Oracle has never been known to be cheap, and they hold on to the image. After a long wait, the price of Oracle 11g has finally been announced at a staggering $40,000 per cpu or $800 per user. The price only goes for running the database on Linux and there is still no availability date for 11g on windows or unix.

I cannot help but wonder why anyone would upgrade to 11g, especially right now. Sure there are improvements compared to 10, but there are two things I recommend to think about :

• Do you really need to upgrade ? I don't like to be the first in line for new releases, let the new version become adult first.
• The price is no different from what you pay for 10. So there's no benefite here.

Furthermore, I believe that any other company this size, that releases software for one platform only, should call it a beta release.

The chinese government has a different look on things. After having been a control freak over anything people might think of doing, they have finally picked up on something a certain german gentleman had come up with back in the forties : the art of selection.

A new ID card has been introduced holding an embedded chip that will include the holder's name, address, work history, educational background, religion, Ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord's phone number. The cards will also carry reproductive history information, to further aid authorities in enforcing China's "one child" policy.(Engadget)

Anyone notcarrying this ID will be expelled from the great country.

In order to enforce their new laws and the use of this ID, new cameras are installed around big cities with face recognition software. Most interesting fact in all of this is this : The technology behind it is developed by US companies IBM, HP and Dell.

Some say the US economy has dried out and China is the new production superpower, but I can't help but wonder how long China will be able to hold that position. It is probably no different from Europe, where all IT companies offshore their production to asian countries. In ten years time, that will no longer be profitable, so offshoring will become a thing of the past and we will be right where we started : here.

Business intelligence (BI) is a business management term, which refers to applications and technologies that are used to gather, provide access to, and analyze data and information about company operations. Business intelligence systems can help companies have a more comprehensive knowledge of the factors affecting their business, such as metrics on sales, production, internal operations, and they can help companies to make better business decisions. Business Intelligence should not be confused with competitive intelligence, which is a separate management concept.Wikipedia

Although the explanation from wikipedia is disputed, it gives us a fair idea of what BI actually is. I don't believe I could have explained it better.

Although the acceptance and understanding of the term has only just begun, it seems that BI version 2.0 is on it's way. At least, that's what The Register says in it's article on Next generation BI :

As such, BI is moving away from being an exclusive tool for power users, or "information producers", to empowering the "information consumers" in accessing, analysing, and sharing data.

I believe that, although the term BI doesn't cover it completely, it has brought a better and clearer understanding of how business and IT can be tighter integrated to us all. 10 Years ago, IT was not seen as a serious business for companies other than IT companies. BI has brought the realization to business people that you can use IT to improve business. And that's what business is all about. If you can do something more efficiently than before, you can generate more business, and therefore, more money.

The Santa Cruz Operation, probably the most hated company that has even been involved in unix, has claimes to "own unix" for years, trying to squeeze cash out of a lot of companies. Several smaller companies have paid up years ago, in fear of expensive lawsuits. IBM and Novell only smiled and told SCO to show some evidence. SCO never did, and a few years back a judge told SCO to shut it. Today there's breaking news : Novell owns the rights to unix that were claimed by SCO.

I wonder what's to happen to SCO now. Their closure has been predicted for years, and now, with no big money won and huge legal fees, I think SCO better jump in their grave. IBM probably sent a letter to SCO saying "I told you so" and chances are the smaller companies that had paid already will now sue SCO to get their money back.

It's pathetic to see how SCO couldn't accept their losses in the unix department and as a reaction tried to sue the whole world for something they didn't own.

The Register has all the details.

You probably remember how angry certain parties were when Oracle announced their unbreakable linux, right ? Weren't we sure that Linux, running on intel hardware would conquer the world and beat all other os's to it's own game ?

Well, things are slightly different today. Linux runs on almost anything that has a processor, watches included, and is slowly getting more and more promising. Although I do not believe in virtualization, I do believe that the future of linux partly lies in building alternative networks. We all know it's possible and very reliable, but why doesn't anyone offer a linux cluster built on Xboxes or PSP's as a professional solution to enterprises ?

The answer is not in Linux. The answer lies in people. They simply don't have the guts to be different. I think you could find clients prepared to accept radical solutions, as long as there is a business case behind it for support.

Currently, a lot of people believe that virtualization is the latest religion. If you read this site often, you might already know that I don't believe in that. But than again, I am not a religious person.

Virtualization on Linux needs five to six servers to reach break even. This means that unless you can mix several smaller companies' services onto the same hardware, virtualization on Linux is not financially interesting at all. And although some companies are small, they could still run applications that handle sensitive data such as financial data. This kills the financial reasons needed to skyrocket virtualization into the next galaxy. You see, to win a revolution in IT, you need to win it in all departments.