genomiccomputation.com

• 1. Many of the identity management tools were built when users were bound to desktops within the enterprise. Encentuate is one of the new breed of identity management vendors with products that map more to today’s needs for strong security, auditing, support for mobility. Companies like Encentuate have effectively reinvigorated the identity market with systems that fit today’s business needs and don’t require an army of consultants for product implementation and customization.

For Encentuate, this acquisition proves that there is still plenty of upside for venture-backed technology start-ups that pick the right market opportunities and execute on their product development and business plans. For IBM, the days of force-fitting products into the market are long gone. IBM now seems to be operating with a culture of constant improvement, regardless of whether this progress comes from within or outside of the company.

• 2. Before this acquisition, IBM could point to its Tivoli identity management portfolio and match Encentuate on product functionality. Yet, IBM decided that it made better business sense to simply replace its legacy code through an acquisition than enhance its existing wares. This shows some real guts on IBM’s part. IBM made sure to reassure existing customers that it will integrate Encentuate into its current portfolio over time to provide them with a smooth transition.

This week, IBM once again added to its deep security portfolio by acquiring identity specialist Encentuate for an undisclosed amount. I like this deal for two reasons:

The tool was created by Darren Stuart, who incidentally created one of my favorite Facebook apps called “please stop sharing applications with me.” On the about page Stuart notes he’s also planning to add other networks to the mix like Jaiku, Seesmic, and Facebook.

[via eHub]

Make groups of Twitter buddies and keep tabs on them in one place with Crowdstatus.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

One thing sorely missing from Twitter is a way to clump together into groups people you’re following. Enter Crowdstatus, a delightfully simple tool that places the latest status message from a Twitter user in a small box with his or her avatar. You can add as many people as you want and check in on them throughout the day as people update. Each grouping gets its own vanity URL and management page where you can add or delete users.

There used to be a time when people thought that Sony made the best TVs. Perhaps they still do. But now we’re all swamped with so many brands that seem OK to us that we choose on such dimensions as price, and familiarity of name and prettiness and, er, dimensions.

Can somebody, with beard or without, help me here? Somehow, this stuff is stifling my ability to network. Socially, I mean.

But I keep wondering whether we’ll ever feel ready to give Facebook all of our selves.

I think I’m beginning to understand all this.

Or will people keep those four or five remotes lying around on the coffee table?

Do you really think that real people won’t begin to wonder not only what Facebook and others are doing with the information, but whether they’re using the information they’ve been given to obtain more information?

If that isn’t Soviet, then I am, indeed, Leonid Brezhnev’s eyebrow cultivator.

Yet in real life, perhaps it’s worth looking at people’s ability to stick at anything. Relationships, for example. They don’t last, do they? We trade them in like
cars and bikes and apartments.

So the world’s coffee tables fill up with different remotes that control different parts of our enjoyment.

Of course, it may well be that in the future we will simply become used to the fact that there is no secrecy and no privacy, facts that will cause a radical shift in our sense of self. It may be that we’ll enjoy watching different brands compete over what they can do with the total information they have.

There is something, well, vaguely communist about the whole idea.

And then I think about the simplest things in people’s houses- remote controls, for example.

You’d think by now that everyone would have just one remote that controls every technological machine in the house.

But they don’t. Perhaps they reason that if that one remote goes wrong, then all the machines will be out of action. Perhaps they imagine that if they add more gadgets, then programming that one remote will prove cumbersome or even impossible.

See, that’s the thing that disturbs me about Facebook or Google or some new brand name (hey, how about Flurt? Or Blatant?) that is yet to be imagined being the portal of the masses.

(Credit:
Mike Cogh)

I’m trying to imagine any area of existence in which people will trust just one brand or product with so much of their faith. (Oh, yes. Banks. Now how did that one turn out?) Especially when it comes to things techy.

I’ve been reading what all the wise people (they have beards) have to say about Facebook Connect.

Or perhaps they just don’t trust the idea that one thing can ever be that much in control of your life.

