I was just reading a new blog that I have recently subscribed to called Execupundit.com - it's truly a great place to read some pragmatic cool advice and the following really got me thinking:

http://www.execupundit.com/2007/02/note-from-boss-to-employees-what-some.html

Sure we are all guilty of sometimes getting frustrated that our boss isn't perfect or doesn't see the full picture (whilst we hide their reading glasses through not communicating well enough :-))

Hmmmm note to self - must try harder, wishing you all a cool weekend! Am off to flog myself with some birch for previously committed offences to past and present bosses...lol

Enjoy!

Simple choice it's either me or the presenter...decisions decisions...

Now this really made me laugh out loud, Rowan from Fortify your Oasis has some absolutely superb points to describe those less skilled presenters:

• Ass Narcissism - "I’m just going to turn my back on you now and read all my slides off the screen. Enjoy the view!"
• Tolstoy wannabe - "I know that I can fit the entire text of War & Peace onto the next three slides. Thank God for sub-bullets!"
• Myopia - these presenters literally cannot see beyond the end of their nose and so fail to notice that their audience is either asleep or has gone home
• Tunnel vision - those who can see only the one person in the audience who is smiling and nodding out of sympathy, not the other 99 who have fallen asleep/gone home
• "I'm Eclipse Boy!" - "There must be some moth in my genetic heritage; but you can read the slide off my chest can’t you?"
• Hypoempathy - presenters who use the phrase, “Now this is a very important point” more than once never ask themselves the essential question - important to who?
• "Gotta sing, gotta dance" - "Sure, this topic could have been covered in an email, but what can I say? I just loooove being bathed in the glow of the data projector."
• Slide amnesia - a subset of Ass Narcissism, when the presenter seems surprised that a certain slide has popped up on screen and is forced to read it out word for word …
• Dispunctional - the presenter has no concept of time and is eating into the next presenter's slot or, worse yet, into coffee break
• Complarrogance - a rare condition, characterised by all of the above symptoms

The only one missing is:

• Jazz Hands - those people who imitate a puppeteer on speed whilst presenting (aka me :-()

Loving the work Rowan!

Made me smile, feels like this sometimes in business :-)

So I was having a look around at a few blogs over the weekend and I read the following really interesting post:

http://www.trizle.com/how-giving-rocks/ 

It made me think about using this blog to highlight a charity a few mates and I run in our spare time called the Silicon Cup - the idea is simple:

• 2 days of sailing per year in one huge event
• The IT Industry at large with their vendors, suppliers and customers - Vodafone, O2, Accenture, Doherty, TBS, SUN and IBM - you name it they come
• 800ish people, 80ish yachts ranging from World Class yachts to very very simple sailing boats racing and partying for 2 days
• Best value corporate hospitality money can buy

So far we have raised around £200,000 for children's charities over the last few years, if you fancy 2 great fun days in September and want to give something back then please get in touch with myself through the blog or directly through the Silicon Cup website - thanks!

Launched today, we had just a touch of legal playing around but have successfully launched the incentive today - huge thanks to the UK legal team in Microsoft for the great help they gave on this! See previous post: Announcing: High Performance Lovin' from Microsoft...trip to Denver anyone?

If you don't know what this is, are a partner in the UK and want to know more - then please send me a comment or mail and you would be more than welcome to join in!

Enjoy!

Finding the energy performance of your servers gets you down, let alone costs you an arm and a leg, Intel may just have the answer?

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070312/20070312005400.html?.v=1

Press Release

Source: Intel Corporation

Intel Marks Energy-Efficient Milestone with 50-Watt, High-Performing Quad-Core Server Processors

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Further expanding its quad-core processor family line-up, Intel Corporation today announced two energy-efficient 50-watt server processors that represent a 35- to nearly 60-percent decrease in power from Intel's existing 80- and 120-watt quad-core server products.

Very interesting for HPC and Search server farms...huge implications for businesses in high density areas with energy capacity challenges!

Just a quick one to point out the brand spanking new training available next week, mostly full already but there will be some more in May so get ready!

Agenda as follows:

If you fancy it then just click here and join in! If you are not already a certified or registered partner then you will need to join here at this website.

Enjoy!

Great deal been announced to highlight Live Services on OEM laptops starting with Lenovo - covered well by my friends over on LiveSide:

Microsoft announces Windows Live deal with Lenovo

Also, in the press here:

Lenovo loads up on Windows Live Search

But I guess the deal that we all heard less about was this one which could indeed give greater scale and coverage than even the Lenovo deal:

Nokia to put Microsoft search on mobiles

Really nice to see our friends over on Live delivering the goods and hitting scale through OEM!

