Archive for May, 2007

http://www.itjungle.com/tlb/tlb052907-story07.html

Remote customer support provided via modem was one of the big innovations that IBM brought out with the AS/400 back in the summer of 1988, and the idea continues to evolve as server platforms and networking technologies change.

Last week, IBM announced a free monitoring service to customers who buy its servers–that’s System i, System p, System x, System z, and BladeCenter–or its high-end DS8000 disk arrays. As long as the products are under IBM warranty or you have a maintenance agreement once the warranty has run out, you can use the Electronic Service Agent. This software is available for free and runs on the servers, and it monitors how the machinery is functioning and proactively calls IBM’s support centers when something looks like it might be heading toward a problem. The system back at IBM automatically creates a trouble ticket, searches the tech support knowledge base, appends documents for the tech rep, and dispatches a technician to your site if the situation warrants it.

Very cool, granted we might not necessarily enable it on all the IBM servers we have, but for those SMB’s or in the enterprise for particular key systems having the facility for IBM to remotely monitor the hardware could be an invaluable service, will need to check it out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6699561.stm

 …Shareholders’ groups said that the sale of LaSalle was designed to prevent RBS making a higher offer for the whole of LaSalle and so was not in their interests. The 38.40-euros-per-share proposed offer from the RBS consortium is made up of 30.40 euros cash plus 0.844 new RBS shares for each ABN share. The statement from the consortium also said that its offer would lead to fewer employees losing their jobs than under Barclays’ proposals….

…The consortium said that while it would prefer to agree a deal with ABN’s management, it would be prepared to make the offer directly to shareholders if necessary. RBS chief executive Fred Goodwin said he expected the offer to be put alongside Barclays’ offer in any shareholder vote. “All of the bids should go before shareholders, and they should allow shareholders to decide in an environment of having as level a playing field as can be,” he said. RBS shares were down 1.9% in London trading by lunchtime.

Barclays shares were 0.6% higher. In a letter to staff, Barclays chief executive John Varley said, “There is nothing surprising in today’s development and once I have had the opportunity to look at it carefully I’ll write to you again.” …

Very cool, wonder when the actual decision will be made, when the shareholders can meet, discuss the two deals and move forward with a choice of which one they feel presents the best value.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110131296431&ih=001&category=1484&ssPageName=STORE:PROMOBOX:ENDSOON#GALLERY

The Compaq ProLiant DL580 Generation 2 server is an enterprise class, 4-way server designed for environments that require maximum computing power and robust high availability features in a versatile, rack-optimized form factor.

Chris sent me this suggesting that you can never have too many computers - check it out, even if you paid £150 for it, plugged in some memory/disks and you’ve got a reasonable ESX development system, particularly if you’re wanting to prove the concept. It might even do as a consolidation tool for your existing systems, and with the extra memory board the memory support can be very high, plug in some disks or SAN and not a bad box for not a lot of money.

http://management.silicon.com/careers/0,39024671,39167222,00.htm

To mark National Work from Home (WFH) Day last Friday, the entire silicon.com editorial team decided to give the office a wide berth. No strangers to working from home, it should have been straightforward but with nobody at all in the office it turned out missing the daily commute can be both a blessing and a connectivity curse.

Working from home can be a life changing experience for the better, some people love the opportunity to manage their time as they want, others miss the contact, the day to day direct meeting, but it seems to be the way we’re heading for many roles. Do check out the article, its an interesting read.

http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=mergersNews&storyID=
2007-05-29T052731Z_01_WEA3216_RTRIDST_0_ABNAMRO-TAKEOVER-FORTIS-URGENT.XML

AMSTERDAM, May 29 (Reuters) - A consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L: Quote, Profile , Research) unveiled a bid for ABN AMRO (AAH.AS: Quote, Profile , Research) valued at 38.40 euros per share on Tuesday.

Consortium member Fortis (FOR.BR: Quote, Profile , Research)(FOR.AS: Quote, Profile , Research) said the banks planned to offer 30.40 euros in cash plus 0.844 new shares in RBS for each ABN AMRO share in an offer worth a total 71.1 billion euros ($95.7 billion).

The financial aspects of the RBS offer for ABN Amro, we’ll need to see what the response is to the ABN deal, we’ll need to see the market response later on today, as well as the ABN Amro one sometime soon.