buyglobesonline.com

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Update: Judging from the feedback, I’m a moron for not noting stock adjustment & dividend announcements prior to the bubble. At the risk of again letting the trolls change the subject, I ask again: Is Ellison worth nearly $193 million for the job turned in over the course of last year? I must have missed it when Oracle shares broke triple digits in 2007. Wait, they didn’t? No kidding. ‘I’m still rubbing my eyes in disbelief at anyone who thinks that this incredible compensation package makes sense based upon the company’s performance. If some folks still want to make that claim, whatever. There is no shortage of suck-ups to corporate greed. Anyway, I’m moving on.

And here I thought that court sycophancy died out with the demise of the ancient regime.

• May 4, 1998: $26.31

That might have been a good point of departure for a more searching conversation on wealth and power in America or a discussion about how society divides up its spoils. Instead, the post skims the surface. Lacy writes that “Ellison gets where software is going” and that “he also gets where the technology business is going.” Gee, with those credentials, I guess Oracle’s board was guilty of short-changing its CEO.

In Forbes’ annual list of top executive salaries, Oracle’s Larry Ellison finished in first place, with total 2007 compensation at $192.9 million. I’m sure it’s good to be the king. But just in case any jealous serfs are asking why this mere mortal is worth such a royal sum, here comes journalist Sarah Lacy to remind us Ellison “deserves to be one of the most highly paid CEOs in the Valley.”

• May 3, 2008: $21.50

• May 3, 2006: $14.32

Not the most impressive stock performance in memory. Of course, the intervening 10 years were marked by the dot-com bubble burst as well as the subsequent recession. But when the economy recovered, so did the stock market. Judge Oracle’s performance for what it is over the course of the last decade, but is the CEO really worth $192.9 million? You tell me.

• May 4, 2004: $11.35

More seriously, Ellison deserves fair compensation for his labors over the years. Of course, if you ask a dozen compensation experts what “fair” means, you’ll wind up with a dozen different answers. Boring blather about whether Ellison’s a sweetheart or someone who kicks pussycats is irrelevant. There’s a statistical benchmark to measure the CEO of a publicly traded company. So I went back in time to how Oracle’s shares fared over the last decade in two-year increments.

Just another working stiff.

• May 3, 2002: $8.43

• May 4, 2000: $37.12

I was surprised this has become public, but I suppose I should weigh in now that reports have filtered onto the blogosphere: It’s true. Google is in talks to buy my
car.

Nonetheless, with the equally odd acquisition rumor floating Wednesday that Google could acquire the travel site Expedia (now watch them actually do this and make me look like a yutz) and the rumor a few weeks back that Google was looking to acquire my parent company CNET Networks, I thought it was time I owned up to my own talks with the search king.

(Credit:
Subaru)

Sure, Google can buy a new Subaru. But my used Subaru is cheaper.

My discussions with Google to this point lead me to conclude that they are, in fact, kicking the tires on my 2003 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport. Google and its executives, who have invested in hybrid vehicles, lovely shuttle buses for employees, and a cool jet, recently discovered they also need four-wheel-drive vehicles that get decent gas mileage and can fit through a typically small garage door in San Francisco, where my vehicle has been housed since its acquisition from a Subaru dealership in Redwood City, Calif.

At the risk of impacting my talks with Google and drawing the ire of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, I’d like to point out what’s great about my Subaru: In addition to that decent gas mileage and ability to fit through a narrow garage door, it’s excellent in the snow and comes with a ski rack that can be modified to carry bicycles. It has a handy outside thermometer and is a perfect car for the typical Google employee who lives in the city but likes to do outdoorsy stuff on the weekends.

I was reluctant to discuss this for obvious reasons. These talks could break down at any time and there is no clear indication when they’ll be concluded and the final price could change dramatically before negotiations have completed.

But sales price appears to be the biggest sticking point. The Blue Book value on my car is roughly $11,000 and Google is holding firm. But based on recent tech deals, such as Microsoft’s investment in Facebook, I believe a fair asking price is $3.42 million. Larry Page, with whom I’m negotiating directly, has so far balked at this price, but I think when he sees that the oil-changing and tire-rotation record on this vehicle is outstanding, he’ll at least meet halfway.

Stay tuned. I’ll have more on these talks as they unfold. And yes, I’m kidding. But I wish we were kidding about the Expedia rumor. By the way, Expedia shares were up 4.32 percent to close at $25.13 per share on Wednesday’s news.

Google is hesitating for several issues: An unfortunate encounter with an automated car wash in 2004 left scratches on the front hood and my 4-year-old daughter’s penchant for grinding the remains of peanut butter-filled pretzels into the back seat upholstery has left little, dry sticky marks that won’t go away.

RenderMan suggests that people disable Wi-Fi when it is not in use and use VPNs and firewall software.

Many people don’t realize that new U.S. passports have RFID technology with weak encryption that makes the data on the chip easy to read with the proper reader device. (See related video below).

NEW YORK–Using a laptop, cell phone headset, building access badge, credit cards, or even a passport can make you a walking target for data thieves and other criminals, a security expert warned at the Last HOPE hacker conference here late Friday.

The U.S. government attempted to mitigate the privacy threat by putting a metal foil layer on the front and back cover of the passports, but the stiffness of the foil pops the passport open as much as an inch, wide enough for RFID readers to snatch the data, RenderMan said, showing a video to demonstrate this.

He advises that people change the default password, disable the Bluetooth on the phones, turn off the headsets when not in use, and limit access to the data and features when communicating with other Bluetooth devices.

RFID used in transit and building access badges has also been proven to be insecure, allowing someone to use an RFID reader to copy data off the card and make a clone of it, he said.

Even airplane passengers who either ignore stewardess requests to disable Wi-Fi or don’t know how to turn it off are not immune to attacks from others in the airplane, he added.

Security expert RenderMan discusses the insecurity of RFID chips, Bluetooth headsets and laptops using Wi-Fi at the Last HOPE hacker conference.

But doing willful damage to the passport is a crime, one attendee pointed out. “I fell, really hard,” RenderMan deadpanned.

Bluetooth headset users are at risk because of a security hole in the technology and default PINs that don’t get changed, he said. Exploiting vulnerabilities someone can break in and steal data from the phones, make calls without the cell phone owner knowing, listen in on and break into conversations, and even spy on people by turning the device into a bug.

In a frightening but entertaining session entitled “How do I Pwn Thee? Let me Count the Ways” (pwn is hacker speak for “own” or control), a hacker who goes by the alias “RenderMan” explained how most people are at risk and don’t even know it.

“There is no rule that says that if the chip doesn’t work, they will refuse you access to the border. You will get increased scrutiny, but it’s still a valid document,” he said. “So, liberal application of a hammer can negate a lot of the possible” problems.

Credit: CNET News Michael Aiello, president of DIFRwear, demonstrates at Last HOPE how easy it is to swipe the data off someone’s RFID-enabled credit card, building access badge, or passport from a few feet away. DIFRwear sells wallets and cases to protect cards from data thieves.

A security flaw in the Mifare Classic Chip used in transit systems is the subject of a court case in The Netherlands. The maker of the chip, NXP Semiconductors, sued to block a university from publishing details of the problems, but a court ruled on Friday that the research can be made public.

Even traditional keys are vulnerable, RenderMan said. For instance, photographs of spare keys for electronic-voting machines displayed on a Web page were used to make replicas with similar-looking keys, he said. A video demo showed how someone filed down a key from a hotel mini-bar and was able to open up the memory card slot of a Diebold voting system.

By now most people probably know they should be careful using Wi-Fi networks, especially public hotspots that don’t encrypt data transmissions and where network access points can be spoofed. These issues leave Web surfers at risk of having their data stolen, receiving fake Web pages and other information, and having their computers completely taken over, he said.

(Credit:
Elinor Mills/CNET News)

Some of BuddyMedia’s clients have included FedEx, Microsoft, Reebok, and Anheuser-Busch.

The company calls the creation “BuddyBrain,” and is gearing it toward clients who turn to BuddyMedia for “appvertising,” or branded apps designed specifically for product marketing. The data provided to clients–yes, arranged in the shape of a brain–provides statistics on installs, usage, and time spent per user; a feed of news and blog reports relevant to the brand and campaign; and documentation resources.

Facebook and other social networks typically provide a less extensive array of analytics to developers who have created applications on their platforms.

BuddyMedia, a New York-based start-up that develops social-network games as well as branded applications for clients, has launched a new product that tackles one of the challenges of social advertising: that it’s just plain difficult to tell how successful it is.

