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Despite my attempt at winding down and relaxing for the last couple of evenings, I ended up alternating “normal” books with UMTS-related apocrypha - a form of cruel and unusual self-punishment that has forced me to reach the conclusion that core network vendors go to inordinate lengths to make their documentation as inscrutable as possible in order to sell you more services.

Between that and finding myself looking at the effect that disturbance on a CDMA link (and its associated ATM paraphernalia) has on TCP window sizes and the “slow start” algorithm, I think I may be having a relapse of either geekness or workaholism.

Any which way, I guess it’s time to comment on mainstream tech again:

VMware Server is apparently coming, and I, for one, welcome our virtualization overlords.

We’ve been thinking of setting up Xen or a similar virtualizer on this box, but the prospect of being able to use something like GSX Server instead is a lot more appealing (largely since it implies far less tinkering).

MobileMe

There are renewed rumors of Apple as an MVNO, fueled by both their MobileMe trademark filings and blurry photos of a cardboard cut from a Shuffle box shoved into a SIM card slot - neither of which is much to go on.

Remember, kids, MVNOs are only branding exercises around tariff rates, and Apple already has a lot of brand clout.

I know that the US market is still trying to figure out mobile portals, but somehow I don’t see much point in Apple doing a “.Mac for mobiles” - what would be their added value there?

They’d be going for data services, but which services? Media downloads? .Mac OTA sync?

Of course it would be a US-only operation (which is somewhat typical of Apple’s usual navel-gazing approach at new markets), but what would their prospective user base be?

The subset of Mac (or .Mac) users that fell under Cingular network coverage? What would be the incentive for the average Joe to join? The ability to wirelessly sync their iPod at massively expensive rates?

So, despite all the pie in the sky punditry, there’s a major issue with the whole idea - i.e., how would they run it and profit?

If (and it’s a big if) the rumors are true, there has to be some twist - and don’t get me started on the iPhone…

Eyecandy for Linux

Novell’s Linux Desktop videos have been making the rounds as well. Melo pointed me to them, and remarked at length about the drag and drop effects and other cool stuff.

And yes, they look cool (very cool, even, if you’ve never used a Mac), and are indeed a step forward from the Luminocity videos that were all the rage a couple of months back.

But people raving about them are kind of missing the point: Fancy GL goodness does not make for a clean, consistent, or usable UI - a lot of polish does.

And although there were hints of that in the videos as well, I won’t herald Novell’s efforts as a major turning point in making Linux usable until I’ve tried it - and my bet is that most of that eyecandy won’t be available on any old PC…

The GoogleNet

Ah, the Google Internet rumors, again, and this time with a bunch of reporting thrown in.

Remember, this has been floating around for months. Well, and why not?

It would make a lot of sense for them, especially if they start distributing media at some point - and going straight to ISPs for direct peering would also help them bypass some of the more idiotic notions being thrown around by major players in the industry…