As an aside, it still astonishes me to the point of marginal delirium that Facebook will not let you remove your profile. That is, I understand, the case.

And the masses, though they can dance together and love each other, have proved remarkably resistant to the concept of forced community.

Perhaps it seems possible right now. Perhaps there are so many of us giddily enjoying the social networking roundabout that we really don’t know what we’re doing.

This is, so I learned, Facebook’s attempt to pile more and more information about you into their tall metal server boxes so that they can sell advertisers on their ability to target better than Google or Dick Cheney.

But, bloody hell, do you really think that people will just blindly follow a cascade of applications until they’ve committed themselves to one portal (a portal whose tentacles creep ever closer and squeeze ever tighter thanks to an army of 400,000 developers), with no recourse or return?

But I find myself trying to translate everything into the real life I know.

Smart-grid outfit GridPoint on Tuesday, flush with an additional $120 million in equity funding, said it has acquired V2Green, a start-up with software to charge electric
cars en masse.

GridPoint said that it has raised $100 million mainly from existing investors, which include Goldman Sachs, New Enterprise Associates, Robeco, Susquehanna International Group, and Quercus Trust. An additional $20 million is expected later.

The company makes software for utilities to better integrate distributed generation units, such as solar panels, and home devices, such as Internet-connected thermostats, into the power grid. It also makes a home energy storage unit and software for consumers to track their energy usage.

By purchasing V2Green, GridPoint intends to add the capability for utilities to manage an anticipated wave of electric cars being plugged into the electricity grid.

Some researchers have estimated that plugging large numbers of electric cars to charge batteries during peak times, such as the early evening, would tax the grid, making it necessary to build more power plants. But bringing new power plants online is expensive and opposed in many areas because of environmental reasons.

V2Green’s software lets utilities manage the process so that charging can take place at night at off-peak times.

The company’s software also lets utilities draw power from many electric cars’ batteries–another potential method for easing the load on the grid during peak times. The Seattle-based company is staffed with some former Microsoft employees.

“Our combined capabilities will enable utilities to mitigate the impact of plug-in electric vehicles on the grid while reducing carbon emissions and providing their customers with reduced rates for off-peak charging,” said V2Green CEO John Clark in a statement.

GridPoint earlier this year started a “smart charging” trial with Duke Energy.

With the additional $120 million, GridPoint has raised over $200 million to date, making it one of the most capitalized private smart-grid companies.

John McCain’s announcement last week that he has chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate left the public thirsting for information about the Alaska governor– and inspired hundreds of commentators, entrepreneurs, and Palin imitators to try to fill in the gaps.

A would-be Palin shares her inner-most thoughts on “The PalinDrome: Sarah Palin’s Blog”. A faux Levi Johnston (that’d be Palin’s soon-to-be son-in-law, for those of you out of the loop) can also be found online.

You can join one of the hundreds of new Facebook groups passing judgment about Palin– ranging from “Sarah Palin has more Executive experience than Obama and Biden combined” to “I have more Foreign Policy Experience than Sarah Palin.” There is even a Governor Palin Facebook application… that doesn’t seem to have any sort of application.

There are plenty of crude references to Palin online–on the less offensive side, one can buy merchandise calling Palin a “Babe-raham Lincoln.”

If Palin doesn’t suffice as your VP pick, one site recommends you try her out as your new Segway.

It’s also interesting to note what you can’t find on Palin on the Internet. As pointed out on Versionista, the Palin for Governor site disappeared the morning she was announced as McCain’s running mate.

There could be a lot to glean about Palin’s views and policy positions from her churchgoing history, the Huffington Post pointed out Tuesday. However, the archived sermons cited in the article are now inaccessible.

And, of course, the most authoritative site on the Internet–Wikipedia–has changed the story of Palin numerous times.

Of course, one could always turn to Palin’s official biography for more information–but what fun would that be?

You may have to read the instructions a few times to get the gist of the game.

