmas and New Year - unless there is an emergency.

"I don't want to have to read mails just because someone is bored somewhere and wants to show he's busy," he told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/23/uk-volkswagen-blackberry-idUSLNE7BM01D20111223

Kudos to Volkswagen executive management.

Apologies to the uber-Type-A wonks out there - but really, do you always feel the compulsion to check e-mail at 2AM on a Wednesday?

Burnout can be added to the ever-growing list of challenges facing today's average worker - wages not keeping up with costs-of-living, fewer opportunities, ever-increasing workloads, etc. At some point somebody was going to ask the question - does work have to follow you home? I think the answer needs to be no. 

It's still considered a verboten topic amongst many businesses - nobody wants to be seen as the bad guy - and VW's strong stance will only apply some much-needed pressure on other businesses to adopt a similar policy.     I believe it's taking the long view on worker productivity in economic terms - the concept of diminishing returns applies when a worker has turned out the last effective widget at hour 45 and starts sputtering after that.   We are not machines.

I can only see this doing a bit of good for VW staff... if only their brethren across the pond would take the hint :-)

RIP Jack Goldman

Jacob E. Goldman, a founder of the Palo Alto Research Center that developed breakthrough computing innovations such as the graphical user interface and ethernet networks, died on Tuesday. He was 90.

Goldman was recruited from Ford Motor Company to Xerox, where he pushed for a research center that he warned might not bear fruit for as long as 10 years, according to The New York Times, which reported that he died of congestive heart failure.

But in the decade following PARC's founding in 1970, the laboratory created a string of innovations that still resonate in modern computing today, from laser printing to object-oriented programming to the world's first WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) editor.

In 1975, PARC unveiled the graphical user interface with pop-up menus and windows and point-and-click controls. The GUI represented crucial ground work later built upon by companies such as Microsoft and Apple and eventually launched personal computing in the 1980s.

http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/xerox-parc-founder-jacob-e-goldman-dies-182491

R.I.P. Jack Goldman, the guy who gave Steve Jobs and Bill Gates their raison d'etres.

Anyone who's using a PC, Mac or tablet can thank the founder of PARC for them.  Brushing aside their massive egos, I always wondered why Jobs et al didn't send out mad props to the PARC crew.

(Server Room) Cleanliness Is Next To Godliness

Unorganized server room cabling is the Gordian Knot of IT.

Ask any techie and they'll say one of the top nuisances in the network world would be a poorly-wired patch panel.   Like the proverbial snowball rolling down a hill, a lame wire job takes on a life of its own and soon reaches a point-of-no-return down the path to ruin.   When the inevitable network "issue" arises and you have to source that one cable causing you agita, it can become impossible to figure it out.   I mean, seriously, would you be able to wade through this?

Unlike Alexander The Great, I am not conquering the world - I just want to troubleshoot a problem quickly :-)

Advantages to a cleanly-wired cabinet:

1. It allows you to physically label the important stuff - like where your routers, firewalls and switches interconnect.   Ever try to figure out an outage with no knowledge of what plugs in where?   The only knot I'd want to see is a hangman's noose.    Labeling end-to-end makes this a painless process.
2. You can virtually label all your equipement's ports.   I now can see if a particular user is downloading The Lord Of The Rings trilogy on my monitoring system (ipMonitor) or on the Cisco devices that run stuff.    This also makes bandwidth reports less mysterious.
3. Sourcing a root cause becomes many times faster.   No more wading through a tangle of CAT-6 wiring.   And you can SEE the patch panel and switch/router/firewall ports - unlike the cheap seats in center at the new Stadium.
4. It looks like you care about your server room.
5. Your management will think you sprinkle magic pixie dust around.

Once you've taken the devil out of the details, it will look like this (below).    This took me about five hours and cost me about three minutes of downtime as I figured out where everything was plugged into on the server side.   I now have every port documented and labeled on my monitoring/reporting system and on the network devices.   When something important goes offline I can quickly diagnose if it's due to a connectivity issue in a minute or so.

Is RIM Open To A Fire Sale???

