digg post blog

Monday, August 30, 2010

Digg / upcoming

Digg / upcoming


Behind The Bidding War: The Real Reasons Why HP And Dell are So Desperate For 3Par

Posted:

As I was writing this, news of the HP / Dell bidding war for 3PAR broke on the front page of Yahoo. This made me laugh, as it typified just how crazy this story has becomefew things outside of a bidding war will make a storage acquisition sexy enough to make mainstream news. At $30, HPs current offer is the sixth bid, a 200 percent premium over 3PARs previous $10 share price. Not only is this insane, but its also nearly unprecedented in M&A history. And since 3PAR is trading above $32 the market thinks Dell will bid even higher. First Off, Is 3PAR Really THAT Unique? Yes and no. 3PAR is a classic disruption play, its value proposition based on the premise that unused storage is wastefuloften times just 10% to 25% of allocated disk space is actually used. 3PARs thin provisioning technology enables disk space to be allocated only when applications need capacity, greatly reducing IT management costs. Think of it as storage on a just-enough and just-in-time basis. In the cloud era, pre-allocation of storage is especially wasteful, because on-demand storage and computing services delivered via the internet have wide variability and less deterministic usage patterns. This makes 3PAR a great fit for data centers, and its partly why the technology is suddenly perceived as very valuable. Not surprisingly large storage vendors have been slow to adopt technologies like 3PARs for a simple reason: making storage more efficient ultimately means selling less gear and is essentially akin to committing commercial suicide. EMC CEO Joe Tucci actually once went on record admitting as much saying If I only have hardware and I just keep helping to make you more and more efficient at less and less cost, eventually Im going to hit a wall and its going to be tough for me to make money. HPs Vanishing R&D Budget and The Mark Hurd Effect This classic Innovators dilemma definitely applies to HP. But something else has hamstrung its ability to innovate in high-end storage, a market HP has been a leader in for many years. And its correlated to former CEO Mark Hurds recent firing. Word on the street is Hurd wasnt let go for his affair or even for his embellishment of trivial expense reports. Instead the board kicked him out because his employee approval rating was absolutely atrocious. And the reason employees hated him is because he traded short-run profits for long-term innovation by laying off entire design teams and killing HPs R&D budgettake a look at this chart and compare HP to Cisco and IBM, both storage leaders. In this way, I believe acquiring 3PAR is actually the beginning of a secular trend for HP in using M&A to make good on the companys lack of organic innovation. Yes thats right, believe it or not, the real reason why HPs board is obsessed with 3PAR is closely correlated to Hurds departuredivisions like HPs storage group simply havent kept pace with peers. I used to sell to HPs storage groups (as well as Dell and 3PAR) and have plenty of friends who tell me that projects have been canned and innovation has languished. Dell is Desperate for Similar Reasons Innovation within Dell is even more of an oxymoron. If you thought HPs R&D allotment was low, compare it to Dells. Dell is not an engineering driven company. They are a system integrator desperate for growth outside of the personal computing market. And storage consolidation threatens Dell for another reason. Storage has traditionally been like a cross selling catalog, with vendors filling in their product portfolios by OEMing equipment from othersDell actually resells EMCs high-end storage gear today. But these cross-sell deals are becoming more tenuous to defend as vendors build out more complete portfolios. This is because cloud computing requires complex virtualized resource allocation, management and provisioning. Vendors are increasingly moving up the stack in providing services beyond hardware, which is all but a commodity. Owning 3PAR would give Dell a chance to stay in the game and complement the low end storage solutions it acquired from EqualLogic in 2007. And the Dell board is prepared to break the bank since there is a scarcity of other good high end storage virtualization plays (Pillar Data and Compellent are two of the largest, but dont have 3PARs traction). Why HP Will Probably End Up with 3PAR So there you have it. With its DNA as a system integrator, Dell doesnt have a hope in hell of organically growing complex ASICs and software like 3PAR has, and is desperate to move up the food chain and stop reselling EMCs portfolio. And the HP board is tacitly admitting it needs to rectify the fact that Mark Hurd sort of killed the HP. Invent culture. 3PAR would give HP several hundred R&D focused engineers and a talented ASIC team. The interesting thing about this bidding war is that it conveys a larger lesson about why M&A often fails. Its easy to listen to investment bankers and overpay on acquisitions. But its much harder to actually handle post-merger integration. Dell is the perfect example. They have essentially no precedent for running an ASIC team, and would take a company like 3PAR that spent 25% of its revenue on R&D and eventually starve it. 3PAR is a better fit for HP, and in the end its likely that they will prevail. It sure seems that way anyway. HPs board is set out to make up for lost time and right its innovation ship regardless of cost to shareholders. But the synergy premium for 3PAR will be enormous, and history suggests that deals with such a massive allocation of acquisition goodwill generally fail to pay for themselves.