(Credit:
ABC.com)

Itching to play Pong on the Web? Well, you’re in luck since there are tons of sites that offer Java or Flash-based versions. One of my favorites–since about 20 minutes ago–being this one.

Maybe however, you’re looking for something a little different. Perhaps you’d like to play Pong and have the game interrupted every few seconds to answer trivia questions about a show you’ve never heard of and just last night saw a commercial for. Well, that was my experience at least.

ABC, in an attempt to promote its new ’70s cop drama Life on Mars, is offering Pong for play on its site and as a widget.

From the few minutes I’ve spent with it, I can say that the controls are responsive, but the A.I. isn’t challenging at all on the first few levels. I would have played further but I just couldn’t deal with the game constantly pausing to ask me ’70s- and Life on Mars-related trivia questions. Otherwise, it’s a pretty good version of Pong.

As for the show, as I mentioned, I saw a commercial for it last night for the first time and had no idea what it was about. Seeing Harvey Keitel with a huge flowing mullet kicking in a door didn’t excite me much either.

After doing a little research I learned that it’s actually a sci-fi show based on a BBC series. Of course, being the geek that I am, as soon as I learned about the sci-fi aspect I became intrigued. Also, with Clarke Peters from The Wire involved, I have to at least give it a try now.

Shares of game publisher Take-Two were up Monday on the heels of positive reviews of the forthcoming video game Grand Theft Auto IV, which is being released to the public at midnight Tuesday.

Take-Two plans to launch "Grand Theft Auto IV" on Tuesday.

(Credit:
Rockstar Games)

Shares of the game publisher traded as high as $27.10, 3.4 percent higher than Friday’s closing price. That trading price is also a good dollar a share above the offer made by Electronic Arts when it launched its hostile bid for Take-Two last month. Take-Two rejected that offer, calling it “inadequate.” Take-Two owns GTA creator Rockstar.

The excitement surrounding the release has hit a fever pitch, fueled by the positive reviews. The New York Times called the game “violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured, and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun.” My CNET colleague Dan Ackerman got his hands on the final shipping version and offered initial thoughts on the game’s pluses and minuses in his blog.

Analysts are expecting the action-driving video game to sell more than 9 million copies and top last year’s record $300 million first-week sales of Halo 3.

Check back Tuesday morning when my colleague Daniel Terdiman delves deeper into the controversy surrounding the popular video game franchise.

Digg co-founder, media darling, and geek heartthrob Kevin Rose co-hosts Diggnation.

(Credit:
Diggnation)

Revision3, the edgy MTV-style “TV network for the Web” owned by the founders of Digg, will soon have its shows syndicated on Blip.tv.

That means Kevin Rose, Digg co-founder and co-host of Diggnation, will be appearing on even more Internet channels for those teens and twentysomethings who just can’t get enough of his shayna punim. Revision3 shows are available on iTunes and, now with the Blip.tv deal, they may even end up on traditional TV sets.

(Via TechCrunch.)

commentary

Glyn Moody aptly asks, “Why doesn’t Red Hat lead?” I posed a similar question a few weeks back, and 100 percent agree that open source needs a leader, and that Red Hat has failed to assume that role:

I must confess to a certain disappointment with Red Hat. On the one hand, it is clearly the leader of the open source world–both historically and in terms of its size. On the other, it is remarkable for the low profile it keeps: it is striking, for example, how much more influence Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth seems to command, even though his company is a tiddler by comparison to Red Hat’s whale shark….[I]t is punching below its weight on the computing scene, and the open source world is suffering as a result.

On one hand, success covers a multitude of sins and to the extent that Red Hat continues to grow, its rising tide will (to a certain extent) raise all boats.

But on the other, Red Hat’s success will ring hollow if Sun and others steal its thunder as the center of the open-source universe. So what can it do?

Red Hat can exercise its ambition to become something more than just an operating system company. Given its poor management of the JBoss acquisition, this may seem like a tall order. But it’s precisely that experience that should make it better at acquiring companies.