As Research in Motion works to recover from a year of hard knocks, media reports indicate that other technology heavyweights have been considering snapping up the struggling BlackBerry maker.

Reuters reported Tuesday that RIM wasn’t interested in merger talks with Amazon. Citing unnamed “people with knowledge of the situation,” the report said that the two companies were in casual talks over the summer, but Amazon never made a formal offer. It is unclear if pricing discussions ever took place, the report said.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft and Nokia also “flirted” with the idea of a joint offer for RIM, but only in informal discussions.

RIM shares fell to an eight-year low Tuesday — the best day for U.S. stocks this month, adding fuel to speculations that the company is ripe for a takeover.

The company has been struggling this quarter. Poor sales of its tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook, have hurt its image and those troubles were compounded when its vaunted BlackBerry Messenger network suffered worldwide outages.

In RIM’s most recent earnings call, co-chief executives Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis said that they were open to looking at several options to help the company, such as licensing out its operating system. The executives also announced that the next BlackBerry system would be delayed until the second half of 2012. The Journal report indicates that Balslillie, who handles RIM’s corporate strategy, has said that he would like to wait on that launch before considering bids from buyers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/amazon-microsoft-nokia-mulled-rim-bids/2011/12/21/gIQA3PP88O_story.html

At this point I'd be shocked if RIM investors got anything back on their investment.

Balsillie will need to find another career path as his days in "corporate strategy" will not make it onto his résumé.   RIM's shortsightedness and absolute absence of vision has already doomed the company while its competitors lick their chops waiting to snatch their customer database.

What, outside of the huge - but rapidly dwindling - install base do prospective suitors find interesting?   Is it really worth the enormous expense to migrate those users off the rickety, overcentralized RIM system and onto their platform?   Most CFO's would blanch at the sight of capital expenditures associated with any porting over of 60 million accounts - or would it just be cheaper to wean the CrackHeads off BBY's altogether?

I would LOVE to see what's cooking in the labs at MSFT & Nokia.   I imagine there's a team hammering away at program(s) to redirect the devices from Waterloo to ActiveSync - I can catch the scent of reverse engineering in the air, what with RIM making a too-late charge in that direction.

The Amazon thing I don't get just yet - outside of having another huge client base to hawk their wares to, I don't see any integration with the Kindle.  Besides, the Kindle is already cooler than the PlayBook (another doomed techno-goof courtesy Balsillie et al).



Why Executives Should Be Cool...

Zynga’s chief executive, Mark Pincus, got an earful from employees last month.

In dozens of e-mails to a companywide list, frustrated workers complained about the long hours and stressful deadline periods. The quarterly staff survey solicited 1,600 responses, with plenty of criticism, including one person who said he planned to cash out and leave after the initial public offering.

Mr. Pincus took note, going through the comments and highlighting select excerpts. At a Zynga meeting several days later, he read some of the most acerbic words. Mr. Pincus said he was aware of the problems, but needed the staff’s guidance to fix them.

Few Internet start-ups have grown as swiftly as Zynga, creator of a sprawling network of virtual farms, cities and poker tables that is preparing to go public in one of the most highly anticipated offerings this year.

Led by the hard-charging Mr. Pincus, the company operates like a federation of city-states, with autonomous teams for each game, like FarmVille and CityVille. At times, it can be a messy and ruthless war. Employees log long hours, managers relentlessly track progress, and the weak links are demoted or let go.

But that culture, which has been at the root of Zynga’s success, could become a serious liability, warn several former senior employees who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals.

As the discord increases, the situation may jeopardize the company’s ability to retain top talent at a time when Silicon Valley start-ups are fiercely jockeying for the best executives and engineers. It could also hamper deal-making, a critical growth engine for Zynga, which has spent about $119 million on acquisitions in the last two years.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/zyngas-tough-culture-risks-a-talent-drain/#h[AtdIca,2]

All 'bout the benjamins, yo'

A culture that is drive by an a****** will only foster the developement of a******s.

I am sorry for the strong language, but NOTHING drives people away from long-term productivity than working for a right bastard.

