NEWS&ANALYSIS
the
SHELLEY SOLHEIM
buzz
SEARCH
Clinton stumps for
newest search engine
EX-PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON LAST
week delivered the keynote
address at the launch of a new
business-focused search engine
at Accoona.com.
“When I became president in
January of 1993, there were a
grand total of 50 sites. When I
left, there were 50 million, and
now there’s a countless number,
which makes the work of Accoona all the more important,”
said Clinton at the Tavern on the
Green restaurant here.
The search engine aims to help
users find information about businesses, such as location and contact data, said Accoona Chairman
Eckhard Pfeiffer, former chief
executive of Compaq.
Accoona partnered with China
Daily Information, the largest
English-language Web site in
China. Accoona’s database has
searchable information on some
5 million Chinese companies,
Former President Clinton spoke at
the Accoona search engine rollout.
Pfeiffer said. The site includes an
option to search by “business
profile,” a feature to help users
target their searches to find business-specific information in
Accoona’s database. Accoona
derives its name from the Swahili
phrase “Hakuna Matata,” or “no
worries,” a phrase popularized by
Disney’s film “The Lion King.”
—Shelley Solheim, in New York
SERVERS
Penguin Computing
enters blade space
Linux-based system aimed at the
high-performance computing
space and the enterprise.
Penguin’s BladeRunner is
powered by two low-voltage
Xeon chips from Intel and offers
such features as redundant
power and fans. The 4U (7-inch)
chassis can hold up to 12 BladeRunner servers. Officials said the
system is ideal for server consolidation but can also be packaged
with the Scyld Beowulf cluster
management operating system
to create a “cluster in a box.”
Each blade has two Gigabit
Ethernet interfaces and a PCI-X
card for networking or Fibre
Channel. In addition, an integrated
management and control module
provides monitoring of the chassis
and blades. —Jeffrey Burt
MOBILE
Nextel shipping
Bluetooth BlackBerry
WIRELESS CARRIER NEXTEL
Communications is shipping
its first BlackBerry device with
Bluetooth support. In addition
to the built-in Bluetooth wireless
connectivity and Research In
Motion’s always-on e-mail capability, Nextel’s BlackBerry 7520
device lets users make voice
calls or employ push-to-talk
functionality. The BlackBerry
7520 is available for $299 with
a two-year service contract
agreement with Nextel. Cingular
Wireless also offers a BlackBerry
device with Bluetooth connectivity, the BlackBerry 7290, priced
at $299. —Shelley Solheim
Linux popularity
spurs server growth
The BlackBerry 7520
supports Bluetooth.
RESEARCH COMPANY IDC SAID LAST
week that Linux server customer
revenue will reach $9.1 billion
in 2008, reflecting a compound
annual growth rate of 22.8 percent. That compares with a 3.8
percent growth rate for the worldwide server market overall.
IDC forecasts Linux server
shipments will be 25.7 percent
of worldwide server shipments
in 2008, up from 15.6 percent
of worldwide server shipments
in 2003. —Steven J. VaughanNichols, eweek.com
PENGUIN COMPUTING LAST WEEK
rolled out its first blade server, a
BY THE NUMBERS
Most-damaging viruses
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Cost in $ billions
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The PC segment of the industry continues
to take on characteristics of the home and
consumer electronics industry, which favors
enormous economies of scale and a focus
on individual users and buyers.
Sam Palmisano, IBM CEO, on selling IBM’s PC business
20 e W E E K n D E C E M B E R 1 3 , 2 0 0 4
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NetSky
Sobig
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Source: mi2g
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