So I guess a few things have been niggling away at the back of my mind around the new kids on the block and I want to put a few ideas out there, around the whole experience piece:

• I like to eat out in a restaurant cared for by an owner, chef and a good waiter and or waitress - I would struggle to have that same experience in a layby cafe
• When I ask for replacement windows I like to have an experience whereby I get a service, including all the essential elements so that I have a set of fitted windows, with woodwork/metalwork of my choice with glazing that match by specification and fitted to my expectations - I wouldn't ask an art school graduate to do this role - the result might look cool but would it really deliver on the experience side?

You get the point so I wont labour it any further, the key here is the experience of the end user. Often the areas that count are the back up and support to make that experience worthwhile and memorable. So how is this relevant to Google around Enterprise Search?

• Their business is 80% direct but who cares and why is this important:

The beauty of a channel business (like Microsoft's which is 97% indirect) is the ability of a company to get their software tailored for the vertical and or target audience be they small businesses, legal firms, finance analysts or any other of the myriad of businesses that our partners sell into. What does this mean? The customer gets what they want in the format they desire - in short - it's all about a better user experience.

I hear what you are probably thinking - sometimes I want to speak to the horses mouth - dealing direct with a business is a great way to get future insight. At Microsoft that is easyish (no rose tinted spectacles here) but in the areas of security, specifically the ways we make software and the way in which we stand behind what we do this is really really important. So what is our experience for customers and partners: in short it's as businesses expect:

'Microsoft products are supported by Customer Support and Service and the MSRR (Security response) team. Through those two channels they have the support structure needed to address any service request that comes to us at any hour of the day from anywhere in the world'

Why do we do this at a huge cost to ourselves but equally huge value to our customers? - simple:

• We make software - software is our business - it's all we do - so we care

Beware the company who sells you one thing in order to get something else - maybe they just want to get to know you so they can sell more of another service. In this hypothetical example ( :-)) - this could be an advertising business who uses software as a tactic to get more of their core strategy into a market - advertising.

Why?

The software business is worth around $140bn globally, the advertising business around $580bn - now ask yourself do Google really care about the software you consume from them?

Sound far fetched? - check this out:

Worry 2: Service level agreements. Since I put Microsoft Office on my PC I know it's going to work. For a hosted service, even one run by Google, I want to see what the SLA looks like. The issue: When I read the terms and clicked on the SLA link I got a 404 error. For this experiment, I overlooked that small item and continued the sign up. If I were a small business I wouldn't have.

Some of the related links you might like to review can be found here:

• The Microsoft Software Development Lifecycle - Advantage Microsoft by Michael Howard
• Read the fine print of Google Office
• The Cost of Lost Data: The importance of investing in that “ounce of prevention”

Enjoy your Friday!

So some of you may have seen the announcement in New Orleans about the planned acquisition of Medstory:

This is great news as we clearly demonstrate to our partners and customers around our focus on Search. If you fancy reading a little more then have a look here:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/feb07/02-26MSMedstoryPR.mspx

And also check out their website on www.medstory.com 

Enjoy!

I did a simple search for 'Pathology' - check out the manner in which the search results were returned:

You can view the results here: http://www.medstory.com/app?service=external&page=Search&c=true&s=Web&tc=h1&q=pathology 

From here you can go to the individual links under the categories highlighted above - all within medical taxonomies - nice! 

Oh my word, how good is this...? Intelligent guiding to help you get the answer you want:

So I did the following:

1. Simple search on Pathology
2. Then clicked on pathology with regard to 'Lung Cancer'...
3. Medstory then asked for definitions of Lung Cancer referring to pathology and Lung Cancer and or just Lung Cancer independently

Nice to see that level of intelligence in the app...

Enjoy! 

So basically this is a white paper to show the following:

• Make Excel services run quicker
• Allow you to have more relevance and a new story in Financial Services, Life Sciences, Oil and Gas etc etc etc

The full official blarney can be read here:

Abstract

This white paper describes how you can increase the computational power and reliability of Excel 2007 spreadsheets through the use of the Microsoft High Performance Computing platform composed of Microsoft Office Excel 2007, Microsoft® Windows® Compute Cluster Server 2003, and Excel Services, part of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Specifically, the paper shows how an integrated solution built on this Microsoft platform enables performance and reliability scenarios in the Financial Services, Oil and Gas, and Life Sciences industries where spreadsheets are often used in to make business critical decisions.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1a42f8c8-0d6d-4780-ae28-6f5b9b680dd7&DisplayLang=en

I look forward to seeing your demos on Excel Services running on CCS - bottle of champagne to the best demo I see - criteria being:

1. You have to build it
2. You have to show it to me.. :-)

Now go forth and do amazing stuff!