Everyone at one point or another has worked for/with someone with finely-tuned Type-A characteristics... and as a Type-A-ish guy I can (almost) empathize with the rare outburst or display of frustration.   But there's no excuse when an executive - or the guys in the mailroom - let their inner Tasmanian Devil out whenever something displeases them.    Evidently Mark Pincus is breeding a generation of management that believes foaming-at-the-mouth is good for driving projects.

What a shame.  What an embarrassment.

Here's a list of do's and don'ts for all you budding Masters Of The Universe:

1. Follow Dalton's advice - be nice.   The old adages apply (you'll get more bees with honey than with vinegar, etc).
2. Management through fear never lasts.   My guess is most of the screaming, ridiculing morons have borderline personalities and/or naricisstic disorder.
3. If you are miserable start looking for an out immediately.   I was at a place and knew within 3 months that I wanted out desparately - my "manager" was a vicious, mean-spirited troll and piled 28 projects on me in nine months.   Nobody likes a bully.
4. Find out if your HR department has any teeth.   If they don't see #3... if they do reach out to them ASAP.   Keep a list of transgressions and present that to them.
5. It's only money... if you're working for that reason only it's time to find a job that you'll enjoy doing.

I fully expect to see Zynga collapse after the newly-minted millionaires escape the evil clutches of the wack-job CEO.   If karma exists Mr. Pincus had better watch his back.

Regression In Motion

Research In Motion Ltd. fell to the lowest level in almost eight years after saying a new generation of BlackBerrys designed to fuel a comeback won't be out until the “latter part” of 2012.
The smartphone maker, which originally planned to release the new devices in the first quarter of next year, also gave a sales and profit forecast that missed analysts' estimates.         

The delay adds to the challenges at RIM, which has lost market share to Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Android phones. The company also flubbed its entry into the tablet market, with a device that bombed with shoppers.

RIM co-Chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie said on a conference call that he's not satisfied with the “particularly weak” performance in the U.S., which accounts for about a quarter of revenue.

“The last few quarters have been some of the most trying in the recent history of the company,” Balsillie said. The two co-CEOs will be cutting their salaries to one dollar effective immediately as they embark on a review of RIM's product portfolio, manufacturing and research strategy, he said.

The BB10 phones were delayed because the company wanted to deliver devices with better performance and battery life, said Mike Lazaridis, the other CEO. The chipsets that will allow those capabilities won't be available until mid-2012. “We ask for your patience and confidence,” Lazaridis said.

Patience?   I have all the patience in the world...

The Grim Reaper is honing his scythe at the latest news coming from Waterloo.

Of all the companies that could not afford MORE bad news.... RIM would head the list (apologies to MF Global - just ignore the entire website at this point).  I think Corzine would have had the good sense to jettison sans golden parachute out of this disaster.

I think my premonitions associated with RIM are coming true.   I said they'd be out of business by 2015 more than a year ago.    I may have to amend my prediction.... I honestly don't think they'll survive, even as a going concern, for more than a couple of years at this point.   Afflictions they now suffer include:

• Intense competition from Apple & Google.    Their market share is now below the Mendoza Line at 9%.
• Hall-Of-Fame caliber mismanagement at the top level.    Calling Balsille & Lazarids bumbling fools would be high praise at this point.    Their handling of the global outage earlier this year was a PR nightmare.
• Missed deadlines... seriously, when was the last time a product arrived in a timely manner?

I have only two questions for RIM -

Where the fire sale at?   

Where the hell is the board?

We both forgot to wear our "I'm With Stupid" t-shirts

Microsoft's "Playbook" On Tablets?

Steve Ballmer had a dilemma. He had two groups at Microsoft pursuing competing visions for tablet computers.

One group, led by Xbox godfather J Allard, was pushing for a sleek, two-screen tablet called the Courier that users controlled with their finger or a pen. But it had a problem: It was running a modified version of Windows.

That ran headlong into the vision of tablet computing laid out by Steven Sinofsky, the head of Microsoft's Windows division. Sinofsky was wary of any product--let alone one from inside Microsoft's walls--that threatened the foundation of Microsoft's flagship operating system. But Sinofsky's tablet-friendly version of Windows was more than two years away.