Who'd Make the Best Fighting-Game Drinking Buddies?

Posted:

Drinking buddies. Wing men. Boozin' brothers. We've all got them -- those guys whose entire friendship is entirely based on a shared passion for the pub. We at Asylum have given plenty of thought to drinking buddies in the past, taking the time to consider who'd make the best animal and the pro-wrestling drinking buddies. The next logical step, of course, was to compile a list of the ultimate fighting-game drinking buddies. Game: "Street Fighter II Turbo" Character: Zangief Role in the group: The lovable Russian Drink of choice: Vodka neat "Street Fighter" is full of awesome characters. Everymen Ken, Guile and Ryu are a bit dull; Blanka is liable to electrocute you; and the less said about M. Bison and Dhalsim the better. In our eyes, we'd choose between Chun-Li, E. Honda and Zangief. Well, Chun-Li isn't old enough to get into a pub and E. Honda is just too fat to sit on a bar stool. We had to go for the massive Russian. Keep reading for six more characters we'd like to do shots with. ... Game: "Tekken" Character: King Role in the group: The one with the animal head Drink of choice: Rum and Diet Coke Geeks among you will point out that King is in fact dead, and therefore won't reply to our Facebook invite to join us down at the bar. Well, this is all hypothetical, so just let us fantasize about drinking with an orphaned Mexican street fighter who becomes a monk and fights to get the cash to build an orphanage. Game: "Killer Instinct" Character: Chief Thunder Role in the group: The wise one Drink of choice: A Corona with lime? We've never met a Native American chief before, let alone a Native American chief who's fought in the "Killer Instinct" tournament, let alone a Native American chief who's fought in the "Killer Instinct" tournament and can do a reverse triplax. This was an easy decision. The thing is, would he want us to call him "Chief Thunder" all the time, or would just "Chief" be okay? Game: "Super Smash Bros." Character: Fox McCloud Role in the group: The one with military service Drink of choice: Erdinger, for some reason Fox McCloud is one of every young boy's childhood heroes, and thankfully his appearance in the fantastic "Super Smash Bros" made him eligible for our next bender. A consummate professional, Fox would make a great drinking buddy, telling his tales of intergalactic warfare. Game: "Mortal Kombat" Character: Sonya Blade Role in the group: The female friend Drink of choice: Scotch on the rocks Up to now our table is surrounded by an anthropomorphic fox, a Native American chief, a man with a leopard head and a massive Russian in a Speedo. Suffice it to say, we could use a woman's touch. That's where Sonya comes in. The original fighting-game hottie, Sonya is a special-forces agent who we reckon would be delightful company. Game: "Star Wars: Masters of Teras Karsi" Character: Chewbacca Role in the group: The hairy one Drink of choice: Chewie is a beer guy, surely OK, so "Masters of Teras Karsi" isn't exactly a classic. In fact, it was a much-maligned part of Lucasfilm's continuing merchandise onslaught, but that doesn't matter. It was a fighting game and Chewie was in it, so he's here in the pub with us. Game: "Double Dragon V: The Shadow Fall" Character: Billy Lee Role in the group: The normal(ish) guy Drink of choice: Lager We're talking about the cult-classic fighting game on the SNES. Billy seems like an average kind of guy, and every group of buddies needs a level-headed one. Who did we leave off our list? Let us know in the comments.

