Correction: The original post implied that the Church is no longer active. In fact, the band has been touring and putting out albums continuously for almost 30 years, and Tim Powles is still their drummer. Apologies for the mistake. Modern musical technology makes the world smaller. Example: Seattle band Half Light are big fans of Australian art-rock band The Church. [Disclosure: I played bass with another incarnation of Half Light in 2004 and 2005 and am still friendly with the band.] Americans of a certain age probably remember The Church's 1987 hit "Under the Milky Way," but the band is still going on strong and is considered highly influential among a certain class of rock musician. Basically, if you were into guitar music in the late 80s and early 90s but didn't care much for "grunge" or that era's punk "revival," The Church are probably on your playlist. Anyway, Half Light knew that Church drummer Tim (Time Bandit) Powles operates a production house called Space Junk. Fifteen years ago, it would have been a major effort to have him produce their record--most non-label bands couldn't afford the flights to Sydney, let alone the hours of studio time. But Half Light tracked into ProTools in Seattle, got in touch with Powles online, and hired/convinced him to mix their new record. Everything was done by exchanging data CDs of ProTools files back and forth. I got an advance copy and it sounds amazing--I'm sure the original tracks were recorded well (first rule of recording: you can't polish a turd), but the production's top notch--great tones, perfectly balanced, and some interesting effects and arrangements that sound like they were added in the mix. My brother did the same thing a few years back with one of his heroes, Terry Brown, who recorded Rush's Moving Pictures and other classic albums. In that case, he had to fly to Toronto a few times, but the majority of the tracking was done in his home town, El Paso, then the individual tracks were transported to Toronto for mixing.

Surrealist movies offer the strangest happenings just to make us feel better about ourselves. Streets become beaches. Nun's clothing appears on the sidewalk. And yet I don't remember a surrealist movie where a 9-inch Canon camera lens crashes through the roof of a house. Perhaps the notion seemed too far-fetched. But not for one woman in Petaluma, Calif., who recently experienced precisely this occurrence. It all started so innocently. Speaking to CBS 5 San Francisco, 55-year-old Debbie Payne told of a hearing a crash. Might it have been an earthquake? Might it have been a storm-trooping blackbird with a machine gun, ready to rob her house of her TV and camera equipment? No, it appears to have been dive-bombing camera equipment, desperate to enter her abode. Please imagine the neighbors' surprise, as they, too, ran out to see what was assaulting their idyll. They were bemused. For there was a hole in Payne's roof. Two window screens had been sliced, as if in preparation for a charcuterie plate. And the culprit was a 2-pound Canon lens. The police seem fairly bemused too. They are trying to trace the serial number of the lens that zoomed through the roof to its owner. Thus, far, they have only traced thin air. Currently, there appears to be no evidence that the lens even fell from a plane. Just as there is no evidence it came from the beak of a thieving stork. Payne is grateful that no one was hurt, but now has to pick up the pieces with her insurance claim. This weekend, if you happen to be out hang-gliding, or a passenger in your best friend's little pink Cessna, please be careful with your equipment. We have enough worries with space debris right now.

Cisco Systems said it will pay $150 million for a small stake in a virtualization software company called VMware, which operates as a unit of storage giant EMC. Cisco's stake in the company will be about 1.6 percent. VMware is the leader in what is turning out to be a hot market. The division makes software that allows a computer or server to function as if it were several. The software emulates features of a computer, which makes it easier to run multiple operating systems and applications on a single machine. Companies benefit because the software allows them to use more computing power out of individual computers and servers. It reduces the number of new machines they have to buy, which can often provide huge capital savings as well as operational savings, especially in reducing energy costs. Analysts say that VMware has about 85 percent market share in the virtualization business at the moment. The market is expected to grow to about $20 billion annually in the next few years. VMware is so hot now that EMC is preparing to spin off 10 percent of the unit in an initial public offering. EMC reported on Tuesday that VMware grew sales 89 percent to $298 million in the second quarter compared to the previous year. Earlier this month, Intel agreed to invest $218.5 million in VMware. Meanwhile Microsoft, the largest potential rival to VMware, is gearing up to challenge the company. But Microsoft has already postponed the public beta version of its main product that is supposed to rival VMware's software. It's expected to be out in the second half of this year. Cisco, which primarily makes switches and routers that shuttle IP traffic around networks, is interested in VMware because it will help Cisco's corporate customers run their data centers more efficiently. Once the deal is complete, Cisco will have less than one percent of the outstanding voting stock in the company, but VMware has agreed to consider naming a Cisco executive to its board once it goes public.

The first sign that not everything had gone the way of Hugo Chavez's United Socialist Party (PSUV) came when a scheduled news conference with one its key candidates, Aristobulo Isturiz, was cancelled without warning. By this stage the first bulletin of results, which was expected to take just two hours to be produced, was now more than six hours late, and there was still no sign of an announcement. Finally, at almost three in the morning on Monday, the president of the National Electoral Council, Tibisay Lucena, came onto the stage and went through the results state by state. The final picture was a cause for both celebration and disappointment for the Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez. He will have welcomed the overall majority the Socialists retained in the National Assembly, and quickly praised a "solid victory" which would "strengthen the Bolivarian revolution" on his Twitter site. Frustration But the tweet was a far cry from addressing a jubilant crowd from the balcony of the presidential palace, Miraflores, which at one stage in the evening he looked set to do. Perhaps neither the president nor his supporters felt in the mood. Chavez voters - dubbed "Chavistas" - will undoubtedly be frustrated at the size of the opposition's representation in parliament. From next to no seats, the opposition parties can now count on at least 62, and have denied Mr Chavez the two-thirds majority he sought. By taking more than a third of the assembly, opposition deputies will now be in a position to block some of the president's key reforms - be they appointments to the Supreme Court or so-called "organic" laws imposing sweeping changes in areas such as education and local governance. However, it may be the opposition's claim they have taken 52% of the popular vote which will upset the president's supporters the most. If it is later confirmed by the electoral council, it represents a significant victory for the opposition who, only a few years ago, were widely considered to be too unattractive to ordinary Venezuelans ever to seriously compete with Mr Chavez's mass appeal. Prize ahead To chants of "we are the majority", the head of the umbrella opposition group, MUD, Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, said that their share of the popular vote would "only grow further in the next two years" - a reference to the presidential election in 2012. But, while the new-look National Assembly is a blow to the Venezuelan leader, it would be a foolhardy commentator who would suggest Mr Chavez will not be able to muster the support he needs in a presidential race. Mr Chavez is still a popular leader and, while the opposition have clearly learnt a great deal in terms of how best to tackle Mr Chavez at the polls, they still have a long way to go before being seen as a viable alternative national administration. There were renewed charges of opposition elitism during this election when they - unlike the PSUV - refused to hold primaries to choose the most popular candidates. A failure to hold primaries for their presidential candidate in 2012, especially if one of the older generation of opposition figures is chosen, would only underline what Mr Chavez has often said about the traditional parties in Venezuela - that they are out of touch with the electorate. Immediate challenges However, the presidential race is still two years away and first there are more immediate tests for both sides. How will Mr Chavez, who has enjoyed unfettered support from the National Assembly over the past five years, take to having to ask his arch-opponents to support reforms they have robustly criticised in the past? Will the opposition show a degree of flexibility to try to begin to work with the majority Socialists in government? Will, indeed, the hastily-erected umbrella of the MUD even survive the next parliamentary term or was it simply a marriage of convenience during this campaign? As those and other questions begin to be answered over the coming months and years, many voters will be hoping that the National Assembly become a more plural legislative body. And that, if the opposition were serious about tackling their two key campaign topics - rising crime and high inflation - then their deputies will be prepared to cross the aisle to find solutions to those problems.

