Latest News from Fuat Kircaali

JetBlue Embraer ERJ-190 Flight From Chicago to New York JFK

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:30:00 EST

A JetBlue Embraer ERJ-190, registration N279JB performing flight B6-904 from Chicago O'Hare, IL to New York JFK, NY (USA) with 64 passengers and 4 crew, was on final visual approach to JFK's runway 31R descending through 2000 feet, when the crew reported they needed to abort the approach due to a slat/flap indication. The airplane climbed back up to 3000 feet and was vectored to allow the crew troubleshoot the problem. The crew requested the longer runway 31L and advised, their approach speed would be "a little bit higher" and requested the emergency services on standby and subsequently declared emergency due to an abnormal flaps indication. The airplane landed safely on runway 31L 25 minutes after aborting the first approach and taxied to the apron.

Cloud Expo and the End of Tech Recession

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:15:00 EST

Cloud Expo is the new PC Expo, Comdex or InternetWorld, and will be the next global IT event for the decade starting with 2010. This year's West Coast conference had 1,700 pre-registered delegates on the Friday before the conference opened. More than 500 additional registrations came in over the weekend and on-site registrations, which brought the number of delegates who registered and attended for the conference to roughly 2,250, more than double a year ago. As far as the expo floor goes, out of 50 sponsors and exhibitors, 46 companies confirmed during the conference that they will participate in the 2010 Cloud Computing Expo at the same or higher level. Most exhibitors on the expo floor highlighted the quality of the leads they got from the conference, which is due to the fact that we had no free expo option on the registration page. I personally believe Cloud Computing Expo had the most qualified audience of any technology event in recent years.

Cloud Computing on Gartner's Top 10 List and SYS-CON Events' 2010 Calendar

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:45:00 EDT

Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt. These technologies impact the organization's long-term plans, programs and initiatives. They may be strategic because they have matured to broad market use or because they enable strategic advantage from early adoption. “Companies should factor the top 10 technologies into their strategic planning process by asking key questions and making deliberate decisions about them during the next two years,” said David Cearley, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “However, this does not necessarily mean adoption and investment in all of the technologies. They should determine which technologies will help and transform their individual business initiatives.”

Is the PR Business Extinct? Yes

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:30:00 EDT

To be or not to be, that is the question for the PR firms that will hit the wall at this stage. The ones who are equipped to provide those services whose job descriptions do not yet exist will be tomorrow's brave new PR companies. Other than that, the day the new SEC, under the White House 2.0 Obama administration, answers the question Jonathan Schwartz asked three years ago, will be the end for most PR companies.

Ulitzer Aid Campaign for the Typhoon Ondoy Victims

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 09:30:00 EDT

Yesterday morning I checked the Ulitzer home page on my iPhone on my way to the office and I realized two of the top three stories were about the "Typhoon Ondoy" in Philippines. 36 hours later we still have three stories filed from Manila on Ulitzer's home page. Top Ulitzer stories on Ulitzer from around the 25 distinct subject categories it covers are processed every 60 minutes and displayed by an algorithm which we believe is more sophisticated than , say, Google News algorithms.

Will PR Firms Survive The New Media Avalanche?

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:00:00 EDT

Blogs are relatively new, if you consider the mass of the population. At a cocktail party less than a year ago someone I was talking to from the financial industry (a stockbroker) told me, "You know there is something called a ‘blog' and people who write blogs are called bloggers?" I said yes I know. Today, the mass of the population knows "blogging" as their Facebook pages, and 99.999% of the blogs being written are never read by anyone except the blogger's family and friends. This means two things. Not everyone has to write a book, sing, or blog. The ones who have something to say in their blogs will evolve into more professional platforms. The social media platforms that do not exist today will be created to serve the professional community of writers and bloggers.