Are You a Financial Nerd, Geek, Dweeb or Dork?

Posted:

Are you financially-savvy or utterly hopeless? Take a look at this Venn Diagram to find out which category you fall into: Financial nerd, geek, dweeb or dork.

Motorcycle rider, 13, dies after crash at Indy

Posted:

Motorcycle rider, 13, dies after crash at Indy

Cartoon: So Sue Me

Posted:

If you own a big tech firm, you aren't Microsoft, and you weren't named in the patent lawsuit filed this week by Paul Allen's Interval Licensing, well... you're probably looking deep into your soul today and asking where it all went wrong. If you aren't a defendant - which includes AOL, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google and Yahoo! - why not? After all, the technology in dispute is, according to Interval, "fundamental to the ways that leading e-commerce and search companies operate today." Dammit, you say to yourself. Maybe you aren't one of those leading e-commerce and search companies. Sponsor Wait: most of your work is with open-source software. Like Java! Maybe that's why you aren't being sued by anyone. Aw, dammit. Ah, well. Maybe it's for the best. Not everyone can be on the A-list or in land of corporate jets, gargantuan mergers and stratospheric lawsuits. Hell, if it weren't for those of us on the B-list (or, in my case, somewhere way down in the YYs), there wouldn't be an A-list. So chin up. With a little more work, a few game-changing innovations and - yes - some luck, someday you, too, could be on the receiving end of a lawsuit big enough to alter global currency markets. Good luck with that! More Noise to Signal. Discuss

Toy Story 3 Made A Billion Dollars How Many Other Films Have?

Posted:

Disney has been touting the fact that Toy Story 3 passed the $1 billion mark at the box office this weekend. Is it that big of a deal? Well, looking in absolute dollar terms, yes. Sort of. The film is the first animated film to break the threshold and only the seventh overall. And, with [...]

Turn that frown upside down! [SA]

Posted:

submitted by YuriBotWar to pics [link] [55 comments]

Putin on a Ritz 2.0 (pic)

Posted:

submitted by EthicalReasoning to pics [link] [44 comments]

Glenn Beck 'Restoring Honor' Rally (VIDEO): Attendees Talk Illegal Immigration, Gun Rights For Terror Suspects

Posted:

Glenn Beck told the estimated 87,000 people at his rally Saturday that "America today begins to turn back to God." But the Fox News host's preaching may have escaped some attendees. A video of encounters with rally goers at "Restoring Honor" captured political views and comments that sound nothing like the words of Rev. Martin Luther King, who spoke from the same spot as Beck did, 47 years ago today. While angry protest signs that have come to characterize tea party events were mostly absent from Saturday's rally (Beck asked attendees to leave the signs at home), many people wore their political hearts on their sleeves. The video, put together by the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, shows rally goers weighing in on President Obama, "liberals," the NRA's support of gun rights for individuals on a federal terrorist watch list, and illegal immigration. WATCH:

What you don't know about WiFi channels can hurt performance

Posted:

Being aware of the channels used by wireless networks can be crucial for getting the best possible performance. Windows, and a least some Linux distros, fail to report on WiFi channels. A great, free, open source program called inSSIDer can do this and more. read more

Reddit, Digg Rivalry Heats Up With #DiggRevolt

Posted:

The brand new Digg is under fire on its first ever Monday from both its most loyal users and the competition at Reddit. Launched last Wednesday, Digg power users have launched a Digg Revolt today, some calling it "Quit Digg Day," and the Reddit community has embraced the feud. Reddit links have been dominating the Digg.com Top News feed throughout this morning. At one time, six of the top seven stories were from Reddit. On top of that, Digg's traffic has plummeted 33 percent overnight, according to Alexa.com. Said one Digg power user, @0boy, "Since @Digg and @kevinrose haven't listened to their core users, I hate to say it but they deserve this mess." Reddit is taking advantage of the controversy. It posted a "self-announcement" on its homepage for those "new around here" and even altered its logo to include a shovel (see below), an apparent shot at Digg. Many of Digg's power users have been offended by the redesign SocialBlade reported after its launch: This hardworking detailed Digg community feels as though they have been short-handed with the new launch of Digg v4 since its decision to allow auto-feeds, the demise of power Digger's and the obliteration of their history on Digg, almost nullifying their existence. Some Digg power users have taken to Twitter to share their disgust with the new site, and the #diggrevolt hashtag is going strong. In addition to the above, @0boy also tweeted, "The saddest part: hundreds of avid @digg users saw this coming, clear as day. @mrbabyman @msaleem @thenextweb @ltgenpanda 100+ more." Digg CEO Kevin Rose was silent for much of this morning, as Reddit began flooding Digg, but finally tweeted this afternoon, "Digg update: As mentioned on TWiT yesterday, we're working hard to fix the source diversity part of the digg algorithm, more news soon."

Angry Digg users flood homepage with Reddit links

Posted:

Frustrated with the dramatic changes that have hit the social news site, longtime users are expressing their dissatisfaction by attempting to carpet-bomb the front page with links to rival site Reddit.

Reddit Game the New Digg by Pushing 7 Stories on Digg FrontPage

Posted:

Earlier making Digg FrontPage used to be a big deal and specially when this new Digg layout and system is under controversy, Reddit another rivalry social bookmarking site, gamed the system and made 7 of its stories on Digg FrontPage. Here is image proof of Reddit hitting Digg homepage: Its going to be interesting to see Kevin reaction with this new buzz which made every loyal digg users stunned. Meanwhile here are some comments from Digg user on those Reddit stories which are promoted to Digg FP: Right now, I am digging all reddit submissions as fast as I can. Kevin Rose killed Digg, now WE WILL BURY IT! Digg didnt deserve this, but Kevin Rose sure does. He will pay through his website. The only reason I stayed around since V4 started was so I could bury anything self-submitted and promote anything bashing V4. Now Im getting so many errors its not even worth sticking around to do that. Im leaving. How do I delete my account? No, seriously. Is it under settings? I looked but couldnt really find anything. One thing which every digger is hating the auto submission from RSS feeds. As with this feature digg is no more a user generated community and becoming more like Twitter and Facebook, more followers more popularity. Whats your take about new Digg? Reddit Game the New Digg by Pushing 7 Stories on Digg FrontPage is a post from: CallingAllGeeks Blog Network Shoutmeloud | CallingAllGeeks | WordPress Hosting review | WordPress Premium Themes Services Blogspot to WordPress Migration | WordPress SEO | Thesis Theme Customization Related posts:New Digg Added Known Issues page Share Your Stories with Twitter Tales Digg iPhone Application Review Apple iTV to launch in September Social Networking, Sounds familiar? How about some Social Bookmarking WordPress plugin for DiggBar haters Facebook Redesigned Shared Feed link Stories WordPress iPhone Application got Geotagging Feature

What movie did you expect to hate, but now watch whenever it's on?

Posted:

For me, Million Dollar Baby. It seemed predictable. Boxing movie...whatever. Besides, I rarely watch a movie twice. For some reason, Million Dollar Baby entertains me whenever it is on. I had it on Tivo for a while and watched it over and over. submitted by General_Specific to AskReddit [link] [233 comments]

Your smartphone suddenly gets wikpedia from 50 years in the future but only for 1 hour.

Posted:

What do you look up? submitted by neolduser to AskReddit [link] [201 comments]

An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been 3 years old was acquitted on all charges by an Israeli military court yesterday.

Posted:

submitted by wq678 to politics [link] [55 comments]

I woke up with the cutest girl in my bed this morning...

Posted:

submitted by boatz_of_oatz to pics [link] [133 comments]

60% of Americans don't think Sarah Palin is qualified to be President. What the hell is the other 40% smoking ?

Posted:

submitted by dougmataconis to politics [link] [370 comments]

A battery endurance test of Android phones confirms that DROID DOES | Android Arena

Posted:

Crowds enjoy Notting Hill Carnival

Posted:

Hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets of west London as the Notting Hill Carnival gets under way.

No comments: