Clooney called by Berlusconi’s defense as witness

ROME – Silvio Berlusconi’s defense lawyers want George Clooney and his Italian girlfriend to testify at the premier’s upcoming prostitution trial.

Berlusconi is accused of paying for sex with a 17-year-old Moroccan girl and using his influence to try to cover it up. He denies wrongdoing.

The trial opens April 6 in Milan. On Tuesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys presented their lists of witnesses to the court. A judge must now decide which witnesses to admit.

The law firm representing Berlusconi says Clooney was listed because the Moroccan teenager once said she had seen Clooney and girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis at one of Berlusconi’s parties.

Canalis has reportedly denied attending.

An email sent to Clooney’s representative wasn’t immediately answered.

source: Yahoo Movies

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Are We Only Attracted to the Ones Who Are the Opposite of Our Personalities?

Attraction or Settling Down?

Have you ever wonder and look back to all those people who got attracted to you, for example let us say, all or most of your ex-es, do all of them came in a pattern?

Sometimes I wonder, is it just me who always got attracted to them, I meant this ‘species’ or they are also strongly attracted to me? I can’t deny that an obvious inheritance personality that I got from my parents is that I can be really bad tempered sometimes. Anyway I am proud of myself as I have improved a lot on my level of anger management...hahahaha...comparing to both of my hot-tempered parents (especially when they were young as I remember).

But yeah...have to admit that although my mom and dad were toughed on us, they were both very loving and willingly to sacrifice anything for their children. Love them two very much!

Okay, back to the topic. I found out that all of my ex-es, or people that I felt strongly attached even as scandals, are the ones who are much much cooler than me. I definitely would have to label myself as ‘fire’ (as most of the Aquarians are I believe), and these people that I myself sometimes found them to be really attractive (besides their physicals), usually are the ‘waters’.


I am the person that when I am really really mad and piss off, I can scream and mumble for a period of time non-stop to the other person (sometimes I wanted to laugh at myself when I think back). If a situation is occurred, I always prefer to talk, discuss and come to face with it up front fearlessly. Therefore if a person prefer to let a problem just settled by itself by keeping quiet, neglect the issue, pretend everything is okay really gonna boils me up. Hahahahaha.....

And I am surprised that those who are attracted to me are the ones who are either going to lower down their voices when I am mad, pet gently behind my back and asked me to be patient and relax, keep quiet while I let everything out from my chest and sometimes were smiling looking at me when I was mumbling. Well the ones who were smiling with their cynicism look of course I hated them but all of my ex-es, they were so cute as they smiled at me because they knew that is who I am when I’m cranky.


I don’t know why, usually when I started to get attached with someone emotionally, I will try to reject this person by nature with all sort of weird angriness just to protect myself from getting hurt. I don’t believe in a long term relationship because I’m pretty sure that it will all end up in the same epilogue. So I rise up my expectation, I lean a lot on this person and if something goes wrong, usually I will explode. All of my ex-es are the ones who passed the tests. And if a person can’t stand all these, I will have a reason not to further our relationship and protect myself from falling in love, therefore my emotion will be saved. How peculiar is that??

Every now and then I wonder, just these people that I am attracted to stand by me just because they feel that I am hard to get, and once they got me they wanted to have me for a long time no matter with all the fuss and craziness or do they actually feel attracted to my temperamental quirkiness?

Have you guys ever wondered that? Do all of your ex-es and scandals come in a pattern?

And if they do, can it be broken?

Have you ever imagine what if your magnetism just kept on attracting all those losers and people who just see you as a person that they can play your heart with, use you only for sex maybe or just keep you as a reserve until he or she found someone better?


If you look back at your previous lovers and most of them were on a pattern especially as horribly as this, can the pattern be broken? Is it you that need to change your style and personality or what you have to do is just to change your eyes perspective and taste?

Is it really true where legend says that you will only got attracted to a person who is the opposite of your personality? If that so, what is the main reason?

Is it because we admire something which does not exist inside ourselves? Is it because we adore something that we can never be? Or is it because we envy a character or personality that we can never become and possess no matter how hard we try?

Are these all the reasons why we always got attracted to the person who is the opposite of our personalities and characters?

Do we really get attracted to all these antonyms or do we just settle down with them because we knew that these people are the ones that might be able to stay with us for a long time?


A person who talks a lot eventually realize that he or she needs to be with some who is quieter than him or her and similarly a person who doesn't want to talk a lot will want to be with a person who probably would fill most of the dead air.

Is it an attraction or just a settling down?

-Alvy-

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Allies forces launch missile attacks on Gaddafi

The actions by US allies which bring the UN mandates may prove to be the turning points for both Gaddafi and rebel forces.

American and European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against the government of Col. Muammar el-Gaddafi on Saturday, unleashing warplanes and missiles in a military intervention on a scale not seen in the Arab world since the Iraq war.

The mission to impose a United Nations-sanctioned no-fly zone and keep Colonel Gaddafi from using air power against beleaguered rebel forces was portrayed by Pentagon and NATO officials as under French and British leadership. More

Al Jazeera has the VIDEO

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3 Case Studies: Solving Server Sprawl with Virtualization

Organizations that consider virtualization often face issues that keep the operation from running at top performance. Server sprawl is a big problem that when addressed often allows companies to dramatically reduce the number of servers it maintains.


The following case studies all demonstrate the opportunities that come when the decision is made to consolidate servers by implementing modern virtualization technology.

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Frederick Memorial Healthcare

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Quebecor World

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Quebecor World Goes Virtual

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Imagine K12 Launches a New Incubator for Ed-Tech Startups

A new incubator program, Imagine K12, launched today in Palo Alto aimed specifically at building entrepreneurship in the education space. Founded by three Silicon Valley veterans - Tim Brady, Alan Louie, and Geoff Ralston - Imagine K12 will support early stage ed-tech startups through a funding and mentorship program.

Describing itself as 'unabashedly inspired by Y Combinator,' Imagine K12 will bring that YC model of business and technology development to education technology. The program was created in close consultation with YC's Paul Graham, who endorsed the efforts of the new incubator program on his blog today: 'If you want to start a startup building things for schools, we encourage you to apply to Imagine K12, because frankly, we couldn't help you they way they can.'

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That's a pretty significant comment from the co-founder of one of the most successful startup incubators in Silicon Valley history, and begs the question: what is Imagine K12 doing that Y Combinator can't?

Working with Students, Teachers, Schools for Product Development

The key, Graham argues, is being able to work closely with your (potential) customers, something that can be incredibly challenging in the education space. 'Starting a startup nowadays is increasingly a collaboration with the earliest users,' Graham writes. 'You launch something quickly, get a few early adopters, and build what they want. Those first few customers teach you what to make, and they also help convince investors to give you more money. The problem with starting a startup to build things for schools is that no school districts are early adopters.'

The problems of product development and customer acquisition are just a few of the barriers that ed-tech startups face. Indeed, when it comes to ed-tech, your customers - schools, parents - and your users - students, teachers, administrators, for example - can indeed be different and complex. For its part, Imagine K12 says it plans to work closely with public and charter schools as a part of its program, with mentoring and lectures from education and ed-tech experts.

It isn't simply a matter of getting schools and students interested. It's about attracting bright engineering talent to the space. And that's something that Imagine K12 says it's deeply committed to doing. According to Imagine K12 co-founder Alan Louise, 'We believe there is a perfect storm of factors making it the right time to launch our effort. The technology is ready, the infrastructure has been built, there now exists a whole generation of teachers who have grown up with this technology, and the financial downturn has everyone looking to technology as a means to do more with less.'

Applications for the inaugural class of startups are due May 1.

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MySQL Fork Drizzle Finally Releases First General Availability Version

Drizzle, a lightweight fork of MySQL, released its first general availability version today. Drizzle is designed for multicore environments and cloud applications. Unlike NoSQL databases, Drizzle still uses structure queried language. Instead, it attempts to improve performance by cutting the database server down to its core.

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The project was started by Sun employees in 2008, and Rackspace hired the team to work on Drizzle full time in Adrian Otto:

Drizzle dispenses with views, triggers, prepared statements, and much more. Instead additional features can be added via plugins. Drizzle makes no attempt at backwards compatibility with legacy systems such as 32-bit environments. Here's a partial list of what Drizzle has kept or dispensed with, from a post by tk on the Rackspace blog:

1 - Micro-Kernel Design, with modular interfaces to plug in features and functions without touching the core code. API's for Replication, Storage Engines, Logging, Authentication, Client Protocols, etc.
2 - No triggers or stored procedures. That stuff is bloat as done in MySQL, and Drizzle has other ways to deal with these needs. These capabilities can be added in later as needed such that they are done right.
3 - Only UTF8 support, not a multitude of language encodings and collations. Keep it simple. This is the web.
4 - Way Less Source Code, where MySQL has well over a million lines of code, Drizzle is just under 300K lines.
5 - Drizzle Client Protocol, that's pluggable and Asynchronous capable with built-in sharding support and built-in checksum support and BSD license so you can package it in commercial software with no license drama.
6 - Default Storage Engine is InnoDB, for ACID compliance but others can still be used. MyISAM is gone. Long live the Queen!
7 - Pluggable AAA, so integrating with your LDAP user database through PAM is simple as pie, if if you don't want any auth (think memcached) just don't load the plugin, and get a nice performance boost.
8 - Replication will be everything you ever wanted in a replication system. You hate MySQL replication? You now love Drizzle.
9 - Logging is pluggable so you can log to Syslog, a query analyzer, Gearman, or whatever you want to plug in.
10 - Query Rewriting is supported. If you have a misbehaving application, you can fix it at the database if desired.
11 - The Data Dictionary is redone so that no internal tables materialize, and there is only a single code execution path. This means all your base run faster.
12 - FRM Files are Gone. Yep, ever been snagged by the contents of an FRM file not matching what's in the database? Cry no more.
13 - The MySQL Client Protocol is supported so you can use Drizzle with most applications without modification.
14 - It's Easy to Build from Source. Ever tried to compile MySQL from source. Hah! Yeah, drizzle builds like butter.

We covered Drizzle in our look at non-relational databases back in 2009.

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Harry Reid: I will not support any change to Social Security for the next 20 years'

Thanks goodness someone has political instincts they haven't been finessed out of. Harry Reid could not be more definite in this interview with the 'let's tweak Social Security' maven Lawrence O'Donnell.

There's a nuclear power discussion starting at 0:35 (remember that Reid is from Nevada, a state that's been targeted as a recipient of nuclear waste). Following that, a lip-lock love song to Henry Clay and Compromise at 1:40. If you like, skip right to the Social Security discussion at 5:10.



O'Donnell is pretty ... disgusting? unsurprisingly obvious? ... in his desire to keep beating the 'fix it now' drum (8:35). This may be one of the reasons he's not holding Olbermann's audience.

Reid, on the other hand, is persistently clear in the other direction: 'Two decades from now, I'm willing to take a look at it. I'm not willing to take a look at it now.' Easy to grasp — in 30 years we get a shortfall; in 20 years we figure out what to do. Next question.

Now this is the No Compromise we've been waiting for. (Psst: Next step, follow through.)

By the way, some Democratic genius must have whispered into Reid's shell-like ear — the first Dem who messes with Social Security takes the party down with him.

That genius would be right. Team Twelfth-Dimensional Chess, take note.

GP

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GOP discovers Jewish guy made donation to NPR

Let's face it. The problem that conservatives have with George Soros is that he's a Jew. They won't say that, because it's not nice. But their followers know the code. Rich guy using all his money to control the financial markets, the media, and thus the world? Uh huh.

The Republicans are always quite adept at bashing minorities and women in subtly ways that take advantage of the minority status without quite saying that exactly (Barack Hussein Obama, anyone?)

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ABC News: Fukushima-style Mark 1 nuclear reactor design caused GE scientist to quit in protest

And one more shoe drops (h/t Marshall Y. in the comments to this post; my emphasis):

Thirty-five years ago, Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric resigned from their jobs after becoming increasingly convinced that the nuclear reactor design they were reviewing -- the Mark 1 -- was so flawed it could lead to a devastating accident.

Questions persisted for decades about the ability of the Mark 1 to handle the immense pressures that would result if the reactor lost cooling power, and today that design is being put to the ultimate test in Japan. Five of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which has been wracked since Friday's earthquake with explosions and radiation leaks, are Mark 1s.

'The problems we identified in 1975 were that, in doing the design of the containment, they did not take into account the dynamic loads that could be experienced with a loss of coolant,' Bridenbaugh told ABC News in an interview. 'The impact loads the containment would receive by this very rapid release of energy could tear the containment apart and create an uncontrolled release.'

