objects

ObjectDock rocks

Power Downloader and I have talked about how useful RocketDock can be, and it is still is. But another excellent program dock to check out is ObjectDock, from Stardock. Besides providing a skinable and extensively customizable Mac-style dock, the free ObjectDock lets users replace the Windows taskbar completely.

Colorful and animated, ObjectDock is so customizable it's impressive. Not only can you choose your own icons to represent programs and documents, set the dock size and location, and configure icon behavior, but you can also set the dock to run faster and take up more RAM, or sacrifice the gloss … Read more

Time runs out on Microsoft's SPOT watches

It's a sad day for fans of Smart Watches, which use Microsoft's once-hyped SPOT technology. The Smart Watch, the epitome of nerd chic, is dead.

Engadget picked up a blog post from Jon Canan, program manager for MSN Direct, who delivered the news on SpotStop.com: … Read more

Remote-controlled 'iBird' takes wing

Now here's a novel concept. We've seen all manner of objects take remote-controlled flight, from mosquitos and dragonflies to laser choppers and UFOs, but there's one that's been conspicuously overlooked: a bird.

Actually, it's an "iBird," to be exact (of course). Silverlit, which makes this winged avenger, says it simulates a bird's flight by using "realistic flapping wing movements" and is part of the "latest generation of RC flyers," according to GeekAlerts. That, at least, may be the case as long as it doesn't go anywhere near … Read more

SAP a long shot as stand-in for Yahoo

Correction at 10:07 a.m. PST on February 27: An earlier version of this report cited a source's claim that SAP added a change-of-control policy, aka a golden parachute for executives. An SAP representative said there is no such policy.

Microsoft investors, don't hold your breath that Redmond is about to dump its pursuit of hottie Yahoo and change its flirtatious stance with SAP into something more serious.

Sure, Microsoft and SAP have discussed a potential merger executive to executive for a number of years, but it's never risen beyond that level to be fully vetted by SAP's supervisory board, which would ultimately need to give its blessing for such a deal to get done, said one SAP insider.

"There's been small talk and we have walked around and flirted a bit, but it's never been a serious look," said the source.

And now, with various reports coming out that Microsoft should dump the Yahoo buyout bid, in favor of another deal, such as an SAP merger as one report noted in The New York Times, this source noted that Microsoft lost its chance to acquire SAP at a deep discount several years ago when it was cheap, cheap, cheap.

"Hasso (Plattner, co-founder) and the board have said if Microsoft wanted to buy us, they should have made an offer three or four years ago when we were so cheap," noted the source.

Indeed. SAP's stock currently trades around $28 a share, compared with roughly a third of that level back in 2003. … Read more

SAP's business user organization to move to Business Objects

SAP on Tuesday sent out a notice to employees that the deck chairs will be realigned following its megamerger with Business Objects, according to sources close to the company.

SAP's business user organization, which is responsible for information worker and organizational performance applications, will be moved over to Business Objects, the sources said.

In some ways, that should come as no surprise.

SAP, as part of its $6.8 billion Business Objects merger announcement in October, said Doug Merritt, the head of its Business User Development and a corporate officer, would join the Business Objects group and report to … Read more

Lamp levitates, but how?

The cool thing about this lamp is you don't have to play the slumber party classic Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board to get it to levitate. It does that on its own.

Or so promises Crealev, an Eindhoven, Netherlands-based company that specializes in levitating products. Designer Angela Jansen presented her creation during Dutch Design Week last week, and design blog MoCo Loco has posted a video of the lamp in action.

It's unclear just how the lamp, or other Createv products, such as the hovering Buddha, do what they do.

Createv will only say that … Read more

SAP acquires Business Objects: The big get bigger

This blog initially misstated what day SAP announced it would acquire Business Objects. It is Sunday.

If you're an enterprise looking for a choice of vendors, your choices just got constrained even further. Oracle has been the primary consolidating force in the industry, but SAP apparently wants to get in the consolidation game, as well. Sunday it announced the acquisition of Business Objects for $6.8 billion.

As Jason Maynard of Credit Suisse writes, this "validates Oracle's consolidation strategy. It will be interesting if this leads to even more SAP deals despite their longstanding assertion that Oracle's approach was flawed."

More interestingly, it also puts SAP on a collision course with Microsoft. Maybe this even means that SAP gets into the Sharepoint game?… Read more

SAP plans to acquire Business Objects

SAP announced Sunday afternoon it plans to acquire Business Objects in a cash deal valued at slightly more than $6.8 billion.

The acquisition, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008, is SAP's largest acquisition ever. The deal is especially noteworthy for SAP, which has tended to favor developing its own technology rather than acquiring it.

The acquisition of Business Objects, a leading player in business intelligence software, is designed to dovetail into SAP's previously announced plans to double its addressable market by 2010, said Henning Kagermann, SAP chief executive, during a press conference … Read more

Maintaining journalistic integrity while handling human remains

A reporter is sent on an unusual assignment. A distraught women claims to have a deceased man's scalp and the reporter has been chosen to cover the story. Upon his arrival, the teary-eyed women implores the reporter to take the man's remains to the coroner. It sounds like the plot for an episode of Picket Fences, but for police reporter Steve Lannen at the Herald-Leader in Kentucky this perplexing scenario was far more than just a plot device.

As reported by metro editor Peter Baniak for the Behind the Headlines blog:It was one of the strangest phone calls I've taken as metro editor at the Herald-Leader -- and I've taken plenty of odd phone calls over the years. The woman on the line was despondent because she said the county coroner had left her friend's scalp in wooded area along Newtown Pike. The man had died there, apparently under accidental circumstances, and the coroner had removed the rest of the body several days earlier. But the woman said a piece of her friend's scalp, including hair, had been left behind. Further, she said she couldn't get the coroner's office to come out and get it.… Read more