Let me be clear that I’m a Worldwide Pants kinda guy. I’ve been watching David Letterman since his morning show in 1980 and I still watch — and love — Dave and Craig Ferguson. However, I’m also a huge Johnny Carson fan. Carson is one of the few entertainers whose death made me cry. And I respect The Tonight Show as a cross-generational American institution. Regardless, I’m a fan of fairness and rationality.
So I don’t give a flying fig newton what explanations Jay Leno and/or NBC executives give. If Jay @10PM isn’t working out, then Jay needs to find another legitimate gig on his own merit (or lack thereof). Fairness and rationality both dictate that The Tonight Show is not an option for him. He retired from there and handed the reigns to a worthy successor. His claim on that turf has — voluntarily — passed. No man of character, no matter how great or small — especially not even Carson himself — would consider muscling back in over the corpse of that successor.
Ref: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/18/kurt-greenbaum-man-loses_n_362406.html
Read the rest of this entry »
I wrote this up recently because someone asked, and I feel the need to share. Since I no longer work for Altiris or Symantec, and despite the risk of creating a karmic debt, I’m gonna go ahead and do something I don’t usually do — publicly speak ill (albeit factually) of someone in the industry. I figure the risk is low; it’s unlikely that John Dvorak will ever be the key to getting a job I want, and if he gives one of my products a poor review, that would likely only help sales. So here you go…
Here’s an updated list of the best blog posts, forum threads and podcasts on SVS:
beta@amanzi » Altiris Software Virtualisation Solution
Bobkous weblog aka kous.net » Blog Archive » Review: Altiris Software Virtualization Solution 2
Free condoms for your Windows install | MetaFilter
Kevin Dente’s PuppiesAndIceCreamBlog: Altiris SVS – a new kind of virtualization
OSBlues » Blog Archive » Altiris SVS killed my firefox
SuperJason’s Personal Blog: Altiris SVS – Software Virtualization Solution
SVS — Virtualize Software Installs (Software Gadgets)
SVS, a klik-alike application for the Windows OS? | www.kdedevelopers.org
The Hive Archive » Blog Archive » Virtualizing Firefox Bon Echo with Altiris SVS
The Tech Tap Podcast: Episode #021 – Team: SPF .08
tk here: Sandbox your apps
Travelling without Moving: Softricity SoftGrid vs. Altiris Software Virtualisation Solution
Live’s Major Nelson: Show #176 The one about the dash update
Tasty Programs (scroll to bottom)
Altiris Wise introduce wrappers for MSI virtualization
The Strong Cross (scroll to bottom)
Office 2007 Virtualization with Altiris SVS
However you may feel about the tone and quality of the discussion threads on Slashdot (a.k.a “/.”), the fact is that coverage there is very effective PR.
I scan the /. headlines daily, sometimes multiple times a day. While I almost never read the discussion threads, I do count on /. and The Register to help me find emerging industry info that I need to know about, and to point me to more detail. They both serve me well.
Remember how I went on about the accuracy of the recent InfoWorld review of SVS? Well, it’s happened twice more. Once in the traditional IT press and once in a blog. Amazing. Three completely technically accurate articles in one month. SVS is changing the world in ways we didn’t even anticipate! 
So here it is, Ladies and Gentlemen, my SVS Media Hall of Fame, wherein we recognize excellence in technical accuracy in IT journalism:
Randy and Rich have both already mentioned the InfoWorld review of SVS. (They’ve been doing a much better job of keeping their blogs current than I have.) It’s amazing. In fact, it’s almost perfect, except for one use of the phrase “paradigm shift.” That’s been too cliche for too long for any editor to allow it through. All involved parties, however, earned forgiveness for that singular transgression.
This review is a rarity in the Information Technology press — it contains not a single factual inaccuracy! And amazingly, the author, Randall C. Kennedy, didn’t accomplish that by merely regurgitating an Altiris press release or some other Altiris-provided document. He wrote the piece in his own words, not ours, based on his own experimentation with SVS, not our demo, yet was dead-on accurate. This means he actually understood the product. It’s a sad statement about the IT press that this accomplishment deserves a dropped-jaw, “wow!”
Since the topic of the week appears to be wikis, I’ll share what we’ve started doing with them at Altiris.
So far, we have two official wikis — one internal and one external. I’m not involved with the internal one, but know that it’s primary purpose is to aggregate product information from across the various technical groups within the company (development, QA, customer support, documentation, consulting, etc.). This internal wiki is part of a larger knowledge management initiative. It’s the external wiki that’s my baby; it was proposed (and approved) as part of the marketing plan for SVS (which, if you missed my First Post, is my main product and the reason I’m here). That’s what I shall discuss.
…the more they stay the same. This may be my first “blog,” but I’ve done this before. In the olden days, and I mean really olden days, going back to the late 1800’s, there was a thing known as the “APA” or “Amateur Press Association”. See this for some early history, and the Wikipedia listing for some recent info.
An APA was an analog (paper and snail mail) way of satisfying many of the same base urges as a blog. On a schedule, the members would submit multiple printed copies of their stuff (usually called zines) to a Central Mailer who then bundled everything up into a “mailing” and sent it back out to everyone on the member list.