Make money can be made easier, more relaxed and less stressful with 3 fundamental make money rules. These money making rules are simple yet very effective. Use the law of attraction, prepare yourself, make research and take action. Make Money Principle 1 - Use the Universal Law of Attraction to Attract Money Money is attracted if you think about how to make more of it, desire it and focus on it. As Madonna a few decades said "I am a material girl and I am Living in a material world" make a wish list of your dreams, passions, desires, in general material things you would be much happier having them. There are no rules such as exclude very expensive items or objects of desire. The law of attraction says to focus on what we want to earn and receive and repeat the process sending our thoughts to the universe. Then the universe will return to us in a material way our thoughts, attracting them. Although there are many claims for this secret to be true, the argument that we will be day-dreamers and waste our time making dreams can be dealt with the idea and need of positive thinking and mood. Do you prefer to be optimistic or pessimistic? To think about life, business in a positive attitude or a negative one? At least focusing on your wish list is an effective to motivate you and a good motive is always good. No do not focus on your rich relative to pass away and inherit his or her fortune. Think of good things and actions to make money. Make Money Principle 2 - Prepare yourself for reward and make some research. Prepare yourself that additional wealth, success, capital, income or cash will change your ordinary lifestyle. Visualize good changes and how to incorporate them in your daily routine. Imagine success, new behaviour and attitude, new habits. If you prepare mentally and psychologically your mind then you have taken a great step towards making more money by having a real motive. A motive without limits, no matter unrealistic they are. Ok the idea of being a billionaire within next year may seem out of space, but on the other hand factors such as destiny, luck or even an unexpected event such as forecasting the exact bottom of stock market and buying derivatives to have great leverage in your return may reward you with turning a few thousand dollars investment into a few millions if a large move occurs according to your position. Make Money Principle 3 - Take Action Make money and wealth comes with mainly taking action, following a few steps at a time and putting the great rule of compounding into force. Compounding is the idea that repeated actions lead to greater results over time. Just when you have a debt and you only pay a small portion of it each month and you wonder why after a year it has increased rather than decreased due to the compounding of interest the same idea can work for your benefit. Make a list of how can people save more money in this financial crisis, write and eBook or report and market it on the internet. Find the next billionaire idea? A product that will be cheap, reliable, in great demand and people will not be able to live without it. Use your imagination, your intuition, your ingenuity or perception. Be brave, bold, and innovative. Just like in the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" it may be your destiny to make money. Make money following these 3 principles Why not start using these 3 basic principles to make money today? Attract material things and feel good. Prepare yourself for a large positive change. And take action to make money.

If you're a Netflix subscriber, you should be happy with the sounds coming out of Hollywood. One entertainment executive told me last week that other Web video companies looking for content should use Netflix as a model for how to work with the major studios. He called the company a "good partner," high praise coming from an industry in which few have anything good to say about Internet companies. This bodes well for Netflix's chances of obtaining more streaming content. When it comes to the studios' complaints about Netflix, there's also something positive to be found. "While there are things in the Netflix system that are clearly cannibalistic [to sales], there are things we can change," Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Pictures' home entertainment unit, said during a conference appearance earlier this month. "They can pay us more, or we can reduce the quality of what we give them." Kornblau obviously doesn't think that Netflix paid enough for content it licensed in several high-profile deals with the studios this year. That may mean trouble in the future, but Kornblau's statement, coming so soon after Netflix landed the licensing agreements, also suggests that the company's ability to acquire content isn't solely dependent on the size of its checks. Netflix appears to have more to bargain with than just cash. The hit rental service is now the supreme power in U.S. video rentals. It has put itself in that position by building one of the most loyal followings and strongest brands of any digital-entertainment company. Netflix is respected by consumers for doing away with the much-loathed late fees, offering low prices, and providing one of the best viewer experiences online. Netflix has also stood out among Silicon Valley companies for its willingness to partner with the studios. "It's not just about writing the big check," Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer, said in a recent interview with CNET. "A lot of people have written big checks and didn't get what they needed." One of the best stories in digital entertainment this year is how Netflix built up its streaming-video library against the odds. It wasn't long ago that pundits predicted that Netflix would be unable to pay the studios' rates and would see its supply of streaming content cut off. The naysayers argued that Netflix would go bankrupt or alienate subscribers by forcing steep price increases on them. So far, the company has defied the doubters. Embedded in Hollywood For tech companies, acquiring rights to film and TV content has proven to be a challenge. For instance, the four major broadcast networks have blocked Google TV from accessing their Web content. To some studio insiders, the Silicon Valley guys were just the latest hustlers to come to town. The Web video companies were either devising software or sites to pirate or port in films and TV shows, or were dismissive of the studios' digital strategies. YouTube employees once famously referred to the video portal created by NBC Universal and News Corp. as the "clown company." It turned out to be Hulu. A high-handed attitude isn't what Reed Hastings wanted. Netflix's CEO, named "Business Person of the Year" last week by Fortune magazine, handed Sarandos a very different mission in Hollywood. "Unlike the companies that [tried to strike partnerships with the studios] before, we didn't make the mistake of relegating relationships to agents and lawyers to broker deals," Sarandos said in a recent interview with CNET. "The same way we don't outsource our [intellectual property], we don't outsource our relationships...It's our goal to be embedded into the studios' business and understand what drives their decision making. We do our best to be good partners." The close Hollywood ties help Netflix managers find ways to help the studios, as well as themselves. One example involves the recent decline in sales of DVD box sets. Many TV shows aren't selling well on DVD, even as the costs of producing one-hour serialized shows go up, Sarandos said. When it comes to syndication, a dramatic series that includes more adult themes, such as Showtime's "Dexter" or Fox's "Lie to me," are traditionally a tough sell. One issue with most serialized shows is that if viewers miss an episode, they fall behind in the story. Netflix's streaming service is one solution. Users don't have to worry about falling behind. They choose which episode to watch and when. Netflix also impressed many at the studios by agreeing to help protect DVD sales. Earlier this year, the Los Gatos, Calif.-based company agreed to delay renting some of the studios' newly released DVDs until 28 days after their titles hit store shelves. In return, Netflix received access to more TV shows and films for its streaming service. Blockbuster and Netflix data There are other, more practical reasons for strong Netflix-Hollywood ties: Blockbuster is all but gone. The brick-and-mortar retail chain, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, was a big source of revenue for the studios. And just as DVD sales plummet, Hollywood's attempt to persuade consumers to upgrade film collections to Blu-ray discs has largely failed. The studios know that Netflix, with its 17 million subscribers, can help fill these holes. More importantly, the studios know the trend in renting movies is to do it online. If there's a better way than Netflix for the studios to stake out prime digital turf, it hasn't presented itself. And then there's all that customer data. Eric Garland, CEO and co-founder of Big Champagne, a company that tracks digital-media consumption, argues that Netflix's greatest advantage--indeed, one of the things that appeals most to Hollywood--is what it knows about its customers' renting and viewing habits. "Netflix is cleaning up because they started seeing changes in consumer behavior before consumers knew they changed their behavior," Garland said. During the period before it started offering streaming content on demand, for example, Netflix noticed that its subscribers had already started to slow down the volume of their DVD viewing. "We were updating the queues, we were creating the lists, but that ping-pong of DVDs going back and forth in the mail had started to slow. You didn't know what that meant. You were busy going 'Ah, I need to watch that DVD, but I don't want to watch it tonight.' You put it back down. What they saw was that you needed better and more immediate access to more titles," Garland said. "That's old news now, but they've been in possession of that for years. So the reason that Netflix is of such strategic value to Hollywood is that they already own the new consumer who doesn't want to bother with the disc." Correction 8:37 a.m. PT This story incorrectly stated the number of Netflix's subscribers. Netflix currently has 16.9 million subscribers.

Its been just over two years since The Feeling shot to the top of the album charts with their last album, 'Join With Us'. Fans may have thought it was over but its not and will be pleased to hear the Ivor Novello award-winning pop quintet are back with their 3rd offering, 'Together We Were Made'. The 13-track album was recorded at lead singer Dan Gillespie Sells home - the newly converted and former East End pub, The Royal Oak - and will be released on Monday June 20th. A double deluxe version of the album will also be available and features late 80s rapper Betty Boo, Rn Murphy and Cathy Dennis. To date the group named after a bar - Le Feeling - in Paris, have sold more than two million records in the UK and are one of the most frequently played bands on British radio. Lead singer Dan Gillespie Sells took time to speak to Music News Victoria Dillingham ahead of the album launch next month. Music News: Youre currently gearing up for the release of your 3rd album 'Together We Were Made'. What can fans expect from your new material and how does it differ, if at all from your last two albums? Dan: I think its just the next stage for us. We wanted to push ourselves to a new level and took a lot of time to make it. Getting the production right is quite a tricky thing. Trying to make it the huge production that you want to can often mean the songs suffer, so youve got to find a balance. Its still us doing what we do best, that is making beautiful pop songs. Its a lot more grown up for us and is an expression of where we are now as a band and for me where I am as a musician. Its as honest as we have always been and is full of love and joy which we are all feeling right now. Music News: Youve teamed up with fellow Sussex born musicians, the Freemasons for a number of tracks on the new album. How did this partnership come about and what made you decide to work with them? Dan: We actually worked on a song with them a while back. It was a dance type track of ours. We wanted it to sound like Prince, but it sounded like Fleetwood Mac (laughs). I was a massive fan of their work and Richard Jones (bass player) knew of them through Sophie (Ellis-Bextor) his wife and they ended up working with us on 5 more songs on the new album. We produce and engineer all of our stuff and know how to make it sound like The Feeling. We wanted to push the dance and synth elements of these tracks without making it sound superimposed if that makes sense? We wanted dance to be at the heart of the track and they did a fantastic job, were thrilled with outcome. Music News: As a group you recorded the new album at your home Dan, a converted pub in the East End which is also a fully-functional studio. Tell us how that worked out? Dan: Yes at the start of the year I bought an old pub in the East End of London called The Royal Oak, which I have converted into my home and its now known as The Dog House. We previously used Damon Albarns place, but Ive now had a studio built in to the lower level of the pub and we record there. For us its nice, having spent years in darkened studios to finally have a space where we can practice and record with light and the dog just walking around, its great! Music News: Rumour has it that in addition to the standard 13 track version of the new album, youll also be releasing a double album with an additional disc featuring the vocals of Betty Boo. Tell us more? Dan: We knew Alison as a songwriter and we had this song called 'Virtually Art' which we just knew her voice would be great on. We asked her if shed mind doing a rap as Betty Boo and she said "yes" and did an absolutely marvellous job. We also worked with Cathy Dennis and Rn Murphy on the double album which was great! Music News: Youve been together and managed to maintain your original line-up for nearly six years now - post record deal - which in the disposable world of pop is a considerable length of time. Whats your secret to staying and working together as a band? Dan: Weve actually been together a total of 16 years, as we were playing together for 10 years prior to securing our first recording contract and weve been through thick and thin together in that time. We have a language and a history and I think thats the difference. A record deal can be the breaking of a band that hasnt been together and played together for long enough before it arrives. When youve weathered the bad times prior to it, it makes you stronger as a group. Music News: As a band you were awarded The Ivor Novello Award for Songwriters of the Year in 2007. How do you continue to pen some of the catchiest and emotive pop lyrics and melodies? Dan: Thats a really hard question. I try not to think about it too much. Ill hear a melody in my head and then Ill forget about it. If it then comes back to me and I hear it again and again, its good. If I dont and Ive forgotten it then its not strong enough. Lyrically I just try and write the things I really want to say. I dont write stuff that I think people want to hear, I dont write stuff I think people like, I just write the stuff that I want to hear and want to say. I forget theres an audience. I think its really important that I do it this way, as I want to be very honest with my lyrics and the minute you start to think about there being an audience and someone to please, you can become self-conscious about what you sing and I never want to be that way. I always want to be completely truthful and open, which I am. Music News: Who are your biggest influences musically? Dan: Again its a tough one as I have such an eclectic taste it really is a mix. I like listening to music from the 1920s, 30s and 40s through to Elton John, The Rolling Stones to Motown, the Eurythmics, Talking Heads and the 80s gay pop scene. I equally like Bob Marley, Abba, The Carpenters and Nirvana, Im just so diverse in what I like and will listen to. For me what really matters in a song is that there is a truth and a message and that can come from Neil Young say or the Bee Gees, its about engaging with the listener and being honest about what you are singing. Music News: What are the biggest changes youve seen in the music industry over the last six years and how has it impacted, if at all on the music you make? Dan: Im quite unaffected by it all to be honest. Im aware there has been considerable changes and there always will be in music, but Im very much in my own little world and we just do what we love to do. Music News: Youve clocked an impressive number of live performances as a band, including Glastonbury, Coachella Festival, Top of the Pops and the Diana memorial concert at Wembley Stadium. How important is it for you as a band to be seen as live performers as it is polished recording artists? Dan: Its really important. We toured unofficially with this album before we recorded it to road-test the songs. Its really important for us to do this as when youre in a studio recording you can become somewhat isolated and you need to make a decision at the end of it as to what songs make the album. Its the one time you really want feedback and road-testing the songs on a mini tour is the most immediate feedback youll ever get as an artist, so its what we did. We love performing live. Music News: If you could go back in time and be a part of any music scene when would it be and why? Dan: Thats an interesting question. There are so many periods in pop music history I can think of, but Ive always had a child-like dream if you like of sitting in an old smoke filled, sweaty jazz basement listening to the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Yes, I think itd have to be then for me. Music News: As a band who persisted for 10 years before getting record deal, what would your advice be to struggling musicians today awaiting their lucky break? Dan: Just keep at it for as long as you physically can. We were on the verge of running out of money just before we were signed. Our money had dried up and we had no overdraft left. We stuck at it and gave it one final push. Its not just about your efforts though, its also about timing. When we finally emerged, the radios were all playing the same Indie bands and we were offering something different, we were pop and upbeat. We went from being the band that had approached every record label in the land and got a no to being the most played band on British radio. Dont give up! Like our Award Winning facebook page and be entered into a draw to win 1000 CDs including rare, signed and promotional copies here!

Yesterday I mentioned that I use a desktop replacement (or "big honkin' laptop") as my primary PC. Machines like these used to cost a small fortune--or, if they were more affordable, come with weak hardware. No more. Staples has the Toshiba Satellite L775D-S7222 17.3-inch laptop for $479.90 shipped, plus sales tax in some states. That may not seem like such a big deal--I've featured similarly priced desktop replacements in the past--until you see the specs. The Satellite is a quad-core (!) PC powered by AMD's A6-3400M processor, which features an onboard Radeon HD 6250M graphics accelerator. It comes with 6GB of DDR3 RAM (expandable to 8GB) and a 500GB hard drive. Basically, it's got enough ponies under the hood to handle just about anything--including cool games like Portal (which I only just discovered and am officially ga-ga over). Other noteworthy specs include three USB ports, one HDMI output, the all-but-standard DVD burner and Webcam, and Windows 7 Home Premium x64. The keyboard is wide enough to accommodate a separate numeric keypad--always a nice perk for number-crunchers. The only area where the Satellite falls a bit short is the 17.3-inch screen, which, while admirably roomy, has a maximum resolution of 1,600 x 900 pixels. Although that's more than adequate for a screen of that size, and definitely not a showstopper, I'd rather see 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. Amazingly, the system weighs just 6.2 pounds. It's not uncommon for desktop replacements to tip the scales at 9 or even 10 pounds. I'm not saying the Satellite is uber-portable, just that it won't break your back should you need to tote it. CNET hasn't reviewed this model, but 150 or so Staples buyers collectively rated it 4.1 stars out of 5. This might be a good time to mention that the sellout potential here is huge. This is a pretty killer deal on a really nicely spec'd desktop replacement. Bonus deal: Speaking of Portal, it's available for download from Steam for just $9.99. Having just finished it yesterday, I can safely say it's one of my favorite PC games of all time. Now I just need to find Portal 2 for that price! Bonus deal No. 2: Eagle-eyed reader Michael found the Acer Iconia 10-inch Android tablet for $319.95, plus around $10 for shipping. (Incidentally, I found it for even less: $314.30 shipped. I win, Michael! :) It's not an HP TouchPad for $99, but it's still a solid deal on one of the better-rated tablets out there.

