Microsoft Fast, Dagens IT, and Deloitte Accounting
June 17, 2009
Dagens IT is a Norwegian information service (Dagens Næringsliv). On Wednesday, June 17, 2009, the article “Føler seg lurt av Fast” appeared here. My Norwegian is not too good, but I have the source story and a comment from a reader in Scandinavia.
From my vantage point in rural Kentucky, the gist of the Dagens IT write up is that an allegation has arisen that Fast Search & Transfer recorded sales that were possibly not solid sales. I think this means that revenue booked may have been false.
The firm’s auditor at the time was Deloitte. The story seems to suggest that the accountants from Deloitte were somehow fooled or in some other way unable to ferret out the real money from the phantom money reported by Fast Search & Transfer.
I ran the Dagens IT story through Google Translate, and I received a rendering of what struck me as a key paragraph:
The reason is that Fast Search & Transfer 2006-manipulating accounts. Contracts for over 100 million turned out to not be real. At the same time was over 30 million paid to directors in the Fixed-system via straw companies.
The authorities in Norway are exploring this allegation. One of those of interest is the present head of the “new” Microsoft Fast unit in Norway. Dagens IT said:
Neither the CEO of Fast, Bjørn Olstad or former CEO, John Markus Lervik, answered yesterday the DNS [official inquiry body] requests.
Deloitte, the accounting firm, seems to be one organization who had access to the company’s financial information. Microsoft, as part of its due diligence, may have had access to similar information. Given the type of issues involved with phantom sales, how thorough were the reviews of Fast Search’s financials.
Microsoft paid about $1.2 billion for a company that, if these allegations are true, may have been smaller than the financial statements issued prior to the buy out suggested. The next question is, “Why would a company with a blue chip client list and strong PR face charges of inventing revenue?”
Maybe the Fast ESP technology, not just the Fast Search management, deserves a closer look? Another question I have is, “What did Microsoft know at the time it paid a premium for Fast Search & Transfer?”
Stephen Arnold, June 17, 2009
Google Trilogy Now Available
June 17, 2009
Infonortics Ltd., a publisher in the United Kingdom, has announced “The Google Trilogy”. Stephen E. Arnold’s three monographs, said Harry Collier, Managing Director, Infonortics in Tetbury, Glos.:
comprise a comprehensive review of the Californian web behemoth. The first volume — The Google Legacy — concentrated on an overview of Google and of its technology. The second volume — Google Version 2.0 — drilled down into Google’s technology as revealed or suggested by its patents. The third and final volume — Google: The Digital Gutenberg — looked in depth at Google’s potential outside of its classic and traditional search origins.
The Google Legacy provides a look at the foundation technologies and their use within Google and at such core Google services as maps, search, and data management.
Google Version 2.0 describes key Google technical innovations developed between 2005 and 2007, a period that Mr. Arnold describes as the thrusters for Google’s current line up of products and services.
Google: The Digital Gutenberg explains how a publisher, developer, or innovator can use Google to build a business that “surfs on Google”. The reference to Google’s Wave is not an accident, because “Wave” is the first of the digital bundling services that Google will deploy.
Portions of these studies have been published by such organizations as BearStearns and IDC, the Boston consultancy. The trilogy comprises about 500 pages of text, technical diagrams, and tabular material. Unique in these monographs is the analysis of Google’s patent documents and technical papers spanning the period from 1998 to 2009.
A person interested in knowing how Google delivers its products and services will find these monographs an essential guide. For a competitor, these monographs provide a long view of Google’s scope and impact. For a person wanting to make money using Google as a platform, these studies provide a forward looking, informed view of what Mr. Arnold calls a “new type of company.”
The cost of the three books in PDF download versions only is US$650 / €490. Site licenses on application to harry.collier [at] Infonortics.com.
Stuart Schram IV, June 17, 2009
Overflight on Treatment Centers
June 16, 2009
The Overflight intelligence service provides drug rehabilitation information for Treatment Centers. Treatment Centers is an information service for health care providers and families looking for actionable information about a dependency condition. The new service provides access to selected information from the Treatment Centers database as well as information that is refreshed in real time from a range of sources. Included is information from Web logs, major news services, and Twitter. Stephen E. Arnold, provider of the Overflight service, said:
The Twitter information was a surprise. We ran several tests and found that Twitter messages provided useful links as well as specific recommendations about what resources were found to be useful. The Twitter information is filtered, eliminating the need to run key word queries, so real time content is available without the need to visit the search box. The combination of original information from the Treatment Center professionals and the real time information creates a useful resource available with a single mouse click.