Early BuddyBrain stats, the company says, have come up with some numbers that conveniently support BuddyMedia’s own cause: that consumers are 75 times more likely to “interact” with a widget ad than a banner ad, that “appvertisements” average 140,000 installs in the first month of a campaign, and that 85 percent of social-network users who install a branded application will use it more than once.

“Many advertisers and marketers are becoming aware of the value in advertising through social media channels, but have yet to do so because of an inaccurate perception that no methods or tools exist to sufficiently measure the reach and success of a campaign,” CEO Michael Lazerow said in a statement. “We’ve spent the past few months developing the BuddyBrain to combat these very fears to both entice more brands to make the leap into social advertising and to better service our existing clientele.”

The company, which also continues to invest in fuel cell vehicles, recently began a lease program in Japan.

A joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic EV Energy plans to begin production of lithium ion batteries next year and move to full-scale production in 2010. Using the battery, Toyota plans to introduce a small electric vehicle for mass production.

The company on Wednesday said that the plug-in hybrid will be “geared toward fleet customers in Japan, (the) United States, and Europe.”

Toyota’s Prius, numbering a million sold, uses a nickel metal hydride battery. Lithium ion batteries, which are heavily used in consumer electronics, are being built into an upcoming generation of hybrid-electric and plug-in hybrid
cars.

Later in the month, Toyota plans to establish a research-and-development center for next-generation batteries that outperform lithiom ion batteries.

Toyota Motor plans to produce lithium ion batteries next year for a plug-in hybrid vehicle available in 2010.

Toyota disclosed on Wednesday its plug-in hybrid production plans at a company-sponsored environmental forum in Tokyo, where it outlined its greenhouse gas reduction and clean-technology plans.

In addition to selecting products, Popular Mechanics is honoring people as well.

This year’s winners include tech that lets you read books on a thin, digital device, see all around your
car as you park, and explore outer space through your imagination.

Intel’s Atom processor. Microprocessor powerhouse Intel has built a low-power chip designed to give high-performance capabilities to mobile devices and light laptop computers.

(Credit:
Popular Mechanics)

CBS Early Show video
Glenn Derene, senior technology editor at Popular Mechanics, talks about the top
technological inventions of 2008 with Harry Smith and Julie Chen of CBS.

This year’s awards go to these 10 products:

And for Ward, what is the most rewarding part of the annual project?

“I think I’m a very good generalist and a pretty good journalist,” Ward said of the challenge of having to understand so many different kinds of science and technology. “I bring my curiosity to the table. I ask a lot of questions…And I’m honest about my limitations. If something comes across my desk and I don’t understand it, I’ll reserve judgment about it until I do.”

Logan Ward, a contributing editor at the magazine, said that he and a team of fellow researchers scour the country looking for 30 to 40 candidates that are then winnowed down to the eventual 10 winners. The magazine also identifies 10 individuals for special innovator, leadership, and future-looking awards.

The M-Spector Digital Inspection Camera, from Milwaukee Tools. This device is designed to give people trying to do home repairs a way to see behind walls without cutting holes first. It features a 17-mm-wide 2x zoom lens and a 2.5-inch LCD. It costs $259.

The Caroma Profile dual flush toilet. This system pipes gray water from a bathroom’s sink into the toilet’s tank, cutting down on water wastage.

Of course, given that Ward’s efforts take him through a wide variety of science- and technology-related fields, he has had to develop competencies in an equally wide spectrum of disciplines.

The Craftsman Nextec Multi-saw. The well-known toolmaker is giving buyers a combination jigsaw and reciprocating saw. It is powered by a 12-volt lithium-ion battery that can drive the unit to cut in a variety of places difficult to reach by any single tool.

Photosynth, from Microsoft, is a software application that creates 3D models by analyzing a series of individual photographs. The resulting model is browsable.

The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen. This pen-size device allows its owner to take notes on special paper while simultaneously recording audio. Later, by tapping on a specific section of notes on the paper, users can get a playback of that section of audio. It can also perform simple language translation as well as other functions.

Popular Mechanics magazine will unveil on Wednesday its Breakthrough Awards, the publication’s annual celebration of the brightest innovators and innovations.