Summary:

• IBM taking the Windows CCS and Microsoft clustering message way more seriously
• IBM getting the long tail of Clustering and placing much more emphasis in modular clusters - prebuilt for MidMarket customers

Why is this cool:

1. Validates the strategy that I and the HPC team have been banging on about for ages
2. Demonstrates that the challenge of the disruptive business model of scale clustering will take on and even big companies are jumping onboard
3. This will drive other lead OEMs to come on board and will act as a validation of the super innovative smaller OEMs out there who have been doing the same thing for a while :)
4. Finally, smaller companies can enjoy the benefits of clustering at the right price that large companies have been enjoying for years!

What is it:

Last week IBM issued a news release in which Windows CCS played a prominent role. IBM announced:

New initiatives designed to make it easier for clients to use "clusters" of servers for high-performance computing tasks. The company is investing in development, marketing and sales-channel programs that leverage IBM's technology prowess in high-end supercomputing and deep experience delivering industry-focused solutions.

Four key components of IBM's expanded HPC cluster initiatives include:

1) Pre-architected, snap-together solutions for key industries.

2) HPC ValueNet for IBM Business Partners.

3) New benchmarking and tuning centers dedicated to Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server.

4) On-Demand Test-Drive Facility

Who picked up on it in the press:

 

IDG: IBM aims to make computing clusters easier
Big Blue launches initiatives to help SMBs integrate servers into clusters for high-performance computing tasks
By John Blau, February 28, 2007
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/02/28/HNibmcomputingclusters_1.html

eWeek: IBM Pushing Clusters for Midmarket Businesses  
By Scott Ferguson, February 28, 2007
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2098952,00.asp

InformationWeek: IBM Launches High-Performance Computing Initiative
IBM works with Microsoft and other application vendors to expand the use of its hardware in computer clusters and mainframes.
By Antone Gonsalves, February 27, 2007
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197009246&subSection=Breaking+News

Electronic News: IBM debuts supercomputing initiative
By Colleen Taylor, February 28, 2007
http://www.edn.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6420203&partner=eb&spacedesc=news

HPCWire: IBM Targets Mid-Market for HPC Clusters
February 28, 2007
http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/1292154.html

Enjoy!

Don’t Search – Find ... Enterprise Search with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Organizations need to increase productivity and reduce information overload by providing their employees, partners, and customers the ability to find relevant content in a wide range of repositories and formats.  This session shows how Office SharePoint Server 2007 lets users unlock information, find people, and locate expertise in the enterprise.

Register for 20^th March

Register for 10^th April

Register for 24^th April

Agenda
• Enterprise Search Requirements and Challenges
• MOSS 2007 Search Improvements
• Scalability / Security and Privacy / Manageability / Performance
• Intranet and Document Search
• Line-of-Business Application Search
• People and Knowledge Search
• Relevance

Enjoy!

So this caught my eye today, click on the link below and you will see the distribution of top 500 SuperComputers around the world. Things that I found interesting:

1. The distribution between Northern and Southern hemisphere
2. The huge opportunity to take supercomputing and clustering far far far further - look at the huge scope for internationalising and trading skills worldwide!

the map can be found here: http://www.top500.org/lists/2006/11/top100map

The map does take a while to load so if you get bored waiting here are a couple of screenshots (sorry for the quality...)

Enjoy!

Really cool news for all of you working in the HPC space with Microsoft. we have just announced a whitepaper at our Global Energy Forum in Houston, Texas. For those who like brief papers just read the text below -it is 58 pages but written in pure gold dust! Many of the learning's and observations are applicable elsewhere:

Survey: http://www.microsoft.com/industry/manufacturing/oilandgas/default.mspx

News release: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/mar07/03-07GEF2007PR.mspx

Better Access to High-Performance Computing Could Increase Oil and Gas Production, Reports Microsoft Survey

Survey of more than 100 oil and gas experts shows industry rapidly moving toward enabling geoscientists to control their own technical computing environments.

HOUSTON — March 7, 2007 — Empowering geoscientists with more deskside high-performance computing power could increase oil and gas production overall, reports a new survey released today by Microsoft Corp. at the Microsoft^® 2007 Global Energy Forum.

The Microsoft High-Performance Computing Oil and Gas Industry Survey 2007, sponsored by Microsoft and conducted by Houston-based Gelb Consulting Group Inc., shows a trend toward geoscientists in the oil and gas industry taking more personal control of their technical computing environments.

