This paragraph from savetheinternet.com encapsulates the net neutrality issue better than anything I’ve read so far.Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the Internet’s First Amendment — a principle called Network Neutrality that prevents companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from deciding which Web sites work best for you — based on what site [...]

I decided a new category is needed. A round up of a few items that should excite the revenue taste buds of content producers and aggregators. These are stored under commercial trends. This is not an attempt to compete with existing sources of knowledge on paid content but I do want to disentangle some [...]

This seems like a really clever use of RFID. The idea is to embed chips in surgical equipment, and then wave a detector over surgical patients to make sure the doctors didn't accidentally leave something inside the body.

HP today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Mercury Interactive Corp., a leading IT management software and services company, through a cash tender offer for $52.00 per share, or an enterprise value of approximately $4.5 billion, which is net of existing cash and debt.

One news source is reporting that sky marshals are reporting on innocent people in order to meet a quota:

The air marshals, whose identities are being concealed, told 7NEWS that they're required to submit at least one report a month. If they don't, there's no raise, no bonus, no awards and no special assignments.

"Innocent passengers are being entered into an international intelligence database as suspicious persons, acting in a suspicious manner on an aircraft ... and they did nothing wrong," said one federal air marshal.

This is a big move for HP. The part that is of interest from the SOA perspective is the Systinet division of Mercury. So typically in software there have been two kinds of companies–central control oriented and distributed agility oriented. Central control oriented companies include CA, HP, Mercury, BMC and the Tivoli division of IBM. They [...]

There are two ways to identify potential network appliances. I won't claim we used these techniques when we started NetApp; I understand appliances much better now than I did then.Appliance-ize Hardware Components

Please read the Safe Harbor Statement at the bottom of this page - it's important (and beautifully written :).

If you've seen the press release, you know we had a good fourth quarter to close out our 2006 fiscal year.

This is now my first full quarter as CEO - and I'm pleased with our progress. Our basic restructuring is underway (that's what the big charge was), and we showed some good growth on the top line. We're seeing a lot of demand, which showed up as revenue that beat Wall Street estimates, very solid bookings, and good deferred (future) revenue.

So I thought I'd add some color to our numbers, and put some of our competitor's comments into context. Answering the questions surrounding "why'd you grow when others were having a hard time?"

First, the market is growing.

We see no global slowdown in IT. Despite what one competitor said. Our key customers (those that view information technology as a competitive advantage, not a cost center) are continuing to invest. They're investing to drive on-line relationships, fuel competitive advantage, and drive efficiencies - but mostly they're investing because they see a return.

We saw especially good demand in our computer systems business (which grew in a quarter where some of our biggest competitors shrank) - and especially on the low end/high volume segment of our product line. Our newest Niagara UltraSPARC systems surpassed the $100M per quarter mark, just about the fastest ramp of any product I can remember. Our Galaxy x64 systems grew way faster than many of our x86 peers (and that was before the big launch that redefined our product set), and we grew our StorageTek business faster than their standalone history - which means we're seeing revenue synergies. We closed several great embedded Java platform deals, too, with three of the largest consumer electronics companies.

That said, I'm definitely seeing the enterprise PC business slow down. Corporate users are putting off new PC's until Vista comes into view, while consumers (witness booming results from Motorola, Nokia and Apple) are biasing away from PC's for really great consumer devices. (Ask a teenager which they'd prefer, a new phone, or a new PC...)

Phones powered by Java technology, Blu Ray DVD players (I saw my first in a Sony store this weekend), XM Radios, Vonage phones - those devices, in aggregate, will radically outship PC's over the coming year. And as a result, they'll drive more growth in demand for network infrastructure than PC's. (Phones aren't just for phone calls, after all.) So as we've been saying for a while, adoption of the Java platform is a leading indicator of Sun's business - just like more lightbulbs drive demand for bigger generators (even if you don't own the lightbulb factory).

Second, choice matters - we're opening new doors.

Greater than 60% of the customers we're meeting through our Try and Buy program are new to Sun. (Well above my expectations.) We exceeded the 5 million license mark for Solaris 10 in Q4 - the majority running on Dell, HP and IBM computers. (Go ahead, read that sentence again, I always read it twice.) We're reaching out beyond Sun's traditional hardware base, and beyond the world of proprietary software - to customers we may never have otherwise met, who now want to talk to us about network identity, data management and business integration. Frankly, Dell, HP and IBM are now channel partners. Please quote me.

And the addition of Ubuntu Linux on our SPARC servers means we're now talking to leading edge Linux customers about consolidating outdated infrastructure. Add in to the mix that we run Windows on our Galaxy x64 systems, and that we routinely attach and support StorageTek systems on IBM mainframes - it's all upside for Sun's customers, and Sun's shareholders. Choice drives opportunity. And customer acquisition.

Third, innovation matters more than price.

Being cheap (or cutting corners on components) doesn't matter as much as delivering value and innovation. A 230 MPH supercar that gets 9 miles to a $4 gallon of gas, isn't nearly as interesting to today's consumer as a Tesla - that uses electricity at a cost of about 1 cent/mile (and appears to outperform most supercars, and yes, I'd like to own one, and no, I haven't convinced my wife). And Niagara is to Tesla as [competitor here] is to an outdated supercar. (And again, if you'd like to try a FREE NIAGARA for 60 days,