“A combination of talking to all of these really incredible people,” he said. “People who are at the top of their game, but people who also care about others, people who are trying to solve some of these problems we read about in the headlines. So I always get a sense of hope at the end of this project. You know, there are people out there making a difference.”

Amy Smith won the Breakthrough Leadership Award. Smith, a senior lecturer at MIT, was cited by the magazine for research into water purification and both boosting the quality of medical care and reducing daily work burdens of rural women. Popular Mechanics said, “she is leading a movement to tackle complex problems with simple technology.”

The Around View monitor from Nissan’s Infiniti division is designed to give drivers a 360-degree view around their cars while parking and backing up. The system features a series of ultra-wide-angle high-resolution cameras that produced images that are aggregated to give the driver a top view of the car and the area around it. It is hoped that the monitor will save lives, especially those of children, who are difficult to see from inside a car, especially when they are behind a vehicle while a driver is backing up.

The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen records audio as a user takes notes on special paper. This allows the user to later tap on a particular point in his or her notes and hear an instant playback of that section of the recording.

Rudy Roy, Ben Sexon, Daniel Oliver, and Charles Pyott are the co-winners of the Next Generation award. Recent graduates of Caltech and the Art Center College of Design, the four have made names for themselves with a technique that makes wheelchairs for residents of developing countries out of inexpensive bicycles. One major benefit of their innovation is that the wheelchairs can be repaired in any bike shop, unlike normal chairs.

“The thing that’s most important in looking at all these tech advances,” said Ward, “is what is its impact…So when we evaluate innovations, we really look at how it’s going to change people’s lives for the better.

Potenco’s PCG1 power generator. This user-driven device allows anyone to power up small devices like mobile phones with their hands. Pulling on the unit’s cord for two minutes provides 40 minutes of power-up.

(Credit:
Popular Mechanics)

The Around View Monitor, from Nissan’s Infiniti division, is designed to give drivers a 360-degree view of their car while parking. The monitor was among the 10 products that won a ‘Popular Mechanics’ 2008 Breakthrough Product Award.

(Credit:
Popular Mechanics)

All in all, though, Ward’s journey through the best innovations of each year leaves him “with a sense of awe at how technology really can improve our lives.”

Spore, from Electronic Arts. The long-awaited evolution game from famous designer Will Wright tasks players with evolving from single-cell muck to outer space, with stops along the way as individual creatures, small tribes and city-size civilizations.

Amazon.com’s Kindle. An e-book reader from the famous online bookseller, the Kindle allows people to read books, newspapers, and other documents on a thin, light digital device. It has been panned by some, while others have written rapturously about it. Either way, it is sparking innovation in e-readers.

To identify the potential candidates, Ward and his team contact most of the country’s research institutions, including universities, engineering organizations, robotics labs, government labs.

Microsoft’s Photosyth. This free software from Microsoft allows people to create a browsable 3D model based on a series of related photographs. The software stitches the pictures together, creating the model based on overlapping elements of the images.

So does Ethernet conquer all? Maybe. Someday. A lot happens someday. InfiniBand may not ever markedly expand on the sorts of roles that it plays. But 10 GbE is far from ready to take over when latency has to be lowest and bandwidth has to be highest.

I don’t remember all the details of that past InfiniBand event but it filled a decent-sized hall at the Mandalay Bay and was followed by a party that took over the hotel’s “beach” on a balmy Vegas evening.

By way of background, InfiniBand was one of the hot technology properties of the pre-bubble-bursting days. It was touted as a better (faster, more efficient) way to connect servers than the ubiquitous Ethernet. Its more vocal backers, of which there were many, went so far as to position it as a “System Area Network”–a connective fabric for data centers. A whole mini-industry of silicon, software, host bus adapter, and switch vendors supported InfiniBand. One sizable cluster resided in Austin, Texas, but there were many of them scattered around the U.S. and elsewhere–to say nothing of significant InfiniBand initiatives at companies such as IBM and Intel.

In October of 2000, I hopped a Las Vegas-bound flight to attend a developers’ event being thrown by the InfiniBand Trade Association.

One also finds InfiniBand technology beneath the covers in a variety of products. Among other products, a variety of blade chassis use InfiniBand in their backplanes. This may not exactly be InfiniBand the standard, but it is InfiniBand the technology. And this type of use contributes to InfiniBand component volumes–which tends to drive down prices.