CA Should Offer the CEO Job to Ken Cron

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:00:00 EDT

The round of applause that greeted the suggestion that Ken Cron be promoted from Interim CEO to full CEO of Computer Associates International (renamed as CA as one of the first action items by John Swainson) left a smile on the face of Chairman Lewis Ranieri at the company's annual shareholder meeting in 2004. Ken had one of the toughest jobs any CEO can imagine: that of following Sanjay Kumar and Charles Wang. Yet under Cron's leadership CA's net income returned to the black after three consecutive years of losses and under very difficult circumstances.

Ulitzer Live! New Media Conference & Expo

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:30:00 EDT

I live 11 minutes away from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. Friday evening I took a Cessna Caravan for a short 45-minute flight to Martha's Vineyard. This was my first trip to the island. I didn't do any research and had false expectations based on my long-time love affair with the island of Cat Cay in the Bahamas. I found out that Martha's Vineyard was huge. Upon landing on the island, my pilot called a cab for me to take me to my hotel. According to the cab driver the island's population was around 30,000 off-season and well over 100,000 during its peak summer season. These numbers change drastically from driver to driver or whomever you ask, of course. As compared to three to six neighbors any time I go home to Cat Cay, this was an instant shock to me.

Publishers and Authors Ask to Delay Google Hearing to Negotiate New Settlement

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:15:00 EDT

Publisher and author associations sought today to cancel a key hearing in the Google Books case to allow private negotiations with Google over digitizing books online. Consumer Watchdog warned that important issues affecting copyright law should not be negotiated behind closed doors. Notice of the motion was filed in U.S. District Court today after the Department of Justice raised objections to the proposed Google Books deal late last Friday. The nonpartisan, nonprofit Consumer Watchdog had also filed an amicus brief opposing the settlement. A hearing was scheduled before Judge Denny Chin on Oct. 7, but the publishers and authors associations said they are negotiating a new deal with Google and claimed it would make no sense for a hearing until that is reached.

Bruce Chizen Joins Voyager Capital as Venture Partner

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:15:00 EDT

Well-known as CEO of Adobe Systems, Chizen transformed the company into one of the world's largest and most diversified software companies in terms of revenue, global reach and breadth of products. During his tenure, Chizen tripled revenue and transformed a company known mainly for its popular design products into one of the most significant forces in the software industry. Chizen also led the company's expansion into new markets, including the enterprise, knowledge worker and consumer.

From Cat Cay to Ft Lauderdale With Water Tornadoes in the Sky

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:45:00 EDT

From Cat Cay to Ft Lauderdale in 34 Minutes. Only after we land, we realize that we might have had a close call as we spot an ambulance waiting for our arrival on stand by.

Social Media Terrorists

Tue, 26 May 2009 08:00:00 EDT

"Mass psychology" scientists study this kind of phenomena and the "mass psychology of fascism" is of course the most famous lab case. The extraordinary experience SYS-CON Media lived through became part of a Forbes Magazine investigative cover story called "Attack of the Blogs" that found that "Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo." The lies, libel and invective we are living through today is another such episode. Our partners, readers and the industry in general know the facts and what's going on but in a rare example like the email below, we can't be sure if everyone is on the same page as the rest of us.

In Memory of Harvey Houtkin

Wed, 13 May 2009 23:00:00 EDT

In July 1999, a man opened fire and killed 22 people at a day trading office in Atlanta. The firm was owned by Harvey Houtkin and that was the first time I saw him - on CNN during the news coverage. That day I realized Harvey's office was located in Montvale, New Jersey, the town next to Pearl River, New York, where SYS-CON's headquarters were located.

Ulitzer’s Amazing First 30 Days in Public Beta

Fri, 01 May 2009 14:30:00 EDT

Even with these impressive first stats, Ulitzer users for the next 12 to 24 months will only be a fraction of the early adopters of tomorrow's social media tools. Ulitzer offers quality content under a managed environment. Google News keyword alerts are already contaminated with meaningless garbage largely due to its automated nature. Instant access to quality content will get more difficult as this erosion escalates. Sites such as Ulitzer will be the only answer to one-stop access to quality content on any subject.

