concordiacssa.com

Update at 10:45 p.m. with additional information throughout.

Responding to “business realities,” Nvidia is cutting its workforce by over six percent.

Nvidia, the world’s largest graphics chip supplier, on Thursday announced a workforce reduction of 6.5 percent “to allow for continued investment in strategic growth areas,” the company said in a statement. “As a result, Nvidia expects to eliminate approximately 360 positions worldwide, or about 6.5 percent of the company’s global workforce.”

The company expects to record restructuring-related charges of approximately $7 million to $10 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2009 in connection with the reduction. These pre-tax charges are comprised of severance and related expenses and are expected to be charged primarily against NVIDIA’s operating expenses, the company said.

Derek Perez, an Nvidia spokesman, said this is related to a discussion in its second quarter 2008 earnings conference call “about how the business outlook has changed dramatically from what we thought it was going to be at the beginning of the year.”

“Our action today is difficult, but necessary considering current business realities. Despite our reduction, we will
continue to invest in selective high-growth opportunities like our revolutionary CUDA parallel computing
technology and our Tegra mobile single-chip computer,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia in a statement.

Nvidia has been in the throes of a minor stock meltdown. On July 2, Nvidia announced a one-time charge of $150 million to $200 million to cover warranty, repair, return, replacement costs connected to weak die/packaging material in laptop graphics chip products. Then on Thursday, July 3, shares plunged $5.54, or just over 30 percent, and closed at $12.49. And share prices have continued to fall–though how much of the post-30-percent drop can be attributed to the weak stock market is not clear.

Both Dell Computer and Hewlett-Packard have issued advisories, workarounds, and, in some cases, extended warranties to deal with potential computer breakdowns related to the Nvidia graphics glitch.

Nvidia has also faced stiffer competition from its main rival, the ATI graphics unit of Advanced Micro Devices. ATI’s newest midrange and high-end graphics boards–launched in June–were well-received and typically priced at a discount, though roughly equal in performance to Nvidia boards. This forced Nvidia to cut prices on its performance graphics chips.

The workforce reduction is expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2009 ending October 26, 2008. Nvidia said it will provide employees affected by this reduction with severance packages, counseling, and job
placement services.

Correction:
This post misstated Andy Schuon’s former title. He was CEO of Universal Music Group’s International Music Feed.

MySpace employees are busy putting the finishing touches on the social network’s upcoming music service, expected to launch later this month. One important chore, however, remains conspicuously incomplete.

MySpace Music is officially rudderless. A six-month search for a CEO has been unsuccessful and now, the service is expected to debut without a chief in place, say three music industry sources. MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe is in charge on an interim basis.

If the service is successful, meaning it offers lots of good, cheap (read: free) music, the public is unlikely to care that MySpace Music was missing a CEO. But if the site stumbles, look for critics to jeer the company for a lack of leadership. Whoever is hired, it’s doubtful the service can generate much interest unless it trots out someone poached from iTunes, or maybe Amazon.

(Credit:
MySpace)

Those are the only companies that can claim success at selling music online on a large scale. If MySpace could lure away one of Apple’s guys, then at least it could point to a proven winner.

MySpace has to get this music service right. While Facebook has already elbowed past it as the world’s largest social-networking site, one area where MySpace continues to dominate is music. The site has become the online equivalent of Soul Train or American Bandstand, a digital stage where musicians flock to showcase their talents.

Music has helped MySpace stay relevant with younger audiences at a time when Facebook holds an edge in the cool factor.

Meanwhile, Facebook hasn’t shown a lot of interest in challenging MySpace in music. Other competitors have. Sites, such as iMeem, have attracted users by offering free streaming music for more than a year.

So who is MySpace Music supposed to turn to for help?

The company has already interviewed a slew of execs from both the digital side as well as music industry old timers. Andy Schuon, the former CEO of Universal Music Group’s International Music Feed and past president of CBS Radio (CBS is parent company of CNET News.com), is being considered for the job along with a long list of others, said two music industry sources.

Schuon could not be reached Wednesday.

Hiring an old-school music suit to run a digital shop hasn’t met with much success. But is MySpace supposed to hire some Silicon Valley guy with maybe a couple of so-so music start-ups under his belt? Who among that crowd has a winning record?

The Deal reported last month that several execs with Internet experience were offered the job and turned it down, including former AOL executive Jim Bankoff, BigChampagne chief executive Eric Garland, and Benchmark Capital entrepreneur-in-residence Dave Goldberg, who also helped guide Yahoo Music.

