ShadowRAM: Former HP queen hot under the collar; No big borg for Linus

COMMENTARY: Rumours, Truth and Innuendo in the IT channel.

Former HP queen hot under the collar

Just how heated were the discussions that led the Hewlett-Packard board to
oust Carly?

Word is Ms Fiorina was more than a little miffed at board members for shooting off their mouths to the press, implying that her flash-to-substance ratio was out of kilter.

Remember, this woman sees herself as a future senator from California. The last thing she needs is old-boy Silicon Valley know-it-alls portraying her as unable to manage, execute or rally the troops.

The big question is, who is going to pen the tell-all chronicling her rise and fall? Think about the Oprah opportunities and the movie-of-the-week potential.

Can’t wait for that climactic moment on the little screen when HP board member Patricia Dunn, a fellow female power broker, tells Carly to pack her US$21 million in severance and get gone. (That’s a helluva lot of toner cartridges.)

The award for the Best Carly Headline goes to The Boston Herald in the US for ‘Sorry, Carly’. Runner-up is The New York Post for ‘Fiorina Flops’. The Most Dignified Headline goes to The Times of London for ‘HP Ousts First Lady of America’. Not sure what Dubya’s missus made of that.

And the Judge’s Award goes to Silicon Valley’s own San Jose Mercury News for ‘Culture Clash’.
A fave comment came from a Boston radio reporter: he said he knows several current HPers who could already have second jobs because the company is so darn fat that no-one knows what anyone else is doing.

Sun prez gets soft

Is Sun president Jonathan Schwartz getting too warm and fuzzy?

He sent out a company-wide email a few weeks back praising Sun’s recent move to release the first of what will be much of Solaris’ code under an OSI-approved licence called the Community Development and Distribution Licence.

The missive contained pat-yourself-on-the-back sentiment such as, ‘Did we mention it’s all about sharing? That’s why we’re sharing the code, and the thousands of patents covered by Solaris, totally one-upping IBM in a show of global community’. One word: Ack.