Gawker: valleywag, it

GoGrid will convert "server-loving geeks" at gunpoint

Jackson West — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:40:00 EDT

Annoyed by professional "futurists" and their soft, fluffy visions of cloud computing? Think your old rack-mounted server is bulletproof? Then watch as Dr. GoGrid lays waste to hardware from Dell, HP and Sun with an AK-47. Even if you aren't an IT grunt, just enjoy as beige plastic and green circuit boards are blasted into particulate. Trust me, it's cathartic.

Lehman Brothers IT guys still have to work Monday

Nicholas Carlson — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:37:03 EDT

158-year old investment bank Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy Sunday after banks Bank of America and Barclays refused to bail it out without government backing. But that doesn't mean anybody — including the IT guys — is getting the day off Monday. "We are counting on you to be at work on Monday and ready for business as usual," writes Lehman managing director Hari Gopalkrishan in an email obtained by Wall Street gossip blog Dealbreaker that we've copied below. In case your curious, popular lore has it that the last song Titanic's musicians played while the ship went down was "Nearer My God to Thee."

From: Gopalkrishnan , Hari (Technology)

Sent: Sun Sep 14 19:51:49 2008

Subject: Business Support for Monday

Team,

Given the recent press reports regarding Lehman, I wanted to communicate that we are counting on you to be at work on Monday and ready for business as usual. In fact, I ask that you take the extra time necessary to coordinate with your teams to conduct a "ready for business" check on all mission critical activities before the day begins. As I learn more, I will communicate with you.

Thanks as always for your commitment.

Regards

Hari

49 percent of US companies cutting back IT spending

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:40:00 EDT

Forrester Research survey 950 companies in North America and Europe and learned that 40 percent of them plan to reduce their IT spending. Globally, most of these companies said that meant they would be more rigorous about their bargain hunting and probably just put some of their discretionary spending on hold. But in the US, where 49 percent of the companies surveyed said they intended to slowdown their IT spending, 20 percent indicated they actually meant to simply cut hardware, software and services spending right now. Blame the financial services sector, Forrester analyst John McCarthy told the New York Times: “I think the storm damage is very location-specific.There’s a schizophrenic U.S. economy, and the financial services guys are having a tough time.” (Photo by Claudecf)