AllThingsD » buggy

Larry Ellison: Behind the Kimono

John Paczkowski — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:25:13 +0000

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has a mythology worthy of Edith Hamilton, full of corporate conquest, danger at sea and the odd fountain of youth quest, so Bloomberg Television’s “Game Changers” feature on him tonight sounds quite promising. Certainly, there’s fodder–and photos–enough for a fascinating “Behind the Music”-style examination of the swashbuckling, trash-talking Samurai CEO–these remarks from some folks close to him, for example.

Stuart Feigin, Oracle employee No. 5:
“There was no version 1 [of Oracle software] because everyone thought, well, no one buys version 1, it’s buggy. So we started with a version 2. Well, our version two was at least as buggy as anyone’s version 1…And I describe those early versions as the roach motel of databases. The data went in, but it didn’t come out.”

“For some reason Larry told the Bank of America, I think he told them there were 15 of us when in fact there were five of us. Now I’m not sure why the Bank of America would think differently of you if you’re 5 or 15, but Larry had given them a number, which was a little larger than reality.”
Bruce Scott, Oracle co-founder:
“I remember him very distinctly telling me one time: Bruce, we can’t be successful unless we lie to customers.”

“All the things that you would read in books of somebody being a leader, he wasn’t. But he was tenacious; he would never give up on anything.”
Gary Bloom, former Oracle EVP
“I have a theory that Larry’s succession plan for Oracle is he is trying to figure out a way that when he’s six feet under in a grave, he can still run Oracle.”

Sadly missing from the broadcast, my favorite Ellison story/folktale of all time: Back in 1999, he had an enormous boulder installed in the master bathroom at Sanbashi, his Samurai-style home in Woodside, Calif. Ellison reportedly “auditioned” several boulders, pretending to shower in front of them, before settling on the 30-ton stone that would become his “shower rock.”

Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch Demos Flash on Tablets and Smartphones (Including the Apple iPhone)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:30:12 +0000

Here is a video I did of Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch demoing Flash Player technology on tablets and smartphones, including the Apple iPhone, as well as the Google (GOOG) Android-powered Nexus One.

Adobe (ADBE) has faced criticism over Flash and is under attack by Apple (AAPL), which is hoping for a world without the ubiquitous video software.

In fact, Apple CEO Steve Jobs reportedly called Adobe “lazy” and noted that the company had let Flash become a buggy security nightmare and resource hairball.

BoomTown did an interview with Lynch about all of this earlier today, as Adobe pushes forward at making Flash as popular on smartphones and other devices as it has been on computers, with all kinds of initiatives and workarounds.

I call that “sneaky” rather than lazy, but you be the judge!

Here’s the demo video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch Talks About Apple Insults, Flash's Future and More!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:15:25 +0000

For a man scorned, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch looked awfully calm on my visit to the software company’s San Francisco HQ yesterday.

He could, I suppose, be hopping mad.

To add insult to injury–from an inside-baseball tech point of view, at least–after Apple (AAPL) introduced the iPad tablet in January without Flash Player technology, which Apple also kept out of the iPod and iPhone, word immediately floated up that CEO Steve Jobs had dissed Adobe as “lazy” at an employee meeting.

Also, added Jobs, Adobe (ADBE) had let Flash become a buggy security nightmare and resource hairball.

Lynch was only a tiny bit less cutting in his blog reaction to the lack of Flash in the iPad at its launch: “Some have been surprised at the lack of inclusion of Flash Player on a recent magical device.”

Of course, he was not surprised at all, which is why Adobe was very busy lately announcing a wide range of initiatives.

They included yesterday’s rollout at the Mobile World Congress in Spain of a version of Adobe’s AIR software for a wide range of smartphones, as well as showing off Flash 10.1 on Google’s Android devices.

Such effusive touting is now Lynch’s most important job as the head techie in charge of Flash. The ubiquitous video technology is under siege not only from Apple, but also from many others, including Google (GOOG), all of which are aiming to make the Web work someday without the need for Flash in an HTML5 universe.

Still, Adobe is forging ahead with Google and other makers of smartphone platforms, except for Apple, to make Flash work better–as well as with a range of publishers to become the technology used in e-reader products.

But rather than BoomTown explaining it all for you, here is Lynch himself talking about the flashpoints over Flash, including fixing Adobe’s well-documented security issues with malware, his feelings about what Jobs said and efforts to keep Flash innovative.

I will also have a demo by Lynch up later, but here is the video of his interview first:

[ See post to watch video ]

Some Facebook Apps Are Actually More Equal Than Others

Kara Swisher — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:28:48 +0000

Tomorrow, when it rolls out its new platform, one of the more interesting pieces of news from Facebook will be its initiative to dub certain of its third-party app developers more special than others.

According to sources, the social-networking site has selected just two, in fact, iLike and Causes, to receive “preferred” status.

Several sources said that this initiative has to do with developing in a way more in line with the goals of Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Some issues Facebook has had since unleashing third-party applications on its platform last year have been related to the widgets producing too much spam, not having adequate privacy protection and simply being too buggy.

Included in the criteria for inclusion as a preferred partner is being “meaningful” and also not having been in violation of a wide range of Facebook policies in the past. Individual apps can be approved, even though others made by the same developer might not be.

Causes and iLike are the inaugural partners in the program, with others to follow.

Perhaps more interesting about this move is why two of Facebook’s major developers, Slide and RockYou, are not part of the preferred program.

The pair that have been are among Facebook’s most popular.

iLike is a hugely popular music discovery and sharing service (I will be posting a video of my visit to its Seattle offices tomorrow) and Causes is an app that allows users to share information about various charities and social initiatives.

Facebook declined to comment on the initiative.

But it surely will tomorrow. Facebook is in the midst of a major redesign of its service and will be mounting its second developers’ conference tomorrow in San Francisco.