(((Not unusual ideas, but rather unusual guys to have saying them in a business blog.)))
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/05/suns-mcnealy-i.html#more
Link: Sun's McNealy: 'I Don't Want to Be On the Network' | Epicenter from Wired.com.
"WOODSIDE, California – At Apple co-founder Mike Markulla's Venetian Hotel-styled private theater in this posh Palo Alto suburb, the chairman of Sun Microsystems, makers of Java, and CEO of Duke Energy, makers of 36,000 megawatts of electricity in coal and nuclear plants, shared the stage.
"Wait, what? (((Yeah, huh?)))
"The CEOs found common ground pushing a vision of the future where light switches are superfluous and any device that uses power is networked, easily automated, and far more energy efficient. (((No kidding. 'Shared vision,' is it? My.)))
Holding up a standard Sun identification card, Sun Chairman of the Board Scott McNealy noted that it was faster than an Apple II computer.
"We can connect anything that is more than a dollar in value," he said. (((Do I hear fifty cents? Oh wait, pretty soon a dollar will be *worth* fifty cents.)))
But McNealy's declaration that he was "over" the network was the real highlight of the hour-long event to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Markulla's post-Apple endeavor, Echelon, which makes sensors and controls for all types of devices.
"I'm over it. I don't want to be on the network," said McNealy. "I want my stuff to be on the network."
(...)
Jim Rogers, Duke Energy's CEO, presented a serious case that the future of networking lies with your toaster, lights and curtains. By turning "dumb" devices into nodes on a smart network, the businessmen said that the entire economy could be restructured to use energy more efficiently. (((Hurry!)))
"I believe the most energy efficient economy is going to be the one that provides the greatest standard of living for its people," Rogers said. (((Seems kinda obvious, although it's the exact opposite of the entire 20th century's conventional wisdom.)))
Rogers also noted that utilities would have to redefine their businesses away from commodity power and start making money by helping their customers control, not just use, their electricity.
"I see embedded in every customer six to eight networks and on each network there's three to five applications," he said. "What if I create value by optimizing those networks and those applications?" (...)