For Ballmer, it wasn't an easy call. Allard and Sinofsky were key executives at Microsoft, both tabbed as the next-generation brain trust. So Ballmer sought advice from the one tech visionary he's trusted more than any other over the decades--Bill Gates. Ballmer arranged for Microsoft's chairman and co-founder to meet for a few hours with Allard; his boss, Entertainment and Devices division President Robbie Bach; and two other Courier team members...

   

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20128013-75/the-inside-story-of-how-microsoft-killed-its-courier-tablet/

I don't know about you, but the Courier looked pretty damned cool... yet another reason to dislike that innovation/productivity assassin - corporate politics.

The moral of this sad tale spells out how to NOT allow one's ego get in the way - and that applies to Gates, Ballmer and Allard.   I happen to agree with Gates on this one - incorporating Outlook would have been a wise decision and ultimately torpedoed the project.   

There was a pretty stiff dose of short-sightedness spread around here... Allard's crew should have capitulated and plugged in Exchange/Outlook features.   Gates & Ballmer probably pulled the plug on this too soon.    And Microsoft missed out by slaying the golden goose - the multi-billion-dollar tablet market that Apple now lords over.

RIM: Have Shovel, Will Dig...

Another day, another worldwide outage for you poor BBY users.

It's not yet clear clear whether the issues plaguing customers overseas is what is also affecting service in North America. A RIM representative was not available for comment regarding disruptions in the North America.

BlackBerry users in Canada and parts of Central and South America also suffered service disruption last month, when RIM's e-mail and messenger services were down.

RIM's BlackBerry network architecture is its strength as well as its biggest weakness. Unlike other smartphone platforms, RIM routes all e-mail and messaging traffic through its BlackBerry servers in network operation centers throughout the world. This centralized architecture for the service means that additional encryption and security can be added to the messages that traverse the network. And for many corporate customers, this added security is the main reason they use the service.

But the architecture also means there are single points of failure throughout the network. This means that when there is a major infrastructure disruption, it can affect entire regions of service, potentially knocking out service for tens of millions of customers. By contrast competing smartphones, such as theiPhone and GoogleAndroid devices, do not suffer from the same outages because there is no single point of failure in the network.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20119163-266/blackberry-service-issues-spread-to-u.s-and-canada/

Pretty soon you'll need to look on a milk carton to locate a BlackBerry.

RIM's management seems determined to destroy their company.    Like a child holding their breath refusing to relinquish their security blanket, RIM also has a Vulcan Deathgrip on its obsolete architecture.

You'd think after the first 10 major outages they'd learn their lesson and be frantically implementing a geographically-distributed infrastructure to handle traffic.   But noooo......

I stand by my contention that RIM will be out of business by 2015 if they don't get it together.  This latest embarrassment only steels my resolve.    If you own RIM stock jettison it NOW.

There are yet more signs that the shy and retiring Microsoft head Steve Ballmer is on the slippery slope to CEO oblivion, not just from irritated investors but increasingly from his own employees.

The Seattle PI has cast its magnifying glass over the comments on a Microsoft blog post. It says at a recent company meeting, Ballmer was faced with a crowd suffering from restless bum syndrome, who deseated themselves and promptly exited mid-talk.

One comment the PI points out is particularly damning. "What a sad spectacle," it begins. "Back in the good old days when BillG spoke, EVERYONE listened." It goes on to suggest Ballmer has been peddling the proverbial poisoned Kool Aid to the few faithful, like HR boss Lisa Brummel and COO Kevin Turner. Thanks to the yes-men, the post suggests, Ballmer is oblivious to the fact his employees think he's a joke.

Another calls out Ballmer's claim that Windows "cannot lose" as defensive, while another comment says the company meeting is "the worst one I've ever seen by far". Overall, the disgruntled employees who are commenting seem to agree that Microsoft solely pinning its hopes on Windows 8 and Windows 8 tablets is a quick ready-meal recipe for disaster.

"Is Win 8 tablet all we have left to be excited about?" a commenter ponders. "Has the morale across the company slumped so much that 20,000 of us together can't even generate a decent applause? Please someone tell me I'm wrong."

