Power of Thought

Microsoft said on Friday that it has pushed back the delivery date of its SQL Server database until the third quarter of this year.

The company is planning to have a launch event, called Heroes Happen Here, on February 27 that will be a public coming-out of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and SQL Server 2008.

Rather than release the final product at that time, Microsoft will have a “feature complete” preview, according to a Microsoft employee blog dedicated to SQL Server.

A release candidate for SQL Server 2008 will come out in second quarter with final general availability in the third quarter, according to the blog’s author, Francois Ajenstat, director of marketing for SQL Server.

The blog noted that the timing falls within Microsoft’s previously stated goal of getting SQL Server 2008 out two to three years after SQL Server 2005, which itself suffered from a series of significant delays.

Despite the delays with SQL Server 2005, it has been a successful product. Market research indicates that Microsoft’s database revenue is growing faster than that of rivals Oracle and IBM. Microsoft’s server and tools business is one of the company’s largest and fastest-growing divisions.

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The US space agency is exploring the possibility of developing a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game.

The virtual world would be aimed at students and would “simulate real Nasa engineering and science missions”.

The agency has published a “request for information” (RFI) from organisations interested in developing the platform.

Nasa believe the game would help find the next generation of scientists and engineers needed to fulfil its “vision for space exploration”.

“A high quality synthetic gaming environment is a vital element of Nasa’s educational cyberstructure,” the RFI reads.

“The MMO will foster career exploration opportunities in a much deeper way than reading alone would permit and at a fraction of the time and cost of an internship program.”

Space mission
Nasa already has a presence in the 3D virtual universe.

The agency owns an island in Second Life where individuals and groups with an interest in the space programme can meet, share ideas and conduct experiments.

CoLab, as it is called, is the brainchild of scientists at the Nasa Ames Research Center in San Francisco.

The agency hopes that the environment could one day be used to allow the public to take part in virtual missions.

“We at Nasa are working hard to create opportunities for what I might call participatory exploration,” the director of the project, Simon Worden, has said.

“We are looking at how this island can be a portal for all to fly along on space missions,” he told delegates at the National Space Society’s (NSS) conference last year.

“When the next people step onto the surface of the Moon in a little over a decade, your avatar could be with them,” he said.

The latest proposal was published by Nasa’s Learning Technologies Project Office which supports and develops education projects to promote science and technology.

Job seeker
The document says that games are becoming increasingly important in education and could be useful for teaching a range of skills.

“Virtual worlds with scientifically accurate simulations could permit learners to tinker with chemical reactions in living cells, practice operating and repairing expensive equipment, and experience microgravity,” it says.

The document calls for a game engine that includes “powerful physics capabilities” that can “support accurate in-game experimentation and research”.

“A Nasa-based MMO could provide opportunities for students to investigate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics career paths while participating in engaging game-play.”

Other organisations such as the US armed forces already use online gaming as a recruitment tool.

America’s Army for example introduces players to the “seven Army Core Values” and now claims to be one of “the most popular computer games in the world”.

Nasa has asked for interested organisations to respond to the request by the 15 February.

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Interesting post written by Sid over at rev2.org lists his top eight predictions for 2008:

1. Acquisitions: The following startups and companies will be acquired (and two most possible buyers in that order):

• Twitter (Yahoo! [the Yang revival?], Microsoft [the Ballmer promise?])
• Digg (New York Times, Microsoft)
• Technorati (Google, Yahoo!)
• Techmeme (New York Times, Yahoo!)
• Pownce (Microsoft, Yahoo!)
• Tumblr (Yahoo!, Microsoft)

2. Facebook: Facebook won’t die. The new Facebook is Facebook. Instead, it will continue to grow and grow — internationally more so. How will they do that? Simple, like they’ve always been — introduce revolutionary new features, fail, fail, fail, jackpot, fail, fail, fail (note that I use the term “fail” very loosely — a more appropriate phrasing would be “wen’t nowhere” or even “didn’t make the NYT.”) Contrary to many of the skepticisms over Facebook’s revenue model, Facebook will find a revenue stream and thus a way to keep its $15b valuation. If 2007 was a sky-rocketing year for Facebook this year, 2008 will be a period of steady growth, where things get a little more settled and stable. Less valuation talk, more actual work done.