There is no charge for the service at http://www.treatment-centers.net/drug-rehab.html. If you want an Overflight service for your Web site, write seaky2000 at yahoo dot com and put “Overflight” in the subject field. Users find auto generated reports useful because information is available at a glance without the need to create a key word query to unlock the needed information.
Stuart Schram IV, June 16, 2009
IBM Equals Cost and Complexity
June 16, 2009
I had heard that this PR push was coming. That’s the reason I posted the story detailing the steps required to connect OmniFind to other IBM software. If you don’t recall that post and the eight Web pages of technical procedures and code snippets, you can read “Teaching IBM OmniFind to Index IBM’s Portal Document Manager Content” or my other Web log posts about IBM’s technology.
The New York Times’s “IBM. to Help Clients Fight Cost and Complexity” is a Big Bertha information blast, and I was delighted to see the story getting such strong pick up and play. Disinformation is a wonderful thing in the opinion of the addled goose.
The story, by Steve Lohr, stated:
In the cloud market, I.B.M. plans to take a tailored approach. The hardware and software in its cloud offerings will be meant for specific computing chores. Just as Google runs a computing cloud optimized for Internet search, I.B.M. will make bespoke clouds for computing workloads in business. Its early cloud entries, to be announced on Monday, follow that model. One set of offerings is focused on streamlining the technology used by corporate software developers and testers, which can consume 30 percent or more of a company’s technology resources.
Mr. Lohr concluded:
I.B.M.’s cloud strategy, the company said, is the culmination of 100 prototype projects with companies and government agencies over the last year, and its research partnership with Google. “The information technology infrastructure is under stress already, and the data flood is just accelerating,” said Samuel J. Palmisano, I.B.M.’s chief executive. “We’ve decided that how you solve that starts by organizing technology around the workload.”
Several comments:
- Nary a mention of IBM’s previous cloud initiatives. I was hoping to read about the IBM Internet dial up service or the grid system that I learned about from a person in West Virginia (definitely a hot bed of massively parallel computing). I was hoping for a reference to the early cloud system used inside IBM for its own technical information center. No joy.
- Complexity is not reduced with cloud computing. If anything, data interchange and access becomes more complex, particularly if the IBM customer has other hosted services plus a vegetable medley of mainframes, mid range, and client server IBM gear. Hooking this stuff up and reducing latency without using the equivalent of the GNP of Switzerland perhaps should have warranted a comment?
- IBM is a trend surfer. It is becoming more and more dependent on engineering and professional services. I was looking for a comment, maybe a hint of doubt that the IBM cloud push would assist companies now, not at some vague time in the near future.
Will IBM run a full page ad about its new cloud services in the newspaper? I don’t know, but I will be looking for one. An ad will be a nice complement to the story I just read. Just my opinion, Big Blue and Gray Lady. Just my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, June 16, 2009
Semi Social Collaboration Wins Some Fans
June 16, 2009
Wikipedia is a useful service. There is some disinformation in its listings, but I find it helpful for certain types of information. The US government looked upon Wikipedia and realized that the same approach might have utility for the intelligence community. Thus was born Intellipedia. A news story that appeared on one of my Google centric tools pointed me to this story: “CIA Adopting Web 2.0 Tools Despite Resistance”. For me, the operative words were “some resistance”.
I am writing this in Washington after a couple of meetings that reminded me that silos exist and still being constructed.
The notion of a semi collaborative system has utility. I can’t provide details of my meetings or the parties involved, but I can say, “Silos big and small remain.” Some military social events just aren’t like a frat party or a neighborhood BBQ. Probably never will be and probably a good thing.
Stephen Arnold, June 16, 2009
The Half Life of Online Info and Services
June 15, 2009
You have a chunk of radioactive material. With each tick of a clock, the chunk loses some of its radioactivity. Some chunks are dead in the blink of an eye (less if you are unlucky enough to have the wrong chunk around for a second or two) or maybe centuries. The idea is that the chunk goes dead. Those who worry about radioactive decay think in terms of half life; that is, how long for the chunk to lose half its punch.
I am working on a new study which should be wrapped up before the end of summer. One idea I have been exploring is the half life of online information. Time is important to value and time is expensive to manage. The cost of some computer systems is gated by one’s definition of “acceptable time”. An example is an index refresh. It’s cheaper to update an index once a month via a batch process than deal with Twitter’s Tweets in near real time.