I don’t see Red Hat getting into the application space anytime soon, but it should be rounding out its offerings as a platform vendor, which leaves a lot of room in the middleware/infrastructure tier. Red Hat missed out on MySQL, but that doesn’t mean it has to capitulate in the ESB, IT management, etc. markets.

To be successful in acquisitions, however, Red Hat needs to recognize that its historical excellence in operating systems may not transfer perfectly into markets higher up the software stack. It has learned this with JBoss. Time to apply the lesson.
Red Hat needs to spend more time in Silicon Valley. Yes, I’m hardly the one to advocate a Silicon Valley focus, but in Red Hat’s case it has holed itself up in Raleigh for far too long. It needs to be more collaborative. People don’t know its executives. There is a human side to business execution, and that is the side that Red Hat still needs to master.
Red Hat should engage Microsoft. I’m not suggesting that Red Hat sign a patent deal with Microsoft or anything of the sort. Rather, I’m suggesting that Red Hat has ceded ground to Novell by not being will to publicly, and on an ongoing basis, talk with Microsoft about the value of and means to accomplish interoperability. We need Red Hat in that conversation. I trust Red Hat not to bend on its open-source ideals. It can have the conversation without getting cooties..
Red Hat should use the reach and heft of its Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux distributions to disperse more open-source software. I know that third-party packages can apply for Red Hat distribution, but it should be Red Hat, not the ISVs and projects, that reaches out. Red Hat has the most to gain from a vibrant open-source ecosystem. It can help build that ecosystem by becoming the hub of that ecosystem. This requires distribution.

Microsoft applications and infrastructure (SQL Server, IIS, etc.) thrive because they are tightly integrated with Windows. Red Hat has the opportunity to become the distribution point for a whole host of third-party (commercial and community) open-source software. RHX took a stab at this, but what we really want is distribution within Red Hat’s products, not merely its website (good as RHX has been for some of us).

This is just the beginning of a list. What would you add to it (or subtract from it)?

Twitter users are urging each other to change their location settings to confuse censors in Iran.

(Credit:
Twitter)

Yesterday, I got an e-mail from a reader who had seen my story about Twitter users slamming CNN for its initial absence on the post-Iranian election protests, urging me to remove an image in the story.

The rationale? The image was of Twitter results and included users’ account IDs, and the reader was worried that the Iranian government might seek out and punish any users who were employing Twitter for potentially subversive purposes.

We decided not to remove the image, in part because it had been up for more than 24 hours, and also because we suspected that the Iranian government knows how to use Twitter and how to find people in that country using the microblogging service as a way to spread news about the protests.

But now, Twitter users across the world are attempting to turn that dynamic on its head. The best way that the Iranian government could discover which tweets were from Iranians is to look and see whose accounts are registered to people who identify themselves as being from that country. That’s possible because users’ profiles allow people to define which city they’re from and which time zone they’re in.

There’s a new thread spreading quickly across Twitter–I found more than 1,300 such posts–urging people around the world to change those settings in order to make themselves appear to be in Tehran.

Under the profile setting, the plea goes, people should change their location to Tehran, and their time zone and home city to GMT +03:30 Tehran. The idea–and it’s not entirely clear if this would work–is that this will simply overwhelm the censors with people who look like they’re posting potentially subversive tweets from Iran, and hopefully, protect the actual Iranians who are doing so.

Twitter, of course–as well as other social media services, has been the front line for news about the massive protests–perhaps the biggest in Iran since the revolution in 1979 that toppled the Shah. The service’s users–using the hashtag “#IranElection”–have consistently been ahead of the news media on the story. And Twitter convinced its host, NTT America, to delay scheduled downtime in order to keep the service up and running so as to continue to give users a way to spread and receive news about what’s going on in Iran.

The question has come up, again and again, about what would have happened in China in 1989 if protesters in Tiananmen Square had had Twitter at their disposal. I think China is more adept at censorship than Iran, but it seems clear that where there’s a will, there’s a way. And users of the Internet are a lot more clever than bureaucratic censors. I think the word would have gotten out.