3. Google: The number and rate of new Google products introduced will decrease. Instead, what will increase is the quality and reach of them — Google Reader will very possibly be among the first RSS readers to make the mainstream, the Google Office suite products (i.e. their eventual “release” updates) will continue to offer unique and interesting functionality pushing some consumers to ditch the Microsoft, Google Video will branch out into a niche: video search and attempt to do it in an awesome way, and lastly, Google News will turn into an AJAX startpage-esque product (or opt for some of that functionality). Oh, and speaking of startpages, iGoogle will either hit the mainstream jackpot or die in the minds of its current users.

4. Yahoo!: 2008, in general, will be a huge test for Yahoo! and its revival. For years they’ve been thriving on the old mainstream model, and as the web’s current highest trafficked website, they’ll be needing a Plan B to keep it alive, or simply put, hit a few jackpots from their current 10 - 20 “lab tests.” I’m not sure what to think of Jerry Yang’s recent 60-day revival strategy period and it’s fairly difficult for anyone to predict what — if anything — came out of it, but surely, Yahoo! doesn’t seem like one that is going to go away anytime soon. They won’t grow as fast as they’ve been, and at worse mostly irrelevant to the Internet industry, but as a company I think they’ve got some big challenges ahead and the advantage of playing a contender where failure isn’t a possibility but success is the golden cookie. And one of the things that’s going to be trivial in their revival strategy, I think, is going to be acquisitions and lots of them. (read: point #1)

5. Microsoft: As if Steve Ballmer’s Web 2.0 keynote wasn’t enough to say it, 2008 will be a big year for Microsoft. Obviously, we’re looking at a lot of acquisitions, products, and murders (yes, I’m talking to you, the 5 or so Live products that no one uses.) In any case, I think 2008 will be the year we know Microsoft’s stance on the web. We’ve been trying to figure it out for years and it always seems like there’s something right around the corner that is going to make it for them (remember the new MSN Search, anyone?) In any case, Bill Gates’ exit — for the good or the bad — will mean that there is increased activity in Microsoft’s Web properties. And will we find out whether the Web Office is Microsoft Office? I don’t think so, I think we’ll be needing two or three more years for that, but this won’t be stopping them from trying.

6. Buzzwords: “AJAX” will die. “The Long Tail” will die. “Folksonomy” is dead. “Crowdsourcing” hasn’t really gone anywhere, and it may or may not. “Web 2.0″ is at its peak, so I think next year is going to be when its use really reduces, and 2009 when it dies completely. RSS will be replaced by “feeds”, and the buttons with simply “Subscribe.” “New media” will survive for a couple more years. “Podcasts” will survive. “Social Network” will survive to refer to anything not Facebook, and “social graph,” until Facebook is alive, will be used to refer to Facebook. And lastly, “Web 3.0″ is the most unoriginal and ambiguous word that ever exists, so it’s NOT going to be the successor of Web 2.0. At least, I hope so. Need I say more?

7. iPhone: If 2007 was a big year for the iPhone, I think 2008 will be when its survival is really tested. That 10 million mark Apple’s aiming for? They’re going to get it, and not only that, I think they’ll surpass it. And with more iPhone users comes increased activity on the mobile web, which, iPhone user or not, I think is good for everyone. Of course, with the web apps not really getting anywhere among users web developers have something to cringe about, but native apps coming February and more iPhones in circulation will in the long run will prove best for all developers — web or not. And what about iPhone 2.o, you’re wondering? I’m not one to predict specific features, but I think the web experience will continue to get better and better and I can imagine a day where I’d opt for the iPhone because it’s close to me than open my Macbook and wait for Firefox to boot (yes, I know the iPhone has a great web browser interface already, but I’m still really attached to the traditional Firefox on my traditional Macbook. Either I’ll change, or the iPhone will.)

8. OpenSocial: I know you’re only reading this paragraph to find out where I think it will flop or not, so I’ll cut to the chase. I think OpenSocial has a lot to offer, but I think Facebook apps — and their usage — is more powerful that all the others combined, and there lies the future of OpenSocial. I think it’s a good attempt — great attempt — by Google, and better than any social network they could’ve built (or have), but it won’t be enough to bring down Facebook or even hurt it in any way. If anything, OpenSocial is going to validate Facebook’s model of social apps and attract more developers into the landscape. However, this doesn’t mean developers are going to not adopt it. They are, and many existing Facebook app developers are too, but what won’t equate to the Facebook advantage is the number of users and the usage.

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