Wall Street is equally peeved at Microsoft. The relationship between Ballmer and the shareholders has been sketchy at best, with complaints filing in about his alleged mis-management of the coffers. Still, he might have at least bought himself some time by throwing a small bone to the suits earlier this month by raising dividends 25 percent.

A survey last year from Glassdoor.com said over half of 1,000 employees, when asked, said they didn't think Ballmer was up to scratch. Microsoft's still in the Fortune top companies to work for list, with a decent rate of employee satisfaction.

Get me Luca Brasi



Is it finally time for a change in Redmond?   And can the board make him an offer he can't refuse?

It has to be difficult to follow in the footsteps of an industry god.   The expectations aren't whittled down, they are ratcheted up.   And both employees and investors think the good times will continue to roll on unabated.

Picking the right successor is a tricky thing - a lesson that HP and Apple are learning.  HP hasn't had a competent leader in over a decade while Tim Cook (who by all measures is a great exec) also has the misfortune of hopping off Steve Jobs' cape.

I never liked Ballmer as a CEO - his management style (i.e. bullying) wasn't going to curry favor with the denizens of Executive Row or with The Street... and it hasn't.   Another shortcoming was Ballmer's decided lack of tech chops - he's a marketer by trade - and his failure to appreciate the Big Picture (how to line up MSFT product lines, streamline operations to avoid corporate sprawl, etc) and assuage the fears of the shareholders.

He has done nothing to drive the stock price up - in fact, the stock has stagnated while their mortal enemies (GOOG & AAPL) have minted thousands of millionaires like Gates once did.

Time to exit gracefully, Mr. Ballmer.



Didn't Nixon do this when he left the White House?



Can RIM Stop Its Own Demise???

On Thursday, September 15th, before Research in Motion (RIMM) announced earnings, I said the following: 

“Tonight’s earnings may show us whether or not they are set to disappear as an influence in the smart phone battle.”

I was expecting a big move, either up or down, following the announcement. I knew RIM was set to surprise investors - I just wasn’t sure in which direction. RIM could have surprised to the upside by showing investors that the company was capable of a comeback; but it could also have surprised to the downside, by showing investors that the company was set to disappoint. RIM did, in fact, disappoint, sending the stock down over 20 percent.

Fading to Irrelevance

RIM used to be the dominant player in the industry, as the number-one Blackberry essentially controlled the business-phone space and was well-ahead of the competition. The Droid (GOOG) was nowhere yet, and the iPhone (AAPL) was still far behind. But now, the iPhone and the Droid are top two, and the Blackberry is quickly losing relevance. To make matters worse, the future looks bleak for RIM with earnings and growth shrinking. The stock is at $24, nowhere near its $148.13 peak in June 2008. The stock has lost two-thirds of its value this year alone.

RIM doesn’t appear to be making any progress or showing any signs of recovery. Though I do find the Blackberry phone to have the best “typing interface” for emails and texting, the company’s failure to innovate, the executive management issues that prevent a unified strategy for the future, and the strong downside momentum which has sent the stock plummeting, make RIM’s chances of recovery very small. RIM will likely never recapture its dominance in the smart phone industry.

Notice how weak RIM’s market share has been among recent buyers (and getting worse):

For some reason I see the executives in Waterloo portending their, um, Waterloo:

While their market share burns...

It's a pity that the founding fathers of the PDA Era simply cannot get it together and save their company.  But what else can you expect when your leadership stands stockstill when the market gets upended by Droid/iPhone?

RIM insists on learning their lesson the hard way instead of changing their business model to stave off elimination.   Their hardheadedness makes them sheep... and like my man Gordon said:

Now We Find Out If Apple Can Survive

The news that Steve Jobs is stepping down as chief executive officer of Apple is rippling through the media, just as yesterday’s earthquake traveled up the East Coast. There are more good wishes in my Twitter feed this evening than there were immediately following yesterday’s earthquake, and fewer jokes in questionable taste. Both humor and sympathy are natural reactions to shock. In this case, death had been forestalled—Jobs had pancreatic cancer, then received a liver transplant—but it cannot be averted, and the unspoken assumption is that Jobs’s medical condition has deteriorated.

