The Martian

Being a Silicon Valley Engineer, one's interest is piqued when reading about Andy Weir's story about how he self-published his book - because no publisher wanted to touch it. After it became popular on Kindle, Crown Publishing finally published the book - that Joe Morgenstern (of Wall Street Journal) said was the best pure science fiction novel in years.

When the book is made into a movie directed by Ridley Scott, it became a "must see".

The movie certainly did not belie expectations. The thesis of the movie is how astronaut Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and gets left behind on Mars. Watney survives the storm and must draw upon all his ingenuity, training, science, engineering, wit and spirit to subsist to find a way to signal to the command center in Earth that he is alive. You love the way Watney uses-science-to-solve-problems. Even the non-science folks in the audience will find themselves applauding and egging him on to succeed. Sometimes he is foiled by Nature and sometimes his is foiled by error. He never gives up even when all hope seems to have faded.

The most appealing facet of the movie to me was the fact that it had no gun-toting, evil-minded villain. There is a sense of humanity and instinct of survival built into every frame. You find yourself rooting for Matt Damon not for some contrived reason (of getting back home to his anxious, forlorn wife or children), but because you want his courage, hope and doggedness to succeed.

Inevitably, this movie will be compared to Appolo 13. Twenty years later, I must admit that I watch reruns of the Ron Howard classic. Appolo 13, however, had too many emotional strings and sentimentality. Martian, on the other had, succeeds with wit and humanity. It is incredibly enjoyable and totally worth watching

Red Letter Day for the Internet we know and love

On the face of it the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), taking place next week in Dubai, seems innocuous. However, the decisions made by governments at WCIT could redefine the international regulatory environment for the Internet - impacting how people around the world are able to use the Internet.

Who remembers the days when it would cost us money every time we picked up the phone and placed a call. The reason for that in the analog world was, "Somebody has to pay to use this service". With VOIP and the digital world, we now pay a monthly "subscription" for unlimited usage of our phones. The complex world of the Internet and its interconnected global network is currently working on the same principle - of paying a subscription to the service provider. The ITU (International Telecommunications Union) is looking to change this and is considering taking us back to the (more regulated) analog world. WSJ's Gordon Crovitz has written an excellent article talking about the far reaching consequences of this conference. Some countries are looking at this "additional regulation" as "an opportunity for censorship".

Companies like Google are spearheading a campaign saying, "A free and open world depends on a free and open Internet. Governments alone, working behind closed doors, should not direct its future. The billions of people around the globe who use the internet should have a voice." You can add your voice and sign the petition to support a free and open internet here.

HP vs Oracle Round 3

Round 1: August 6th 2010 - HP Fires Mark Hurd for fiscal improprieties. Larry Ellison calls this "the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago."

Round 2: September 6th 2010 - Oracle hires ousted HP Chief Mark Hurd. HP responds with a law suit that "in the course of his duties with Oracle, Hurd will inevitably disclose HP's trade secrets and confidential information."

Round 3. October 1st 2010 - The Silicon Valley Soap Opera took another bizarre turn with the appointment of Leo Apotheker as the new HP CEO. Larry Ellison says publicly that he is "speechless" that HP "picked a guy who was recently fired because he did such a bad job running SAP."

Will somebody please stand up and tell Larry Ellison that *he* hired a guy who was recently fired from HP because he did not stand up to HP's ethical standards (which are also the standards normally practiced by the rest of us). Who is "speechless" now?

HP really hit it where it hurds the most (sorry, could not resist that!) with the appointment of Ray Lane as the non-executive chairman. Ray Lane has a storied history with Larry Ellison. It will be interesting to see who makes the next move.

I was disappointed with Chris O'Brien's piece in the Mercury News earlier today. He starts off very well building the case for why the other stories (Apple vs Adobe and Google vs Apple) pale in comparison to this one. It was his conclusion on "How can this get better?" that was disappointing. Chris O'Brien opted to take the trite path to possible conclusions.

I think the battlefield is now the marketplace. HP and Oracle are going after the same customers in the Enterprise Data Center. Oracle had the upper hand with Enterprise Software. HP closed that gap with the hiring of Leo Apotheker. With HP's recent acquisitions of 3Par, ArcSight and Fortify they are filling critical holes. I believe that they have the right person at the helm to lead them. I applaud HPs Board in having the courage to hire a rank outsider to help them effectively combat Oracle - an advantage that an insider would not have given them.

We are nearing the end of the first quarter and, by my score, HP is leading by a field goal - with each team having scored a touchdown. We have three more quarters left in the game. The Bay Area is already abuzz with all the activity that has happened so far. Hold on to your seat belts folks. The game has just begun!