New and Updated Barcelona Boxes Debut from Sun
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

In an effort to expand its footprint in the X64 server space and use every advantage it can bring to bear on customer sales, server and operating system maker Sun Microsystems is this week officially rolling out an updated 'Galaxy' X64 server line based on the 'Barcelona' quad-core Opteron 2000 and 8000 series. The revamping of the Galaxy line includes three new machines, two of which are akin to existing designs already launched using Intel Xeon processors, as well as updates to two existing Galaxy products. READ MORE >

HP More Than Doubles Services Biz with EDS Acquisition
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

To say that Hewlett-Packard has wanted to be a powerhouse in IT services is a bit of an understatement. Almost straight out of the gate in 2000, then-new chief executive officer Carly Fiorina, the first non-HPer to run the company, tried to do a $17 billion deal with the IT consultancy arm of accountant PriceWaterhouse Coopers and failed, which IBM accomplished two years later with $3.5 billion just as HP had taken a left turn and acquired Compaq for $20 billion in 2001. The Compaq deal gave HP enterprise servers, storage, and some services. But nothing like the $13.9 billion acquisition this week of Electronic Data Systems. READ MORE >

Java Performance Is OS Agnostic on Power6 Gear
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Way back when, in the dawn of time--well, about a decade ago when IBM first caught the Java bug and decided that this would be the language of choice on its commercial servers and their operating systems--the software engineering teams in Rochester, Minnesota, and Toronto, Ontario, worked diligently to take advantage of the 64-bit addressing that OS/400 had and that many Unixes of the time lacked. The idea was simple: If Java was going to be the imposed lingua franca for future application development, then OS/400 would speak it fluently--and fast. READ MORE >

As I See It: Soothing the Savage Programmer
by Victor Rozek

Dr. Masaru Emoto has a gentle, curious face and a facile mind with which he probes the bumpy intersection of science and metaphysics. Using a dark-field microscope with photographic capabilities, he researches the effects of external factors on the molecular structure of water. Not just such obvious influences as pollution, but much more esoteric factors not commonly thought to possess substance-altering properties, such as thoughts, words, and music. READ MORE >