Jobs can resign his position as the C.E.O. of Apple by releasing a statement, but it isn’t so easy to stop embodying the company he founded with Steve Wozniak in 1976, left in 1985, and returned to in 1996, to transform the flailing maker of the also-ran personal computer into a dominant force in how we communicate, listen, watch, read, and buy things, including this magazine. Apple partisans explain their loyalty with rational arguments about elegant design and freedom from viruses, but their devotion runs as deep as sports fandom or religious faith, and they hang on Jobs’s every word.

Can Apple thrive without Jobs? It almost didn’t the first time around, and shares have plunged this evening. On the other hand, Jobs has been on medical leave since the beginning of the year. This kind of question is always hard to answer, but it’s so much more difficult here because of the code of silence enforced by Jobs. As a result, journalists, bloggers, and fans have been parsing his every utterance, from W.W.D.C. keynotes to purported e-mails to members of the public, the way Moscow reporters used to watch the Kremlin. Apple is in much better financial shape than the Soviet Union was at the end, so I’m not counting on a period of glasnost, at least not yet.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/08/apple-after-steve-jobs.html

I Want You To Join The Apple Army

One of the great tech visionaries of our time has given up the ghost.   The question everyone wants an answer to is can Apple keep the mojo Jobs has built up?

I don't think they can.   And I will tell you why.

The differences between Jobs and another Master Of The Universe who ceded responsibility - Bill Gates - are stark.   Where Gates' management style could be in the neighborhood of hands-on and involvement in top-to-bottom decision-making was peripheral, Jobs is the archetype of the micromanager and involved in even the most trivial manners.

How much Jobs has done to pass the mantle of leadership beyond prepping Tim Cook is only part of the transition.   Will everyone else be able to adjust without him?    Changing how an organization thinks takes years... ask Tim Gerstner.

Giving IT A Bad Name - And Backups A Good Rep...

A former IT professional at the United States subsidiary of Japanese pharmaceutical firm Shionogi pleaded guilty on Aug. 16 to charges of computer intrusion. The former employee, Jason Cornish, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in November.
This is just the latest case that illustrates how enterprises fail to guard the security of corporate networks and data stores after key IT professionals leave the company, especially employees who are unhappy about layoffs, corrupt or just plain malicious.

Cornish left the firm in July 2010 after a dispute with a senior manager, but at the suggestion of a colleague, referred to as B.N. in court documents filed June 30 in the U.S. District court for the State of New Jersey, continued working for Shionogi as a contractor because of his familiarity with the company's network. During a round of layoffs, "B.N." refused to hand over network passwords to company executives and was summarily suspended and ultimately fired in September 2010. B.N.'s departure meant Cornish's contract was also terminated, and he was no longer authorized to access Shionogi's network.

The attacks were severe enough to freeze Shionogi's operations for "a number of days, leaving employees unable to ship products, to cut checks or even communicate via email," according to court documents. The breach affected Shionogi's corporate email, BlackBerry servers, order-tracking system and financial management software. The company estimated the damage cost $800,000.

Would you trust your network to this guy?

Yikes... when you're thinking of hiring a sysadmin would it be wise to administer some standard psychological tests -i.e. Rorschach, MMPI, TAT?  At least my psych degree was good for something :-)

The question to ask in the aftermath of this techno-meltdown is why were they down for days?  The answer is their backup process was weak - at best.   It sounds to me like it was nonexistent.

Some rules of the road for a situation like this:

• Never trust a single person to maintain the keys to the kingdom (i.e. userid/password file).   Make sure that you have this critical, show-stopping file backed up (ironic, isn't it)?
• Conduct periodical reviews of your backup policy - make sure you've added new data.  Do I hear change management?
• Most backup programs have notification - enable it and live with the annoyance (or use rules to drop them in another folder).
• Most backup programs also have reporting built in... a weekly status is nice and will CYA.
• STORE YOUR MEDIA OFF-SITE.   Or use a cloud-based solution to store data outside of the office.
• Have a plan ready - do DR testing at least once a year..

I'd only trust these clowns with a Mac...