Those were the days my friends

Stuff goes here.

There’s no other show in the trade show calendar that brings as many tears to the eyes as Comdex. The long lines, the bright lights, the clammy-palm anticipation … and that’s just the wait for tickets for Bill Gates’ keynote address. Gates has been the opening act at Comdex since the beginning of the computer age and this year, Microsoft’s chairman and chief software architect used his keynote to reminisce about his presentation way back in 1983.

Back then, Papa Gates operated the projector and young Bill showed that software should have no surprises, be trustworthy, follow a consistent model, be easy to understand and have an undo command. “The successes of the 1980s were pretty phenomenal, but brought us really only halfway in terms of the dreams about what software can do,” Gates said in his speech on Sunday. Then he began beating the “seamless computing” drum – more about that in the first story link below.

* Breaking news from Comdex Las Vegas 2003

Gates sets ‘seamless computing’ vision, 11/17/03

Twenty years on from his first address at Comdex, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates this year used his keynote speech to reminisce and found that some software challenges from the 1980s still exist. He also announced new technologies to solve some of today’s problems.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1117comdegat.html?nl

WLAN client vendors make news in Vegas, 11/18/03

Wireless LAN infrastructure vendors are bypassing Comdex this year as many hold off on making announcements and putting on exhibitions until the Wi-Fi Planet show in early December. But there is an array of WLAN client news at Comdex including launches of software, components and silicon intended to make WLAN and other wireless technologies run faster and be easier to use and manage.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1118wlancomdex.html

Gateway unveils SAN, NAS storage products, 11/18/03

Gateway launched three new enterprise storage devices, including its first entry into the storage-area network and network-attached storage market, at Comdex on Tuesday in Las Vegas.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1118comdegat.html?nl

Linksys previews 802.11g, Bluetooth gear, 11/18/03

Linksys Group is readying the launch of an 802.11g wireless print server, an 802.11g USB adapter and its first Bluetooth product.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1118comdelin.html?nl

AT&T Wireless launches EDGE service, 11/18/03

Mobile phone operator AT&T Wireless Services began offering services on its EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution) network Tuesday, promising higher data transfer speeds than any of its competitors with a national network.

https://www.nwfusion.com/edge/news/2003/1118attless.html?nl

Sprint debuts ‘walkie-talkie’ phone service, 11/17/03

Sprint PCS launched its version of push-to-talk Monday that lets customers use their wireless phones as if they were walkie-talkies.

https://www.nwfusion.com/edge/news/2003/1117sprint.html?nl

McNealy: Sun to ship Opteron servers in 2004, 11/17/03

Sun plans to begin shipping in 2004 two new servers based on Advanced Micro Devices’ Opteron processors, CEO Scott McNealy said during a Comdex keynote address in Las Vegas on Monday.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1117comdemcn.html?nl

Microsoft builds spam filters into Exchange, 11/14/03

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates will use his keynote address on Sunday at the annual Comdex 2003 trade show in Las Vegas to announce plans to make the company’s Exchange e-mail server better at stopping unsolicited commercial (“spam”) e-mail, according to information obtained by IDG News Service.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1114comdemic.html?nl

Sun to announce plans for Opteron servers, 11/14/03

Next week at Comdex in Las Vegas, Sun will announce plans to build servers based on AMD’s Opteron chip, sources familiar with Sun’s plans said Friday.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1114comdesun.html?nl

Smaller Comdex changes with the times, 11/17/03

IBM this week at Comdex is set to unveil services designed to help users more quickly adopt and better maintain Web services across their legacy and distributed applications.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1117comdex.html?nl

Trade shows gird for battle in Vegas, 11/12/03

When the Comdex trade show opens in Las Vegas next week a competitor will be a short cab ride away. Jupitermedia, a research and events company, is launching a rival show at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, and it’s making no secret of its ambition: to run Comdex out of town.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1112tradeshows.html?nl

On-demand computing goes to Comdex, 11/12/03

This year’s Comdex, Nov. 16-20 in Las Vegas, will be an interesting one. The conference has a renewed focus on the business aspects of IT, with a particular emphasis on business-to-business technologies. One of the themes is on-demand computing.

https://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/nsm/2003/1110nsm2.html?nl

Comdex panel debate WLAN architectures, 11/10/03

By the time you read this, Comdex will be just a week away and another meaty wireless track is on the agenda. I’m lucky enough to get to moderate what should be a lively panel/debate session on the infamous wireless LAN architecture controversy.

https://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/wireless/2003/1110wireless1.html?nl

Weblog: Cool Tools at Comdex

Check this space for the latest musings from our Cool Tools Editor Keith Shaw who’s down on the show floor.

https://napps.nwfusion.com/weblogs/cool/?nl

* News from CD Expo, Las Vegas

SCO: GPL threatens $229 billion software market, 11/19/03

CEO Darl McBride enlisted the help of the World Intellectual Property Organization to bolster his arguments against the open source GNU General Public License, or GPL, and Linux during a keynote address at the CD Expo conference in Las Vegas.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1119cdxposco.html?nl

* News from Next Generation Networks, Boston

Public WLANs slowly taking shape, Cometa CEO says, 11/05/03

Public wireless LANs, or hotspots, have yet to coalesce into a real marketplace, partly because market requirements are still in flux.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1105cometa.html?nl

Promising indicators suggest telecom recovery looming, 11/10/03

Nasdaq is up 40% this year and telecom-specific indexes are also up dramatically. Lucent just turned its first quarterly profit in three years, while Nortel expects this to be its first profitable year since 1997. MCI, meanwhile, is set to emerge from bankruptcy healthier and hungrier.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1110recovery.html?nl

Weblog: Next generation WLANs, 11/10/03

Three panels at the Next Generation Networks show last week in Boston revealed the ferment in wireless LANs.

https://www.nwfusion.com/weblogs/wireless/003711.html?nl

* News from Desktop Linux Conference, Tyngsborough, Mass.

Desktop Linux advocates to walk before they run, 11/10/03

Not many corporations run Linux on their client hardware, but that situation will start to change if the Linux community can make a business case around the lower costs and greater manageability of enterprise Linux desktop environments, according to speakers at the Desktop Linux Conference on Monday.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1110desktlinux.html?nl

* News from UBS Warburg Global Communications, New York

SBC: VoIP a threat, 11/18/03

Voice over IP presents a threat to SBC’s ability to retain customers and their access lines, a company executive told investors Tuesday at a conference in New York.

https://www.nwfusion.com/edge/news/2003/1118sbc.html?nl

Lucent preps new products, 11/18/03

Lucent has a number of new products on tap to help its service provider customers manage the transition from legacy networking environments to next-generation packet infrastructures and applications.

https://www.nwfusion.com/edge/news/2003/1118lucentubs.html?nl

* UPCOMING TRADE SHOWS:

Wi-Fi Planet Conference and Expo

Dec. 2-5, San Jose

https://www.jupiterevents.com/80211/fall03/index.html

International Consumer Electronics Show

Jan. 8-11, Las Vegas

Gadgets are go at this event, which will host keynote addresses by Microsoft Chief Software Architect Bill Gates and HP CEO  Carly Fiorina.

https://www.cesweb.org/

LinuxWorld

Jan. 20-23, New York

https://www.linuxworldexpo.com/linuxworldny/V40/index.cvn

Lotusphere

Jan. 25-29, Orlando, Fla.

New to Lotusphere is IBM’s On-Demand Workplace.

https://www.lotus.com/events/govfor.nsf/wdocs/lshome

Comnet

Jan. 26-29, Washington D.C.

https://www.comnetexpo.com/comnetexpo/V40/index.cvn

* NETWORK WORLD TECHNOLOGY TOURS (free registration):

The New Data Center: Powering the Enterprise

Dec. 2-4 at a city near you

The new data center is the new driving force of the enterprise. It’s about taking command and gaining control. The benefits of consolidation and virtualization. Automation and efficiency. The power of technologies like blade servers. The need to prove and improve ROI. The desire to run lean and clean. The demand to be fully metered, fully accountable, fully effective as you manage data and serve information in ways that makes your enterprise more competitive.

Your expertise is key to success. Which is why you’re invited to The New Data Center: Powering the Enterprise, a special Network World Technology Tour event for professionals who want more than a strategic vision, they want a practical mission to bring back and put to work.

To register for this event:

https://www.nwfusion.com/events/datacenter/index.html

WANs: Answering the Demand for Optimized Services

Dec. 9-11 at a city near you

“Maximize the value.” “Focus our spending.” “Get it done now!” It’s crunch time for WAN managers. The snap-back of budgets and the sting of expectations now demand new answers from you. Solutions like identity-based services. Bandwidth optimization. VoIP that works. VPNs that fit. True WAN benefits that are evident, effective, efficient and excuse-free.

It’s time for WANs: Answering the Demand for Optimized Services, the new Network World Technology Tour event focused on: disciplined bandwidth management, caching and compression. Optimized services that run over your established infrastructure. Access you can control, partition and protect. Metered monitoring you can evaluate in real time. And standards that finally deliver long-delayed benefits to VPNs and VoIP.

To register for this event:

https://www.nwfusion.com/events/wan/