Given that I’ve been following InfiniBand since its early days, this seems like a good opportunity to reflect on where InfiniBand stands today and where it may be going.

In short, although 10 GbE will certainly emerge as an important component of data center infrastructures, lots of technical work (and political battles) remain.

But, what of 10 Gigabit Ethernet? Isn’t it inevitable that 10 GbE will replace InfiniBand? Indeed, most InfiniBand component suppliers, such as Mellanox, are covering their bets by embracing both technologies.

As with another Big “I” technology, Intel’s Itanium processor, it’s tempting to glibly dismiss InfiniBand as a failure because it failed to live up to early (probably unrealistic) hopes and promises. In fact, InfiniBand now dominates performance sensitive connections between servers in HPC. It’s largely taken the place of a plethora of competing alternatives, most notably Myricom’s Myrinet and Quadrics’ QsNet. Plain old Gigabit Ethernet has successfully held onto its position of default data center interconnect and FibreChannel has remained the default for storage area networks. But InfiniBand has actually been quite successful at establishing itself as the standard interconnect for optimized clusters.

But 10 GbE, after many years in development, remains in early days. Costs are still high.  The converged 10 GbE that is most relevant to InfiniBand’s future sometimes called “Data Center Ethernet” isn’t even a single thing. It’s at least six different standards initiatives from the IEEE and IETF (not including the related FibreChannel over Ethernet efforts). In many cases, 10 GbE will also require that data centers upgrade their cable plant to optical fiber.

Last week, I attended another InfiniBand event, Techforum ‘08. It was also in Las Vegas. More modest digs at Harrah’s reflected that InfiniBand hasn’t exactly lived up to those past hopes. However, the fact that there even was a TechForum ‘08 also reflects that InfiniBand is still with us–primarily as a server connect for high performance computing (HPC) applications where low latency and high bandwidth are especially important.

“Microsoft is not buying Yahoo for one quarter’s performance or two. They’re buying it for the strategic advantage they hope to get over the long-term,” said the portfolio manager.

And while many Wall Street and Microsoft-Yahoo observers are anticipating that Yahoo’s first-quarter earnings report on Tuesday will be the catalyst to prompt either party to move the deal forward, others are not so sure.

The thinking goes that if Yahoo hits the high-end of its reconfirmed revenue range and gives a rosy outlook, Microsoft may be willing to increase its bid and do a friendly deal. And if Yahoo comes in at the low-end of the range, the Internet pioneer will need to suck it up and sit at the negotiating table without any beforehand wink or nod from Microsoft that it will raise the bid.

Microsoft has refused to consider raising its bid and “bidding against itself,” unless Yahoo engages in formal merger talks. Meanwhile, Yahoo has refused to open its books until it gets some signal that Microsoft would be willing to raise its offer, according to sources.

In general, if one-third of investors votes are against a deal, it can be very difficult to win approval of a merger. But it is not necessarily impossible, said one proxy solicitor, who requested anonymity. The proxy solicitor also noted that while investors may indicate that they may vote one way, it does not always translate into how they actually vote when the time comes.

Microsoft has threatened to launch a proxy fight and exchange offer, should Yahoo refuse to enter formal merger talks and conclude a deal by this weekend.

But proxy solicitors and some investors do not believe that the first-quarter results, should they remain in Yahoo’s estimated range, will have a bearing on how Microsoft and Yahoo will react–even if they are on the high or low side of the range.

The software giant launched its unsolicited buyout bid for Yahoo on Feb. 1, valuing the cash-stock deal at $31 a share. Yahoo later rejected the offer as undervaluing the company and only last month ended its “radio silence” and began informal merger talks with Microsoft.

“I’m not dying to sell at $29, which is where the deal is priced at now, or even $31 (the deal value at the time of the initial offer). I’m pretty happy to own Yahoo. And I know that if Microsoft doesn’t get it now, it’ll come back a year from now because it needs Yahoo,” said one portfolio manager, who also owns a sizable stake in Microsoft and who requested anonymity.

That figure does not include the more than 12 percent stake that Yahoo officers and directors held, as of the company’s last proxy filing in April last year. Add that number into the mix and nearly one-third of Yahoo’s shares, at a minimum, would likely oppose a Microsoft effort to unseat Yahoo’s current board of directors via a proxy war.