Cisco Needs to Buy EMC to Own VMware

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 07:12:00 EDT

Cisco's January sales were down 20% from a year ago. Its customers are holding off their purchasing decisions under the current economic climate. The only growth potential the company has today is in the virtualization market, which is expected to increase by more than 40% in 2009.

The New White House and Old Ankara

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:15:00 EDT

As the countdown for President Obama's visit to Turkey approaches - a week from today - a recent headline in the news grabbed my attention this morning. “A week after resigning as CTO of the District of Columbia to become the first chief information officer of the United States of America under the Obama administration, the FBI raided the old D.C. offices of Delhi-born Vivek Kundra and arrested a couple of the guys who used to work for him in a ‘federal bribery sting,’ according to a story in the Washington Post.

I Would Have Loved to Join President Obama On His Trip to Turkey

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:00:00 EDT

Obama's stop in Turkey, announced last week in Ankara by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, partly fulfills Obama's pledge to engage the Muslim world in a substantive way within his first 100 days in office. But the president is not expected to use the Turkey visit to deliver his anticipated address on Islam, a speech he promised during his campaign to give in a Muslim capital soon after taking office.

Web 2.0 Is Dead. Long Live Web 2.0!

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:45:00 EST

As far as “Web 2.0 as a software business model” goes, I repeat my initial view from October, 2008 here. There is no longer Web 2.0 as a software business model, and there has never been one. Yes, there has been an attempt to initiate Web 2.0 as a software business model which finally crashed and burned in 2008, four years after the Web 2.0 kool-aid was declared and named by its creators and offered as the sacred solution to the software industry as the path to the software industry heaven. Now the followers of the never existing “Web 2.0 software industry” cult see themselves in a situation similar to many Wall Street companies.

Obama May Win by a Landslide: Thomas M. DeFrank

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:00:00 EDT

Also in the book, DeFrank writes about Ford's opinion of Bill Clinton's addiction to women. Ford says about Clinton: 'He's sick - he's got an addiction. He needs treatment. He's sick. You know there is treatment for this kind of addiction. A lot of men have gone through the treatment with a lot of success. But he won't do it, because he is in denial.' DeFrank saved his thoughts on the upcoming election in a separate speech, which he gavae the next day. 'If Obama wins, he will win by a landslide margin. If McCain wins, it will be a very small margin.' thinks DeFrank.

Web 2.0 Is Dead and Web 3.0 Is Five Years Away

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 09:30:00 EDT

As far as the software industry goes, these tough economic days give the biggest business advantage to those companies who contribute directly to the solution of the big global problem and they will be the first to flourish as we dig ourselves from the ditch. Call that the new Y2K problem of our times, and it won’t go away on a predetermined date, as the clocks hit midnight. And on top of this list comes three recession curing technologies: SOA, Virtualization, and Cloud Computing.

Summer of '99

Mon, 05 Apr 2004 00:00:00 EDT

The first time I read Mike Wilson's book, The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: *God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison, during the summer of 1999, technology IPOs and dot.coms were at their peak, not to mention Greenspan's irrational exuberance.

Welcome to JDJ, Again...

Thu, 08 Jan 2004 00:00:00 EST

With this January issue, JDJ is entering its ninth successful year of publication, and we have achieved this success by serving the most influential readers - like yourself - around the globe.

Success, Arrogance, Rise and Fall

Thu, 28 Oct 1999 20:30:00 EDT

Last week we were copied in on an internal e-mail from a software company with a market cap in excess of five billion dollars. As I read through this long e-mail thread, which included references to our company, I couldn't help but reflect on the past. I forwarded this e-mail to their CEO and he acknowledged its receipt. History is repeating itself, I realized, and I wanted to share my thoughts with our readers and with the CEO of this software company.