Carbon Emissions Monitoring Patent, a Good or Bad PR stunt?

News.com reports on a carbon emissions monitoring patent.

by Martin LaMonica

Verisae, a small Minnesota-based company, has received a patent for a system to track and report greenhouse gas emissions with software, a business attracting a growing field of companies.

The company on Wednesday said that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent to Verisae for a method for calculating a corporation's emissions. The patent, filed in May of 2007, describes a business process for gathering corporate emissions data, generating reports, and managing carbon credits.

Verisae is already offering hosted carbon accounting software focused primarily on retail companies, basing its tracking and reporting on the protocols established by the nonprofit Climate Registry, which sets guidelines for emissions reporting.

This is clearly a PR stunt as Verisae has their press release that the patent was awarded on Oct 21, 2008. 

This may be good pr on the surface.  or is it bad PR? There are many governments who want open source solutions. Having a patent is good for your shareholders, but do customers want patented software for carbon emissions?

News.com reports on other companies getting into the carbon emissions reporting business.

On Monday, start-up Hara Software, backed by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, announcedits Web-based software. SAP purchased another carbon accounting company, Clear Standards, earlier this year in a sign of consolidation among providers.

If I was going to place bets, the carbon emissions will be consolidated into those who have the customer relationships with finance.

Why isn’t carbon emissions just another feature of the financial reporting systems?

Read more

Finally a Commercial that Doesn’t Look Like Microsoft Execs made Input, Bing.com TV Commercial

I’ve seen a Microsoft data center with thousands of live search servers, wondering who uses their results.  Now with bing.com it looks like the servers are finally delivering search people will use.

For all the time I worked at Microsoft I can’t remember a commercial that didn’t look like it came from Redmond execs.  Apple and IBM technology (consumer and enterprise) have all done much better commercials as they let the advertising agencies do their job.

Finally Microsoft looks like it let the advertising companies be creative.

Here is Microsoft’s Bing.com commercial

Read more

Oracle and Google Netbooks Coming?

The Netbook market is one of the fastest growing IT segments.  All of these lightweight connected devices will push cloud computing use as these devices are developed for the always connected market segment.  The cel carriers are all scrambling to bundle 3G services with these devices as well.

The latest news is Larry Ellison discussing Netbooks coming from Oracle/Sun.

Ellison Mulls Foray Into Netbook Market

By BEN WORTHEN

Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Larry Ellison floated the idea that the software company might target mobile devices after its planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc., including the small, low-priced computers called netbooks.

The possible focus on the netbook market was touched on in passing during a brief appearance by Mr. Ellison at Sun's annual JavaOne conference in San Francisco Tuesday. Netbooks are the fastest growing part of the personal computer business at the moment.

[oracle ellision and netbooks] Associated Press

un Chairman Scott McNealy, left, and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. Mr. Ellison floated the idea of targeting netbook computers after Oracle buys Sun.

"I don't see why some of those devices shouldn't come from Sun-Oracle," Mr. Ellison said.

Acer announced Q3 availability of an Google Android laptop. Part of the differentiator is the energy efficiency from the ARM chip.

"Google really does have the brand name and the financial resources to be able to be a rival to Microsoft," said Warren East, chief executive officer of chip designer ARM Holdings. "The whole Linux community is a bit fragmented when you compare it with Microsoft."

ARM, based in Cambridge, England, is a potential beneficiary of Android's success because Microsoft's Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 don't run on ARM-based computers.

"Microsoft going forward may have to work on an ARM-based solution," said Daiwa's Huang. "If Microsoft doesn't want to see Google Android get into the PC market, they will have to support ARM; otherwise, ARM will go perfectly with Android."

Qualcomm and Freescale Semiconductor, which make chips based on ARM's technology, said they expect to release products this year for netbooks that run Google's operating system.

Google's cachet will help get the computers into retailers such as Best Buy or France's Fnac electronics chain, said Henri Richard, chief sales and marketing officer for Freescale.

"It's important to be able to convince Fnac or Best Buy to put a product on their shelf, and that's where I think Android is going to be more helpful," Richard said in an interview.

Read more

Post #800, How are things going?

I needed to let someone know how many posts I had written, and realized this post is #800.  Which has created a small writing block as i think what it means to reach post #800.  Thinking on what to write about, I was recently asked the opening question “how are things going?” Quite well, having fun and learning a lot.

Next good question.  Given you worked for HP, Apple, and Microsoft which company did you learn the most from?

I worked at Microsoft for 14 years vs. 7 years at Apple, and 5 years at HP, so it is easy to say Microsoft given the length of time. But, that isn’t really the right answer. The most important thing I learned is an accumulation of the three companies, learning to think different ways.

HP, Apple, and Microsoft each have a different way it views its customers, develops its products, and measures success. You can argue which is right and wrong, but out of context almost every method can be proven wrong.

Apple was the brilliant one in marketing “think different” in 1997. But, i am taking a different take on this video than the marketing message of changing things.  The text used in the ad :


Here's to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
We see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world,
Are the ones who do.

The one-minute commercial featured black and white video footage of significant historical people of the past, including (in order) Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon, R. Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham, Jim Henson (with Kermit the Frog), Frank Lloyd Wright, and Picasso. The commercial ends with a young girl opening her closed eyes, as if to see the possibilities before her.

What all these people had was a view to integrated their actions.  It may have seem random and hard to understand, but over time their methods worked for their purpose.

Think From Different Views

Read more