Google + Dell, Yahoo + eBAY, and Microsoft

Yahoo and eBay joined hands to fight Google. And, Dell boxes will ship with Google pack from now on.

Shares of Yahoo! went up, eBay went up, Google went up, and Dell went up. And Microsoft went up too!

I don't know if Google's move is counter to Yahoo's since only hours separated these news. But one thing for sure, Google definitely hit upon a great idea to realize the real estate offered by Dell. Eversince HP and Lenovo have been successful in cutting the fab and consumers starting to prefer window shopping PCs to ordering over Internet, Dell share has been declined. Their results were below expectations. This will increase profit margins for them.

As a consumer, I see it as going in positive direction. I see a future where minimal configuration PCs preloaded with search and other discount coupons for shopping be real cheap if they were subsidized by search engines and shopping portals? How about mail-in rebates for amazon.com when you buy a PC?

Sun Tech Days, Chennai, 2006

Well, I have just attended Sun Tech Days at Chennai. Somehow, I always feel that event management is not the first priority on their agenda. First day was running a hour late. Though, the music fiesta at the day end was great. I really enjoyed the Gattam. But again, there were not enough seats to sit so I was standing for a fairly long duration till I finally found a seat once audience started rushing home. For reasons unknown to me, I could not get a train ticket to chennai so have to take a bus ride. I don't recommend anyone taking a bus to Chennai from Bangalore. Its too much pain.

Second day was better though again the event management showed off their weakness. Food served on both days was not up to the par and I just don't like the T-shirt throwing in events like these. Crowd (should I say mob?) goes crazy for these T-shirts and many get injured. This is not for weak-hearted. Why can't they just give it to ones who participate or give it to all. I think, they didn't expect this much crowd.

Also, I feel that they should stop doing multiple tracks. I feel like attending more than one but have to sit out another due to concurrency. Somehow, there is duplication of information across sessions. They should streamline and review the contents of all presentation so that it is crisp and upto the mark.

Overall, barring few sessions, I felt it was not worth travelling 500 kms in a bus to watch this event.

Architects in Software Industry

I was reading this article on architect personas. I tend to disagree with just 3 there. I believe there are many more here. From experience, I'm listing down what roles I think should be here:

Enterprise Architect:
Defines what enterprise needs in terms of application and integration.

Application Architect:
Evaluates applications/softwares in line with directions from Enterprise Architect. Makes Build/BUY decision.

Integration Architect:
Defines EAI standards

Data Architect:
Defines flow of information and events (Senior, enterprise wide app-to-app, junior, at app level)

Network architect:
Defines network topology, DR strategies

Technical Architect:
Defines architecture for single app and its interfaces

I believe "Software Architect" is best suited as general term to differentiate from general (Civil) Architects and in all of the above you can replace Architect with "Software Architect" as "Enterprise Software Architect" to better quality them.