GE, of course, is having none of it:

GE told ABC News the reactors have 'a proven track record of performing reliably and safely for more than 40 years' and 'performed as designed,' even after the shock of a 9.0 earthquake.

GE did eventually perform retrofits, including at Fukushima. Bridenbaugh is still skeptical, however:

When asked if that was sufficient, [Bridenbaugh] paused. 'What I would say is, the Mark 1 is still a little more susceptible to an accident that would result in a loss of containment.'

I guess what we're watching is a field test. Good thing the cascade didn't breach containment around GE's corporate profits. Now that would pose a problem. I'll bet the 'it's not our fault' ad campaign is already on the drawing board.

GP

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IL legislators trying to lift smoking ban in bars and casinos

Bull. Someone's not going to gamble because they can't smoke? Right, that's like saying someone is going to stop having sex because they can't smoke. Not gonna happen. Same goes for drinking. This is a cute way to curry favor with the smoking, bar and restaurant lobby.

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Former FDIC Chairman: Wall Street won

Washington still thinks they did a great job following the crisis, but these are also the same people who think it makes sense to stay in Afghanistan and Iraq. The sad excuse that some think was Wall Street reform failed to go far enough. As Bill Isaac says, the problems that created the meltdown are still there so there's no reason to think that Dodd-Frank will do anything to prevent the next bank problem. Yahoo!

The Dodd-Frank reform bill--the one major piece of legislation to emerge since the financial crisis--is mostly meaningless, says Isaac, who is also the chairman of regional bank Fifth Third. Dodd-Frank does nothing to address the root causes of the financial crisis, Isaac says, and it won't prevent the next one.

Specifically, Dodd-Frank will just create more bureaucracy and red tape. Meanwhile, our biggest banks are still 'Too Big To Fail.' Our commercial banks are still allowed to take way too much risk. Our regulators are still balkanized and political. And we still haven't addressed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

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Elderly and gun owners exempt from Texas voter ID law

Next up, all Republicans are exempt from Texas voter ID. It's already more than half way there. It's possible that some Democrats were trying to help elderly voters who may not have a photo ID but senior citizens in Texas heavily break for the GOP during the elections. Slate:

I'll stress it again: These were bipartisan changes to the law. They are also going to help Republican voters. In 2008, a decent year for Texas Democrats but the last one for which exit polls are available, John McCain beat Barack Obama by 34 points among voters who were 65 and older; McCain had only won statewide by 10 points. We don't have a clean poll like this that tells us how gun owners voted in 2008, but the data is clear; gun owners favor Republicans.

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What Republicans are doing in the states is 'a massive reallocation of resources to corporations'

The Rachel Maddow Show recently did something I've rarely seen — an episodic news show (a news show divided into episodes, like Countdown) in which the episodes formed a single structure. About all the messy Republican mayhem happening in the states, Maddow concludes:

'This is about a massive reallocation of resources held in common by the citizens to corporations for their private gain. And it is about a tactical kneecapping of the political force that might resist that — a tactical kneecapping of the Democratic party and its union base.'

Each 'chapter' in this essay develops an aspect of this idea, brilliantly.

Here's Episode 1, Connecting the dots. It's about what's happening — not just in Wisconsin, but in all of the Teapartied, mainly northern states. Wisconsin in just the tip of the spear. Watch:



It's the South come to conquer the North in so many ways, including the export of 'right to work' laws. Yes, Virginia; that war isn't over. (This is my thought, not hers, yet.)

Some of her gory state-by-state details:

▪ Indiana — Stripping unions of rights, privatizing public school resources
▪ Wisconsin — Stripping unions of rights
▪ Idaho — Stripping unions of rights
▪ Ohio — Stripping unions of rights
▪ Michigan — $1.7 billion tax hikes on the old and poor, $1.8 billion in corporate tax cuts
▪ Florida — $1.75 billion in spending cuts to schools, $1.6 billion cuts to corporate and property taxes

And all financed and promoted by Karl Rove and his closet coterie of millionaires (aka Crossroads GPS); the not-so-secret Koch Brothers and their back-pocket front group, Americans for Prosperity; plus others we know not of. The Billionaires' Coup in action.