However, according to Bain, Promoted Tweets could be most important to the political campaigns, since it works with the site's search function. "People are literally searching for topics and ideas as much as they are for names of campaigns," Bain told Politico. Although advertising hasn't always been a major component in Twitter's business--research firm eMarketer believes the company only made $45 million in revenue last year, compared to about $2 billion for Facebook--it has the user base to potentially generate serious cash. Earlier this month, Twitter announced that it now has 100 million monthly active users, including 50 million who log in to the service each day. What's more, Twitter.com welcomes 400 million unique visitors to its site each month, which could prove extremely lucrative from an advertising perspective. Even so, the microblogging service will have a long way to go to catch Facebook. Just yesterday, eMarketer reported that Facebook is expected to generate $4.27 billion in revenue this year.

I'm a bit less skeptical. Here's why: Maturity - There have been an awful lot of technologies that labored years to achieve a level of capability, completeness, and maturity needed for them to really take hold. The Internet, for example. You know--that thing most of us now don't know how to live without? Inter-networking was born in the early 1970s, but it wasn't until about 1995 that it really took off. When it sparked, the Internet blasted from totally geeky to part of our social and business fabric within three years. It was an overnight success--it just needed 25 years to get there. SMS texting, Facebook, and oh yeah, x86 server virtualization were much the same. I sense a similar "no, no, not really, no, enh, maybe, yes!" progression with virtual desktops. Many of the prerequisites and requirements simply were not met in years past. But now we routinely have high-capacity networks, excellent server consolidation, multimedia-capable VDI technologies, etcetera--these make it a whole different ball game. VDI 2011 is worlds beyond VDI 2008, 2005, or other previous incarnations. The Right Tool for the Job - Mobile users are not the best-use case for desktop virtualization. Unlike those who work in a single office (or on a single campus), we can't be sure of having always-on, low-latency networks. So we tend to take our IT lives with us, on laptops. Salespeople, analysts, those who attend a lot of conferences--if you're looking to us for confirmation that virtual desktops are a good idea, you could have virtual desktops blanket corporations across the world, yet still see low levels of penetration in the extraordinarily mobile. We're trailing indicators. It's also worth noting that I do use GoToMyPC, RDP, and VNC remote desktops--including from the road. They're very useful for accessing apps that live only in one place, as well as for system management and software development. You won't see me using VDI as my one-and-only from the road, but it is part of the mix. Brian seems a fan of client-side virtualization that lets mobile users check out their VMs to their laptops. Me too, though I think it's not quite as well-developed or mainstream yet. In order to get the easier, larger-scale economic wins that get virtual desktop projects funded and approved, most enterprises need to focus on use cases that aren't the hardest, and that cover large user populations. The most mobile users generally aren't the best candidates. The Cloud - Many people do not view Software as a Service (SaaS), cloud computing, or rich Internet applications (RIAs) as part of the desktop virtualization landscape. I think that's a tremendous mistake. Sure, SaaS and VDI tend to use very different technical underpinnings--Web 2.0, not classic Windows desktop stuff. But from an enterprise's point of view, Web apps address many of the same problems: consolidating back-end and support requirements, reducing the cost of serving users, making deployments and updates more flexible, and providing a more scalable way of delivering apps. Most users now either do, or could, spend much of their working lives in the context of a Web browser. Writing documents, fiddling spreadsheets, editing presentations, handling e-mails, filling accounting forms, ordering supplies, learning about the competition, collaborating with co-workers, meeting with partners and prospects--I increasingly do all of these things online. As a content producer, I still spend a good deal of heads-down time in heavyweight apps, but less every year. There's much less of my desktop to be virtualized because it's been so extensively Webized. Brian's right. Pure, unalloyed VDI will be taken up by only a fraction of the desktop market. But pure VDI alone isn't the only thing on the table. IT can pick and choose several different flavors of desktop virtualization, combining them with complementary approaches like application virtualization (e.g., App-V) and Web apps. They're all aimed at a more consolidated, efficient, flexible way of providing IT service--and they're all welcome in my backyard.