I enjoyed “MySpace Problems May Spread to Facebook, Twitter” by Anthony Massucci. He has hit on one of my study’s findings, and this gives me an opportunity to comment, following my no news policy for this free Web log. He began the story with the key idea:
As Facebook and Twitter watch what’s happening at MySpace, they should be worried and heed the warning of potential problems to come. Social-networking sites grow like weeds and, well, die like weeds too.
Yep, dead on. He continued:
As exciting as it must be for these executives to be working at these companies as they grow quickly, there’s cause for concern. Grow too fast and the costs can’t be contained. Grow slowly and you are in danger of becoming irrelevant. Take a buyout and you likely lose control. Decline buyout attempts and take the risk that there won’t be enough money or revenue to help sustain future demands.
Well said. Let me add several observations:
- The decreasing half life has significant implications for investors, users, and technology companies. The reward for fielding a success is not going to be sustainable. In effect, the rapid degradation releases more particles that can be recombined or can, acting in unexpected ways, kill other things, probably companies in adjacent businesses. Like a radiation victim, the illness looks like one thing, but it quite another. A diagnose and remedy are often tough to deliver in the time the victim has left. Scary thought in today’s lousy financial climate.
- The recombination of particles such as programming languages, methods, and user needs can produce one of those artificially fertile Petri dishes that puzzle first year biology students. if something wild and crazy emerges, that could overrun one’s lab mate’s Petri dish, spoiling a well planned, predictable exercise book project. Wasted time for sure.
- The ecosystem in which rapid decay takes place may be altered and quickly. Mt Etna goes boom and lots of changes took place quickly. Lots of scrambling obviously. Disruptive. Maybe that’s not a sufficiently strong word.
Just my opinion. The half life is a big deal in electronic information. More on this topic in my new study. “Wave” at the parade of innovations. Then pick the right “wave” to surf.
Stephen Arnold, June 15, 2009
Track Folks Down via People Search Systems
June 14, 2009
You too can be a private eye. A happy quack to the reader who alerted me to a list of 25 search engines that can help you find a person. “25 Free People Search Engines to Find Anyone in the World” is quite useful. I learned about some systems that the goslings did not have in our list. A couple of quick examples and then you can navigate to Findermind.com and snag the full listing:
- Tweepz—Looks very strong
- Private Eye—Like having Peter Gunn at your side
- Criminal Searches—Very, very useful
Add all 25 to your bookmarks.
Stephen Arnold, June 14, 2009
Google, Microblogging, and the Building Wave
June 14, 2009
Over the last several days, I have spoken with a number of people about dataspaces and one component of that subsystem, Google Wave. I am not willing to present that detail in this free Web log, but I can point to one article that is useful. Google’s own announcement comes when most mavens and pundits are resting for the long public relations charged week ahead. On the surface, the Google is getting into the Microblogging game. Twitter is the poster child but the teen idol is about to make an appearance. What’s the protein that hooks together the three genetic blobs? How do dataspaces, wave, and microblogging mesh? One hint: Microblogging is one building block, not the arm or the leg. Mashable asks a couple of other questions, which in my opinion, miss the main event, but decide for yourself:
Could Google have made a deal with Twitter? Or is Google undertaking this project on its own? These are questions we’re going to ask as more details about this project are released (or get leaked). What do you think – is this a smart move by Google? And what effect could this have on Twitter?
Stephen Arnold, June 14, 2009
More Advice for the Buggy Whip Crowd
June 12, 2009
Google executives have been known to suggest that newspaper publishers rely on technology to cure their woes. I think that Googlers and other advice givers may want to curl up with the thrilled non fiction book by Jacques Ellul in either English or French and read what the sociologist has to say about la technologie. You can find a copy of the here. My copy carries the title Bluff technologique, but translation is a wondrous profession. Summing up 400 pages of turgid analysis, let me say that when technology bites someone on the backside, today we use technology to solve the problems created by technology. The alternative is a more human method of sucking the poison from the wound. Not too popular, eh?
I just read another of these “technology will save your tail” programs. I scanned “Scoble’s Building 43 Launching Tonight with Practical Tips for businesses Stuck in the 90s” here. I liked the write up. I didn’t like the concept of providing advice to people who are faced with technology snakes biting their ankles and fleshy parts.
I read Building43’s “the New Economics of Entrepreneurship” and realized that talking about this stuff is indeed exciting. When a Silicon Valley luminary such as Guy Kawasaki dispenses the advice, those in the know should listen. Check out his essay here. I agree with most of what he says.
My concern is that none of the Silicon Valley wizards has thought about the implications of using technology to solve today’s problems.
I don’t think technology can solve the problems of newspapers or any other business that is being bitten by competitors and customers who have embraced different business methods or alternative methods of meeting needs.
I don’t like the buggy whip analogy either. Every MBA student and future Bernie Madoff reads this essay and realizes the reason the buggy whip guy failed was that he did not know how to think about the horseless carriage. In fact, no amount of first hand experience, thinking, or talking could close the switch between the guy’s synapses and grasp that the oddity was going to have some profound impacts. These range from roller skating car hops at Sonic Drive In to teen pregnancy and that environmentally friendly sport of NASCAR racing. Go figure.
I want to assert that arrogance is part of the problem. There may be presumptive behavior operating, but I think the difficulty goes back to the failure of some folks to see connections. A buggy whip maker can stare at an automobile all day and not think about fuzzy dice for the rear view mirror, leather seat covers from a West Coast Custom rebuild, or a steering wheel wrap with perforations to allow the driver’s hands to perspire without losing a grip on wheel in rush hour traffic in downtown Boston.
Telling someone with buggy whip synapses to use technology means zero. In fact, when pundits tell publishers to embrace technology, most of the publishers believe that they have been married to technology for years. The problem is that “technology” to a publisher may mean color capable Web presses or a content management system to push story drafts around the newsroom. Technology may mean digital cameras or remote control robots to adjust lightning instead of paying a kid to climb the rafters in a motion picture studio.
You get the idea.
The problem is language and understanding what a Silicon Valley maven means when he or she says, “Technology.” My thought is that the Mr. Scobles and the Mr. Kawasakis and the Mr. Schimdts mean to use the mental equipment possessed by those who can do math in their head, analyze a circuit, see how software works by scanning code, or performing other mental tricks that have to do with scientific and technical capabilities.
Publishers and the guy who runs the tire company may have some of these skills, but the life experiences, interests, and business demands require different mental equipment. Therefore, when you say “technology” to my Big O tire dealer, he points to a digital tire gauge, not to his iPhone.
Bottomline: those who don’t understand the meaning of the word “technology” when offered an a cure all, often don’t have a clue about:
- What particular technology or technologies are appropriate
- How to apply to technologies to an existing business process
- What to do to minimize the negative effects of a technology when it spring a surprise
- Where to find people who can “translate” the rocket science into something that can be used by a regular person.
Do most people in Silicon Valley or New York or London define their terms before talking about technology? Not many in my experience.
Grab a copy of Jacque Ellul’s book. Let me know if you agree with his analysis formulated in the dusty days before the “Internet”. Just the opinion of an addled goose.
Stephen Arnold, June 12, 2009
Social Networking to Marry Call Centers
June 12, 2009
Hmmm. Interesting concept. A big space like social networking marries below its station in life. Don’t think so, asserts this addled goose. To get the other side of this story you will want to read this summary of a consulting firm’s report. The title is “Social Networking and Contact Centres to Merge” here.
The passage that set my pin feathers spinning was:
When Oprah Winfrey and Ashton Kutcher start to use social networking services, it makes headlines across the globe and raises consumer awareness of these emerging communications channels. But according to independent market analysis firm Datamonitor, companies of all sizes have also begun to engage customers and prospects on social networking services.
Oprah! I found this segment interesting as well:
… complaints about products and services go viral very quickly. Ian Jacobs, senior analyst for customer interaction technologies at Datamonitor and the report’s author, said: “Given the boom in popularity of social networks, enterprises of all stripes have started to look for ways to market their brands to potential customers through these services. Whether it is through online contests, coupon and discount offers or just an extended presence to shine positive light on brands, social networking has become a darling of the marketing world.” The increased corporate presence on these networks has also led to service interactions between company and customer. Some of these interactions result from a direct contact from a customer to a company, akin to a phone call into a contact centre. But with new social media monitoring tools, companies have also begun to inject themselves into customer conversations. If, for example, a customer complains to the world at large about poor service, the company being complained about proactively reaches out to the customer to try to solve the issue.
I agree that some social networking services apply to customer support. I think the impact of social networks will be to give customers a way to get help without getting involved with an organization’s customer support unit.
Azure chip consultants are working overtime to whip up business, and I admire that. What makes me quack happily is the silly glittering generalities used to make the obvious momentous. I suppose I could call the consulting firm’s customer support unit. Oh, I forgot. Azure chip consulting firms don’t need customer support. Clients get a billable expert to resolve any sticky wickets. Billable is as billable does.
Stephen Arnold, June 12, 2009
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