“Clearly, this research shows that oil and gas experts know the impact their work has on their companies’ success,” said Craig Hodges, director of the U.S. Energy Industry Unit at Microsoft. “They appreciate having computing power at their fingertips and also require smoother integration with the applications they use in analyzing and reporting the information on which they make critical decisions.”

Nice to see the deskside control of clusters occurring, and even better to see the OEM development of green computing allowing businesses to leverage the deskside clusters in the full data centre environment.

Enjoy!

So the whitepaper I have just blogged about has hit the press and is being picked up fairly quickly, one of the nice things I like is the following article which has a really nice few bullets on the key points (for those that dont want to read 58 pages...)

• Eighty-one percent report that more ready access to high-performance computing capability could increase oil and gas production
• Eighty-six percent have computing power at their deskside, and 69 percent prefer computing power at their desktops
• Sixty-one percent believe that having the capability to run additional tasks and iterations will reduce project risk
• Fifty-six percent prefer to schedule their own jobs to a technical computing or HPC cluster rather than refer to a cluster administrator to manage the job queue
• Forty-seven percent say their computing-intensive scientific applications require multiple iterations
• Twenty-five percent of computing-intensive scientific applications still take from overnight to more than a week to run

You can get the full article here:

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/03/07/microsoft-faster-computers-better-oil-gas-production

Enjoy!

We have been excitedly sitting on this for a while now and can finally release the video and casestudy of BAE using Microsoft Compute Cluster Server for streamlining costs around product development.

Why is this so great?

1. Proves Microsoft scales to big businesses in HPC - BAE are 90,000 people and a £40bn business
2. Great reference in the Engineering vertical
3. Continues the amazing market momentum behind Microsoft in HPC (who would have thought it)

Want to learn more then go here:

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=200910 

Enjoy!

Awesome video on You Tube - check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

A few lines I loved in this:

1. The web changes the way we do things
2. It's not a machine, it is us and learns from us
3. It connects people and joins communities

Simple thoughts, nice simple message - cool!

Enjoy!

I met with Mondosoft the other day - great couple of guys and we had a good meeting. I hadn't realised I had left a lasting impression on Robert but I was really pleased to see that the approach the meeting took meant something to them:

http://blog.mondosoft.com/art-of-search/archive/2007/02/28/17.aspx

It's quite surprising to see and hear that many people are afraid of talking to Microsoft (especially in my line of work around HPC and Search) ironic as I am 5ft 2 on a good day :-) In reality you just have to have clear expectations about where you get value and where we get value - if as organisations we are very clear on the boundaries then things normally go fairly well - but this is all down to the people involved and mutual common understanding. I will post again this weekend about one that went wrong but ended up a brilliant success.

I took a further look at Robert's blog and liked his post on the long tail: Exploiting the long tail for search Look forward to seeing posts about MOSS 07 and how we work with Mondosoft to deliver taxonomy integration amongst other things..!!

Enjoy!

How many presentations have I sat in, that to be quiet frank bore the pants of everyone watching and listening? Hmmm and how many have I been presenting... :-)

Whilst looking for ways to brighten up both this blog and my presentations I came across this great site: http://www.thesimplegallery.com/pictures.php check it out and add a little sparkle to your presentations!

Enjoy!

Nice refreshing video here showing you a relaxed Steve and his views on Google as well as his joining process into Microsoft:

Ballmer: Google's growth strategy is 'insane'

Kind of cool and candid - hope you all have a great weekend!

Enjoy!

I really like the Execupundit blog and came across this Career Manifesto. Some great words of wisdom from Michael Wade. Some of the most frustrating things I find in business, both the one I work in but also people I meet from other companies (ironically called representatives ;-)), are comments like the following:

1. Well the Director hasn't arranged a meeting with me yet?
2. Nobody understands the impact of my role and they are focussed on the wrong things
3. What world are 'that' team in?
4. How could you possibly work for 'that' company and sleep at night?

My favorite is the following: 'I have had such a hard day' - yeah, really, well tell that to the children who don't have a bed to sleep on at night or the person who has just had their house repossessed, or the mother who has just lost her child. Sometimes a sense of perspective can be an amazing thing.

I am reading a book by Daniel Goleman called Social Intelligence at the moment, a great read, taking longer than I want (and yes Steve aware you want to read it this year...! :-)) One of the most interesting insights is the manner in which a bad atmosphere and or friction/pressure in an environment can adversely affect your health.

If you don't like it, don't get on with it - then it really can eat away at you - have the courage to get off the bus and stop being a mood hoover, you might just save your own sanity.