NextGeneration Computing

Next-Generation Computers
A New Breed in the Computer Biz
For the first time in years, hardware startups are trying to break into the market. Their gambit: Inexpensive special-purpose machines
Hardware Pioneers: The Next Generation
These outfits are developing machines designed to handle soaring Web traffic more quickly, cheaply, and efficiently than their predecessors do
Blade Servers: Beyond the Cutting Edge
Once used only for megacomputing functions, these compact powerhouses are now being designed and sold to all manner of businesses
A Peek at Tomorrow's Coolest Tech
Some of these gadgets could be out soon, while others are just concepts. However, all show we've got plenty to look forward to
Solving the Superspeed Dilemma
The next challenge is to build machines that can chew through real-world problems at speeds closer to these demons' theoretical limits
Predictions for PC Makers
Price wars will pressure profits among the big players, says S&P's Megan Graham-Hackett, who has a neutral outlook overall for the group

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Search, the Next GenerationA rash of specialized search engines may actually boost Google and Yahoo in the short term. But in the long run, it's another story
Wearable Computers You Can Slip IntoThe latest generation of these ever-smarter garments look like ordinary clothes, not something only a cyborg would don
Next Generation Game ConceptsDevelopers chime in on the role of licensed properties vs. original themes.

Cash pours in for student with $1 million Web idea

By Peter Graff Thu Dec 29, 1:04 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - If you have an envious streak, you probably shouldn't read this.
Because chances are, Alex Tew, a 21-year-old student from a small town in England, is cleverer than you. And he is proving it by earning a cool million dollars in four months on the Internet.
Selling porn? Dealing prescription drugs? Nope. All he sells are pixels, the tiny dots on the screen that appear when you call up his home page.
He had the brainstorm for his million dollar home page, called, logically enough, www.milliondollarhomepage.com , while lying in bed thinking out how he would pay for university.
The idea: turn his home page into a billboard made up of a million dots, and sell them for a dollar a dot to anyone who wants to put up their logo. A 10 by 10 dot square, roughly the size of a letter of type, costs $100.
He sold a few to his brothers and some friends, and when he had made $1,000, he issued a press release.
That was picked up by the news media, spread around the Internet, and soon advertisers for everything from dating sites to casinos to real estate agents to The Times of London were putting up real cash for pixels, with links to their own sites.
So far they have bought up 911,800 pixels. Tew's home page now looks like an online Times Square, festooned with a multi-colored confetti of ads.
"All the money's kind of sitting in a bank account," Tew told Reuters from his home in Wiltshire, southwest England. "I've treated myself to a car. I've only just passed my driving test so I've bought myself a little black mini."
The site features testimonials from advertisers, some of whom bought spots as a lark, only to discover that they were receiving actual valuable Web hits for a fraction of the cost of traditional Internet advertising.
Meanwhile Tew has had to juggle running the site with his first term at university, where he is studying business.
"It's been quite a difficulty trying to balance going to lectures and doing the site," he said.
But he may not have to study for long. Job offers have been coming in from Internet companies impressed by a young man who managed to figure out an original way to make money online.
"I didn't expect it to happen like that," Tew said. "To have the job offers and approaches from investors -- the whole thing is kind of surreal. I'm still in a state of disbelief."

SandHill.com | Finance | New VC Rules for On-Demand Software

New VC Rules for On-Demand Software: "
Expansion round specialists, Insight Venture Partners, provide their list of must-haves for investing in on-demand software companies.
Deven Parekh and Peter Sobiloff, Insight Venture Partners
Sep 23, 05
On-demand is the big game in software today.

We're bullish about the prospects for recurring-revenue software solutions. Whether you call them application service providers (ASPs,) on-demand vendors, or even a subset of software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, the opportunity is the same: a growing company with streamlined operations that provides a hosted, pay-as-you-go software solution which earns them a steady revenue stream, as well as a satisfied enterprise client base.

But not every software vendor can play successfully in this emerging field. We use a new set of criteria we use to analyze on-demand software vendors as VC investment opportunities.

The Potential for On-Demand
There is a new and emerging market for best-of-breed ASPs. The underlying business model shift away from perpetual licenses to recurring revenue will enable smaller vendors to compete and grow in today's world of software megavendors.

The recurring-revenue model has several advantages for customers. Turn-key implementation. Low maintenance efforts. Continued vendor attention. These advantages will spawn a host of vendors that offer today's enterprise applications via an ASP or recurring-revenue business model.

After these recurring-revenue vendors grow, you'll begin to see ASP rollups: on-demand vendors who team up to offer best-of-breed, on-demand suites of enterprise solutions.

You'll also see some vendors - Salesforce.com for example - emerge with a much bigger footprint in the "

SandHill.com | Finance | Consolidation? What Consolidation?

SandHill.com | Finance | Consolidation? What Consolidation?: "OPINION
Consolidation? What Consolidation?
Software industry insiders present their views on the long-anticipated Oracle-Siebel deal: what it means to product innovation, the CRM space, the health of the software industry - and whether it was a good deal in the first place.
M.R. Rangaswami, Sand Hill Group
Sep 16, 05
Finally. The Oracle-Siebel deal is done and the industry can stop speculating about it. Interestingly however, the deal seems to have woken some observers from a deep sleep. Consolidation has been going on for years. The latest deals - specifically Oracle's aggressive buys - have simply made the trend front page news.

But broader awareness of big software mergers is important in and of itself. The sense that young companies cannot make a go of it alone any longer, that they must find a 'Big Brother' to take them under their wing, dampens enthusiasm of many software executives and investors.

This is the wrong reaction. I would argue that innovation and opportunity continue to drive the software industry today - even in the face of these megadeals.

Innovation Continues to Power the Industry
Consolidation is most certainly accelerating. However there are major sectors which have yet to see any major mergers. Take middleware - or business intelligence. There are many small markets which continue to innovate and thrive.

Even in established software categories, innovation thrives. Look at Salesforce.com. NetSuite. These vendors operate in so-called mundane application areas but continue to grow rapidly and flourish at the same time consolidation is going on in their sector.

These upstarts and other vendors are succeeding by innovating - both product- and business model-wise - in areas where megavendors have weaknesses. T"