Tough job
The delay in finding a chief executive also raised the question about whether running MySpace’s music service is all that attractive.

When it’s fully operational, MySpace Music is expected to offer free streaming music, unprotected MP3 downloads, ringtones, and e-commerce offerings such as merchandise and ticket sales. The site is well heeled with backers that include Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., and the three largest recording companies. The new chief won’t have to oversee a new download service as Amazon is expected to supply the infrastructure for that.

But all that firepower may be part of the problem.

Will the CEO be expected to answer to Universal Music Group, as well as to Murdoch? All of the stakeholders will hold a seat on the board, which met for the first time recently.

Said one person who was interviewed for the job and turned it down; “It’s a case where there might be too many masters.”

Perhaps, the least attractive part of the job is that whoever gets it will be charged with dethroning Apple CEO Steve Jobs as the grand poo-bah of digital music.

Note to future MySpace Music CEO: Don’t be frightened. Forget that MySpace has almost no experience in music retail or must compete against
Apple’s iPod without possessing any significant hardware partnership (that’s a trick statement as there isn’t any significant hardware in music besides the iPod).

If you lose, the bright side is MySpace Music will join other marquee heads on Apple’s trophy wall–right alongside Microsoft, MTV, Sony, Yahoo, RealNetworks, and Wal-Mart.

A mashup that combines business social networking and comapny organization charts.

At its annual Lotusphere conference, IBM on Wednesday showed off an early version of Lotus Mashups, a tool designed to let businesspeople, rather than professional programmers, quickly assemble Web applications.

IBM first started with end user-driven software development when it introduced QEDWiki two years ago, a product with a similar goal.

These Web applications may be relatively simple and only be used for a short time. But IBM executives have said that it represents a significant business opportunity for its Lotus collaboration software division.

Heintzman said he thought it could be possible that in the future, IT departments will analyze the applications created by end users and “harden” them for broader deployment within companies.

Updated at 9:15 AM PT with comments from IBM. Screen shots added.

The application will let people combine, or mash up, data from enterprise applications and the Web. It uses a browser-based visual tool and a set of pre-built widgets for displaying information.

Last year at Lotusphere, IBM introduced other products inspired by Web 2.0-style consumer applications, including Lotus Connections, social-networking software for businesses.

A mashup that combines mapping and storm-related information with an inventory system.

IBM has been pursuing the idea of giving end users in businesses powerful enough tools to build their own applications.

Lotus Mashups will use the QEDWiki technology, which IBM’s Emerging Technology group first developed, but it will be a separate commercial product, said Doug Heintzman, director of strategy for IBM’s collaboration technologies.

(Credit:
IBM) “We want to push the potential of mashups into the business domain,” Heintzman said. “We expect to put forward no only catalogs of widgets but catalogs of mashups.”

For example, a person could build a mashup that combines weather information with a retail management system to adjust inventories based on project weather patterns.

(Credit:
IBM) It is scheduled to be released in the middle of this year.

(Credit: Garlik) In this new age of “radical transparency,” British firm Garlik has unveiled a new way to gauge popularity on the internet. The “QDOS” digital status rating system factors in how many times a person’s name appears in a search, as well as a person’s popularity, impact, and activity, among other criteria. Garlik’s system plays on the phenomenon of “vanity searches:” googling” and comparing oneself to others. I couldn’t resist the temptation: My QDOS score is Q3176 — that’s less than Nelson Mandela (Q6624) and Woody Allen (Q7764) but more than “Home and Away” star Paul O’Brian (Q2929). Yay! Other interesting comparisons: Pope Benedikt (Q6889) scores higher than the Dalai Lama (Q5749). And Barack Obama (Q9983) trails Ron Paul (Q10233)…

Of course “marketing by proxy” isn’t really a new thing as marketers have always partnered with other “proxy” third-party services to move into markets where they had only limited expertise and brand elasticity. And yet, what’s new is that marketers seem to become more aggressive in marketing the proxy product itself. Proxy and actual product are often under one and the same corporate roof, and the boundaries between them are blurring. Smart marketers think of proxy strategies as win-win’s, designing the proxy product to ideally become its own profit center.

Another recent example of this strategy is Ideablob, the much hyped crowdsourced idea-sharing site, which essentially is a proxy service run by Advanta, one of the largest credit card companies in the US. DEMO judged: “By providing the more than 25 million small business owners in the U.S. with an interactive environment for advice, counsel, and idea exchange, Advanta is defining the power of community in its truest sense.” Ideablob touts itself as “a place to grow your ideas” but it may in fact be a means to grow Advanta’s client base.

Garlik plans using its system to eventually guide people into investing in identity protection services. This is an interesting strategy that we will see more often: creating a service as a value-added teaser to in fact market another, commercially more viable service. Let’s dub this “proxy marketing.” Want to promote a product? Launch another (free) product! That way, you build awareness, goodwill, and a community of users that you can then implicitly educate on the value proposition of your actual offering. Sooner or later, they’ll be ready to open their wallet.

(Credit: Ideablob)

Beyond this, the Kombi Freeform features a textured nylon shell with leather reinforcement and the lining is Accu-Dri (no-stink and wicks moisture away). Though polar bear warm it is doesn’t feel at all bulky.

I had never worn Kombi gloves or mittens before now. They are exceptional. Each of the gloves or mittens we reviewed were distinct from the others we reviewed from the other brands, reflecting innovative thinking in what a glove should be. I’d highly recommend any of these three models.

Though less flashy, the Kombi Freeform Glove (MSRP: $100) has some interesting tricks up its sleeve. Two, to be exact. That is, two sleeves.

Kombi Freeform Glove

Take the Kombi iRip, for example. This is one of the absolute coolest gloves I have ever seen…or heard. The Kombi iRip lets you control your
iPod from your glove. It’s completely wireless so that you don’t have to fumble for your iPod on the chairlift…only to watch it topple into the snow.

I loved the little touches to this one, as well. The hidden pocket that lets you put in handwarmers (though I can’t imagine needing one). The super-soft fleece cuff. And, of course, that ever-useful nosewipe fabric on the thumb.

It works with a wide range of iPods, though I couldn’t get it to work with my iPod Video. (It worked flawlessly with every other iPod we tried, however, so I’m blaming my iPod on this one.) You simply plug the wireless transmitter into your iPod, tuck it away, and go. There is nothing like slamming the moguls to Jane’s Addiction (”Mountain Song,” anyone?), turning it up on the way down without anything more than nudging the iRip’s “joystick.”

Kombi iRip Glove

The Kombi iRip kept the other three reviewers toasty warm…but left my fingers a little cold. Remember, though, that I’m a bit of an anomaly here so unless you have a history of freezing fingers this glove should be plenty warm for you. It’s made of stretch nylon with X-Loft insulation, a Waterguard waterproof membrane, and Accu-Dri lining (meaning, the lining wicks moisture away from your hands which keeps you dry…and keeps the glove from smelling). This glove is worth its price ($150).

commentary

The Kombi Freeform features Gore’s 2-in-1 technology and includes two chambers. (Meaning: You can slide your hand into one of two chambers.) One chamber isn’t as warm but gives you an incredible grip. The other is fully insulated and kept even my circulation-poor hands toasty warm. (The other reviewers even found the minimally insulated “grip” chamber plenty warm.) This is the perfect glove to use throughout the season: use the “grip” chamber for Spring skiing and the insulated chamber through the colder months.

Very, very cool.

The last glove we reviewed was actually not a glove at all: it’s the Kombi Phoenix Mitten (MSRP: $80). As noted above, I’ve worn mittens for years but this one was different: it’s very lightweight, making it easy to grip, yet super warm (due to a Goose Down insulation and a GoreTex lining).

I like the added control that gloves give me, however, so I was excited to try out three different gloves from Kombi Sports. Of the different brands we reviewed, Kombi’s gloves may well go farthest in seriously pushing the envelope in technology and design.

While ski technology has dramatically improved over the years, there’s one area that still leaves me cold: gloves. I have very poor circulation in my hands, resulting in freezing hands unless I wear mittens.

The Kombi gloves also include nice touches like the nose wipe (Sounds funny until you’re on the slopes and then you discover what a necessity this little bit of fabric technology is…) and a generally lightweight feel without offering lightweight protection from the cold.

Kombi Phoenix Mitten

Dmitry Gryaznov

A decade ago there was no Facebook, no
iPhone, and no
Conficker. There was dial-up and AOL and a nasty virus called Melissa that ended up being the fastest spreading virus at the time.

CNET News talked to Dmitry Gryaznov, a senior research architect at McAfee Avert Labs who was among the researchers who worked to fight the Melissa outbreak and track down the creator.

Corrected March 31 with proper spelling of Gryaznov’s name.

(Credit:
Dmitry Gryaznov)

(Credit:
Dmitry Gryaznov)

Q: How was Melissa discovered?
Gryaznov: Avert as a whole discovered it as did some of the competitors. It was submitted to us by customers as it started to spread around the world (on March 26, 1999).

How long did the outbreak last?
Gryaznov: Several days, but the infections continued to be registered for a long time after that. It was just a macro virus and we were well equipped to provide detection and removal for people’s computers even then…The fact that it was so widespread in the world already meant it took a long time to remove the infections.

Security researcher Dmitry Gryaznov as he looked in 1999 when he was chasing down the creator of the Melissa virus for McAfee Avert Labs.

What made Melissa different from previous viruses?
Gryaznov: It was the first mass-mailing virus, which used e-mail to spread on a large scale.

How many computers were affected and what did the virus do?
Gryaznov: Hundreds of thousands of computers were affected. That’s a guess…Melissa infected other documents a user opened in Microsoft Word. It also connected to Outlook if it was running and selected 50 entries in the address book and e-mailed an infected document to those addresses…including mailing lists…As a result, the virus was sent not just to 50 people, but to thousands of people easily. We didn’t have any firm numbers to go by, but we did have reports from customers saying their Exchange servers were overwhelmed.

How did the virus writer get caught?
Gryaznov: I was running, actually still am, a project called Usenet Virus Patrol, which scans Usenet articles for viruses. The author of Melissa posted the virus to a newsgroup called “alt.sex.” It was zipped up and sent as if it was a list of passwords to like 80-something different porno sites…It was just bait to entice people into downloading it and opening it. Once it was opened, it started e-mailing itself around. It was relatively easy to go back and find the exact Usenet posting that started all this. In the header of the posting it was possible to find out not only the e-mail address from which it was sent but also the IP address of the computer from which it was sent. That IP was linked to an AOL account and from that the FBI subpoenaed AOL and they provided the dial-in logs…and found out what computer was assigned that IP address and from what telephone number the call was made. The AOL account was a compromised one…The phone call that used that account came from New Jersey and the FBI linked the phone number to a particular address. That is how they found the guy’s computer…The data we provided them was the clue that led straight to the criminal. (David L. Smith pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 months in prison and $5,000 in fines.)

Any comments on Conficker and Melissa and how far we’ve come?
Gryaznov: Conficker is a completely different type of thing. It’s not a macro virus. It’s an executable and a botnet, and it downloads lots of stuff on your computer. It’s basically a network for sale. It can be rented out. It can be used for password stealing. Back in 1999 there wasn’t such a thing as a business model for malware…Today, big money is involved in computer malware. You cannot even compare them.

What was the motivation behind Melissa?
Gryaznov: There was no material gain. Back then, people didn’t do it for money. They did it for mischief, for fame…Today there is huge money in computer crime…Back then, we had 200 times fewer pieces of malware than we have today.

What harm did the virus do?
Gryaznov: In some cases the load on the e-mail servers in some organizations was so high that the servers were effectively shut down.

A correction was made to this story. Read below for details.

(Credit:
iFixit / TechRepublic)

And it’s going to get worse. The Netbook’s cousin-to-be, the cheap ultraportable, is going to make things even more uncomfortable for the Adamos of the world. A wave of $500-$900 ultrathin MacBook Air-like laptops are expected this summer. If these become popular, they will not only threaten the Adamo but possibly Netbooks too. (The Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv2 is one of the first of many inexpensive ultraportables to come).

Still want to fork over $2,700? Didn’t think so.

(See: “Cracking Open the Dell Adamo” at TechRepublic.)

Gizmodo summarized its review of the Adamo by saying: “Just don’t dare buy this computer until Dell comes to their senses and realizes that $2,000+ is absurd for a 4-pound laptop with no graphics muscle.”

From top: Dell Mini Netbook, Apple MacBook Air, Dell Adamo

Though I think Gizmodo misses the mark about “graphics muscle” (ultraportables are not designed or marketed as graphics powerhouses, or anything close to it), the reviewer is right about price–and high price implies cachet. Only Apple (and maybe the ThinkPad x301) can command the kind of cachet that demands $2,500 for a high-end laptop (i.e., the MacBook Air).

Updated at 9:10 a.m. PDT: correcting for refurbished Apple MacBook Air price and refurbished unit discussion.

But there’s a greater force conspiring against the Dell Adamo and even the Apple MBA: the Netbook.

High-end Netbooks, like the just-announced 11.6-inch Acer Aspire One, are priced well below $700, making it hard to plop down $2,700 for the 1.4GHz Adamo. Yes, the four-pound Dell is a stunning, superior design (0.65-inches thick, machined-aluminum chassis) with better hardware (Core 2 processor, 128GB solid-state drive standard, 13.4-inch 16:9 HD display with edge-to-edge glass) . But is it $2,000 better? In the age of the two-pound $500 “luxury” Netbook, definitely not.

At the very least, this new category of laptops could push Netbooks down into the $100 to $300 price tier, instead of the typical $300 to $500 seen today.

Note: the comment above about refurbished units revises the original text that said many refurbished units are “virtually new.” This was stated too simplistically and did not accurately characterize the experience that I have had with refurbished laptops.

Dell’s ultra-sleek Adamo may be ill-timed and grasping for cachet that’s not there.

Don’t want a Netbook? Even “pricey” ultraportables can be had for under $1,300. A refurbished 1.8GHz MacBook Air with a solid-state drive is available today for $1,299 (not $1,099 as originally stated) direct from Apple (in my experience, many refurbished units are cosmetically new, but not without problems: see comments at bottom.)

A new study found that 85 percent of malware is being distributed through Web applications, which is creating a growing threat for corporations as employees increasingly do online social networking, video watching, and personal e-mail at work.

About 650 information technology administrators in English-speaking countries were surveyed this summer for the study.

•Web-borne malware increased more than 500 percent in 2007.

•One-quarter of companies report that data has been compromised by a Web-based threat.

•15 percent enforce Internet usage policies.

•Nearly one-third say their Web security was compromised as a result of employees using computers at work to access social networks, Web-based e-mail, and video sites.

Other findings of the survey, conducted by security firm Webroot, are:

What is beautiful in this tournament - besides the fact that it’s the divinely inspired sport, soccer/football - is how the African nations treat nationalism. As the Christian Science Monitor writes:

commentary

The difference is that Americans actually believe they deserve it. The US was founded by people who imagined that God had assigned them a special destiny; they would be a city on the hill, lighting the way for everybody else.

The African Cup of Nations is in full swing, taking over Ghana, where it is being hosted. I should know - two of Arsenal’s best players are out of action for six weeks while they play for their country, the Ivory Coast.

Meanwhile, Africa continues to demonstrate how to truly compete in sport. With dignity. With insane skill (ever seen Michael Essien or Samuel Eto’o play???). With patriotism, not overbearing national pride.

…Ghanaians exude gratitude rather than arrogance. They all want God to shine upon the team, naturally, but there’s no suggestion that He ought to do so. I even heard one television reporter urge viewers to pray for all of the African nations, lest anyone get left out….

The beautiful game…played beautifully.

The African nations, in other words, tend to be patriotic. Here in the US we often veer into nationalism. The chest-thumping arrogance of America will be on display in the “Super”bowl. The crass materialism. Very Vegas.

“In times of recession, marketers move dollars from more traditional media outlets like TV onto Web advertising, where to some extent the CPMs (the cost per 1,000 ad impressions delivered) are lower, and the ability to measure ROI (return on investment) is much higher,” said Jennifer Moyer, chief operating officer of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, speaking during a panel discussion at the Ad:Tech conference here.

And overall, there are some categories in which advertisers are reluctant to spend money, she said. That includes financial services and travel today and likely job and real-estate ads in the future.
Car ads also are likely to be hurt: “I’d theorize the credit crisis will catch up there as well fairly quickly,” Moyer said.

(Credit:
Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)

Jeremy Wright, global director of mobile brand strategy at Nokia Interactive

Moyer expected that a shift to online ad spending won’t necessarily help branded media properties such as her own very much. The primary beneficiaries are more likely to be portal sites and ad networks, she said.

Jennifer Moyer, chief operating officer at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive

SAN FRANCISCO–Online advertising may or may not be a recession-proof business, but some believe it at least will fare better than other ad channels during hard economic times.

Jeremy Wright, global director of mobile brand strategy at Nokia Interactive, predicted a similar shift.

“The thing we could well see is, a recession could expedite the shift from traditional spending to digital spending. Once those cuts are made in traditional media, we won’t see those budgets go back,” Wright said.

The extent to which online advertising is recession-proof is a subject of much debate. Google’s paid-click search business, in which the company gets paid only when people click ads accompanying search results, showed decreasing growth in click rates. The company argues that’s because of quality measures that show better ads and consequently improve the revenue per click, but growth in paid-click ads is slowing in general, and the business is declining at Yahoo, Microsoft’s MSN, and Time Warner’s AOL, according to new market research from ComScore.

(Credit:
Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)