This is the Republican (or Movement Conservative) agenda. Episode 1 identifies it clearly. Later segments in this show-long essay take on the methods and implications:

Ep. 2: You can't vote them out if you can't vote (keeping voters from voting)
Ep. 3: That not-so-democratic feeling (a great intro to Episode 4)
Ep. 4: Handing the environmental hen to the foxes (a must-watch; rule by fiat from Republican governors)
Ep. 5: Interview with AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka

This is far-forward thinking; big picture stuff. Ignore Trumka's bridge-maintenance with Obama; that may not last, depending on Team Change, their ham-handedness, and you. Take Maddow's larger point instead; she's right. And take heart that this larger point has a voice.

This isn't pretty, but it's (ahem) the elephant in the room. (We'll deal with the donkey later; trust me.)

Our Contribute to the Wisconsin Recall link is above. Thank you.

GP

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Top recipient of privatized airport security claims TSA 'cooked' data on costs

To repeat, Rep. Mica is bathing in campaign contributions from organizations that want to privatize the TSA services. It's the loony newspaper from the Moonies but they're not alone in ignoring this fact as we've pointed out a few times. Of all people, I'm not sure Rep. Mica should be talking about cooking the books with his financial links to the privatizing companies. The issue for most has consistently been about the TSA policies, not private or public. The private security companies still need to follow the same rules and regulations as the TSA.

The bigger picture here though is the GOP once again attacking public service workers. They won't stop until they destroy every union and have workers struggling to live on minimum wage salaries. Wisconsin was just the starting point.

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Upon opening, US stock markets 'tumbled' as result of Japanese disaster

The calamity in Japan is having a negative economic impact on the rest of world, including the world's largest economy:

U.S. stocks plunged deep into the red, joining a global market selloff that started in Tokyo as Japan's nuclear crisis deepened and worries escalated over the human and economic toll of last week's earthquake.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dived 285 points, or 2.4%, to 11703, while the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index shed 35 points, or 2.7%, to 1261. The Nasdaq Composite tumbled 77 points, or 2.9%, to 2623.

The selloff came after news of two more explosions at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant that released large amounts of nuclear material into the atmosphere. Prime Minister Naoto Kan warned of 'substantial' radiation leaks. Tokyo also suffered an aftershock in the late evening, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

The markets have picked up a bit since the opening. As of this post, the Dow is 'only' down 200 points.

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Obama: Treatment of alleged WikiLeaks leaker Bradley Manning is 'appropriate and meeting our basic standards'

So much for that pesky torture thing; Obama says we're not doing it.

For me, that's the story. The story that prompted the story is this (h/t John Cole):

P.J. Crowley, the state department spokesman, stepped down Sunday after saying publicly that treatment of Wikileaks suspect Pfc. Bradley Manning in military detention has been “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.”

In a statement, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote that she accepted his resignation with regret. ...

The remark by Mr. Crowley last week to a small audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, first reported by the blogger Philippa Thomas, was rejected by none other than President Obama at a press conference on Friday. Mr. Obama said that he had been assured the treatment of Private Manning was “appropriate and are meeting our basic standards.”

Amnesty International begs to differ:

[T]he conditions inflicted on Bradley Manning . . . amount to inhumane treatment by the US authorities [and] appear to breach the USA’s human rights obligations.

Did you notice the weasel by Obama? Go back to the last sentence in the first quote and read carefully.

Yep — 'Obama said that he had been assured ...' As in, 'Well, shucks, I don't personally know, you understand; but what I hear is, it's all good. And me, just passing that on.'

I won't dignify the weasel by the Times writer, who 'under-characterizes' Manning's condition, with a quote. Feel free to find it yourself. The writer is Michael D. Shear, and he probably needed to get his Access Pass re-stamped.

Obama's weasel is the tell — he knows. To which I say, one of us has a conscience, sir, and a line in the sand. See you in ... you know.

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Possible 'worse than meltdown' scenario brewing at Japanese nuclear plant

A nuclear crisis at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant deepened Tuesday as fresh explosions occurred at the site and its operator said water in a pool storing spent nuclear fuel rods may be boiling, an ominous sign for the release of high-level radioactive materials from the fuel.Tokyo Electric Power Co. said water levels in the pool storing the spent fuel rods at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant's No. 4 reactor may have dropped, exposing the rods. The firm said it has not yet confirmed the current water levels or started operations to pour water into the facility.Unless the spent fuel rods are cooled down, they could be damaged and emit radioactive substances. The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency urged TEPCO to inject water into the pool soon to prevent heating of the fuel rods.
More from the NYT, apparently it's a VERY bad thing:

The pools, which sit on the top level of the reactor buildings and keep spent fuel submerged in water, have lost their cooling systems and the Japanese have been unable to take emergency steps because of the multiplying crises.