Winning the hearts of investors is key to any successful merger, friendly or not, and in a proxy fight, the game becomes even more crucial. (For full coverage, see “Microsoft’s big bid for Yahoo.”)

Without increasing its bid above $31 a share, a Microsoft proxy fight is likely to be a tough sell among at least one-fourth of Yahoo’s institutional investors, say portfolio managers.

While existing Web sites are most certainly not designed to be projected on walls or domes, nor shared by multiple stand-up viewers at the same time, the technology is very promising for the future of interactive media. The more of these displays get out there, the more designers will emerge to create immersive and creative applications that use them.

Obscura Digital produces interactive video and online installations. I got a tour of the company’s studio recently from its CEO, Patrick Connolly.

No surpirse: I like what Obscura is trying to do. It’s taking what we generally think of as boxed-in displays–Web pages, videos–and projecting them into our environments.

As you can see in the video, the company also has technology to make its installations interactive.

(Credit:
Rafe Needleman/CNET Networks)

At the moment, Obscura does not make a consumer version of its technology, and there are no public installations of it. But Connolly told me his company is working on a consumer setup.

Obscura builds installations on contract for companies that want to make big impressions. Reactrix, though, buys rights to install its displays in public venues and then sells advertising programs for those locations.

While the financial upside on that billboard model is potentially higher, the risk is also much greater, since Reatrix pays rent on its setups even when it doesn’t have income to offset it. Obscura, in contrast, doesn’t do anything for free.

Obscura’s core technology is its capability to map high-resolution, full-motion video to any surface a projecter can reach, and to manipulate it in real time. If you want to project a cutaway of a
car’s working innards onto the car itself, call Obscura.

As a business, Obscura has a better model than other interactive marketing and advertising companies like Reactrix.

See also:
Gates demos TouchWall computer
Asus takes user interface to the next level

The company also makes much smaller domes, sized for individuals playing computer games.

In addition to the demo of updated multitouch video wall (see video), I sat inside the 30-foot-diameter dome that Obscura can project anything on to. It’s been used to sell as yet unbuilt real estate, to wow VIPs during events at Google, and to pitch products for AOL and Pioneer at trade shows. Think of it as a new-tech planetarium, but one that projects primarily marketing imagery.

A rack of FireFrame image processing units.

Marrying existing commercial projection technology with a wide-angle lens and software on a laptop that lets users easily tell the system where walls and ceilings are, it will be able to project any video, computer display, or static scene into any reasonably sized room. The software will keep straight lines straight even when they’re projected across crazy angles.

If you have a club or restaurant, though, and want to set up a permanent installation, you’ll need to grab some heavy-duty projectors and one or more of the company’s FireFrame image processor engines to drive them. Each is good for projecting a 4000×4000 pixel image.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, that probably means re-investing in XP and forgetting its “New Coke” moment with Vista.

The numbers don’t get much better for Vista in 2009: 24 percent (compared with 29 percent for XP). That’s a big step up from 8 percent, but is it a sign of momentum to come or just a temporary stopgap while developers wait until Windows 7?

Such appreciation for history is not likely to warm the cockles of Microsoft’s heart, especially when Linux is getting lots of love from developers (13 percent writing apps for it this year and 15.5 percent in 2009). The
Mac? I don’t have any equivalent data via Evans Data. But the Mac OS has rocketed by 380 percent as a targeted development platform, Evans Data told Computerworld.

Indeed. Microsoft doesn’t need to handicap itself on the desktop given its difficulties competing everywhere else. With Linux and the Mac taking ever-increasing shares of the developer pie, Microsoft would do well to shore up developer support for Windows.

And to think Microsoft used to be popular with the developer crowd…

Unfortunately, that improved security posture makes it more difficult for developers to write applications for Vista (read: no more kernel-level access and UAC to worry about), and it also causes compatibility problems with older applications. Ironically, the wave of attacks targeting operating system vulnerabilities has largely passed, and today hackers have moved on to target applications. At the same time, Microsoft has provided iterative improvements in Windows XP security, bolstering its status as “good enough” and further eating into Vista’s pie.

Not anymore. A recent report from Evans Data shows fewer than one in 10 software developers writing applications for
Windows Vista this year. Eight percent. This is perhaps made even worse by the corresponding data that shows 49 percent of developers writing applications for Windows XP.

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Nor has Microsoft made it easy to develop Vista applications, according to an article in ITJungle.com: