Shared by wilson

It has taken them awhile to make this announcement, and I’m sure they took the time to do it right…. Microsoft can become a formidable competitor if past experience would suggest — they just keep hammering at it, and they have the resources to do it.

Microsoft and Ray Ozzie cracked the door half open this morning on Windows Azure the infrastructure formerly known as Windows Cloud. In the process Ozzie served notice that IT will remain in the WindowsOffice grip but with an abstraction layer that blurs the on-premise and on-demand worlds.The outlines of Live Meshs role as arbiter of this abstraction were there to be inferred but the details of how the Azure service bus arbitrates things like federated identity workflow services and overall services management will be left to Tuesdays keynote. But the leisure with which Ozzie and his lieutenants roll out the announcements belies the speed with which Microsoft is executing this corner turn.

Source: TechCrunch

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How pro-Obama is Silicon Valley? Workers at the Valleys top 20 employers have donated .4 million to Obamas campaign — five times more than the 7000 theyve donated to McCains campaign through September as tabulated by the Merc. ExamplesApple AAPL 000 for Obama 000 for McCainCisco CSCO 9000 for Obama 000 for McCainGoogle GOOG 6000 for Obama 000 for McCainOracle ORCL 4000 for Obama 000 for McCainYahoo YHOO 0000 for Obama 00 for McCainThe only company thats given more money to the G.O.P. AMD AMD whose employees gave 00 to McCain and 00 to Obama.Two caveats to this Many people probably didnt list an employer with their donations. And McCain cant accept as much money as Obama because he chose to accept public financing.One bit of good news for tech companies regardless of who wins Both candidates support an increase in the number of H1B visas granted to immigrant skilled workers every year. Companies like Microsoft and Oracle have been begging Congress to increase the cap for years — its currently 65000 per year.See AlsoImmigrant-Hungry Tech Companies See! We Really Are Out Of Labor!Should Supermodels And Code Monkeys Compete For Work?Looking For Foreign Workers? Time To Play The Waiting GameOracle Microsoft Ask Congress For More ImmigrantsMicrosoft Needs Immigrants Facebook Doesnt

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

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Microsoft and open source should both shine in a bad economy.

Source: CNET News

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The credit market freeze has added to an incredibly tough sales year for U.S. retailers, and analysts warn that these challenges are just the beginning of what could be a brutal 2009 for merchants.

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One of our issues in the business is that the yen has strengthened from about $1 to 110 yen to now about $1 to 92 yen, while all other currencies are weakening.

Many economic developments were unforseen, some unprecedented, and some defies logic.

More banks turn to Treasury - Yahoo! News

More U.S. banks lined up for government cash on Monday and the Group of Seven expressed concern that Japan’s soaring yen currency posed a threat to financial and economic stability as recession worries spread worldwide.

Stock markets worldwide also tumbled again with key Wall Street indexes hitting a 5-1/2-year low.