By late Tuesday, the water meant to cool spent fuel rods in the No. 4 reactor was boiling, Japan’s nuclear watchdog said. If the water evaporates and the rods run dry, they could overheat and catch fire, potentially spreading radioactive materials in dangerous clouds.

If any of the spent fuel rods in the pools do indeed catch fire, nuclear experts say, the high heat would loft the radiation in clouds that would spread the radioactivity.

“It’s worse than a meltdown,” said David A. Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists who worked as an instructor on the kinds of General Electric reactors used in Japan.

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Nukes: privatized profits, socialized risk

Up late last night, preoccupied by events in Japan -- what looks like a full-on nuclear power plant disaster. Melt down. Explosions. Wind-blown radiation.

On NHK TV, a government spokesman offered some advice: Don't use air ventilators to heat your cold homes. Don't go outside. If your laundry is hanging outside, don't bring it in. 'You should not be exposed to the outdoor atmosphere,' he said.

But rest assured, Americans: if any such thing ever happens here, the for-profit nuclear power industry will be secure. They'll be off the hook for most of the cost of any similar accident, and we, the taxpayers, will cover the bulk of any cost. Even in the event of gross negligence or willful misconduct.

What a relief.

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Independents abandoning GOPers on economy

The Republicans stormed into the Capitol promising to deliver on jobs. Not so much. So far, they've gone after the health care bill, cut funding for the IRS, PBS and Planned Parenthood -- and decided to spend millions to defend DOMA. Jobs and fixing the economy get a lot of lip service, but no action. And, people are noticing:

In a new ABC News/Washington Post poll out today, just 43 percent of Americans approve of the way President Obama is handling the economy, though more Americans say they trust Obama (46 percent) on the issue than Republicans in Congress (34 percent). http://abcn.ws/gpFL1H

What's more, by a 9-point margin Americans now see Obama as better able to handle the deficit than GOP lawmakers in Congress. That represents an 11-point drop for the GOP since December -- a period when Republicans have made cutting federal spending a centerpiece of their agenda.

And here’s another interesting fact, according to ABC polling analyst Gary Langer: “The drop in trust to handle the economy has occurred chiefly among independents, now drawing away from the GOP after rallying to its side. As recently as January, 42 percent of independents preferred the Republicans in Congress over Obama to handle the economy. Today just 29 percent say the same, and there's been a rise in the number who volunteer that they don't trust either side.”

The much sought after Independents are bailing on the GOPers.

What do the numbers mean? Here's ABC's take:

BOTTOM LINE: Voters want results, not rhetoric. And, they don't see that either side is delivering. Moreover, Americans, unlike many in Washington, aren't dogmatic about their approach to solving our fiscal woes. When asked best way to fix deficit, just 31 percent said “cutting federal spending,” just 3 percent picked “raise taxes” while a whopping 64 percent picked a “combination of both.” The basic message: neither side has a winning hand. So, trying to win this fight on “voter mandate” is a sure loser.

All the Republicans have is rhetoric. But, Americans aren't sold on the Democratic response. People in DC get very caught up in the process, but, in the real world, people want results. Not seeing so much so far.

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IT Poll: Can HP Reinvent Itself as a Software Company?

Earlier today we told you about HP's new strategy focused on software and cloud-services. This is a departure for HP, which is mostly known as a hardware company but which has been steadily moving into IT services for the past few years. New CEO Leo Apotheker brings several years of enterprise software experience to the company from SAP, but HP's past isn't promising.


Also, I recently read this article by RedMonk's Stephen O'Grady: 'How Important is Software? Generational Differences Between Software Producers.' O'Grady tracks the recent history of software considers whether software has become so commodified that it no longer confers a strategic advantage. If this is the case, then is becoming a software company really what HP should do?

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IT Poll: Can HP Reinvent Itself as a Software Company?online surveys

Disclosure: HP is a ReadWriteWeb sponsor.

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