The Bloor Perspective: Microsoft's lesson in politics and geography, Micromuse looks to wireless, and Oracle Japan thinks for itself

Microsoft's AutoRoute Express - a handy little utility if you happen to get about a bit - had been showing roads across Cyprus with only an unexplained red line to indicate the partition of the country into Greek and Turkish sectors. The Greeks were upset that tourists might suddenly find themselves in the unauthorised Turkish zone, get themselves into trouble and blame them.

Then there was a bit of bother with Kashmir, which, as you may know, is territory disputed between India and Pakistan. The Win95 time zone selection control showed a world map, which you could click on at any point to establish the time there. Either way, the country selected would be highlighted; which, of course, meant showing its borders. And the maps of India and Pakistan each showed only parts of Kashmir - the parts under the control of each. The official maps of India and Pakistan, however, both show Kashmir as entirely theirs. And so protests were registered from those on high to the minion map drawers at Microsoft - prompting the company to switch off the maps altogether.

This is, of course, a global problem that kids, in particular, will exploit - and it seems they've been doing it to get better exam results. Many UK exams are taken by students in Far Eastern countries and it seems a bit of helpful emailing has been going on between them and those who take the same exams a few hours later in the UK. The academic authorities are aware of this new problem but seem at a loss to know what to do about it.

Which makes me wonder about the initiative of American kids. They were generally earlier onto the internet and with a nice four-hour time difference across the country, why haven't they been doing this for years? And if they have, what have the authorities over there been doing about it? It looks an easier nut to crack than the boundaries of political maps. Pity the poor bloke who has to try to draw a map of the former Yugoslavia.

Look mum, no wires!

Enterprise management solutions providers have had a hard time lately. First, they had to deal with the distributed world, then applications were spread across the web and now, of course, the network can include wireless devices. Micromuse has just launched its management capability for the wireless world - one of the first major suppliers to do so.

Netcool/Wireless Service Monitors (WSM) provides a suite of monitors that connect to the various wireless networks and keep check on the availability of the connections, the effectiveness of WAP-based services and measures response times. This information is then fed back into the standard Netcool/OMNIbus environment to provide basic quality of service information to administrators.

In common with service monitors that work across the internet, the amount of management and control that can be exerted is limited by the fact that parts of the network are beyond the control of the application users and providers. The emphasis is placed on checking for basic service delivery items - whether the applications are available, whether they are usable and how they perform.

It is clear that Netcool/WSM is not able to measure the true 'end-user' experience because the monitoring agent does not reside on the user's device. Instead it simulates user activity by making its own connections and testing out parts of the service on offer. Given the erratic nature of most wireless connections and the flakiness of WAP in general, it is quite likely that these 'robot' agents will not be able to provide a true reflection of the service on offer. That fact should not be taken too much to heart because it is not the fault of WSM - or the WAP application - but is a view on the wireless infrastructure currently in place.

This is a solution that is, almost certainly, way ahead of the requirements of most enterprises, but it will have considerable appeal to the ever-growing band of wireless application service providers (WASPs). If this technology is going to become a part of the business IT mainstream then there will be a demand for management. As enterprises start to investigate the role of wireless applications within their organisations, there is some comfort in knowing that there is a management tool out there that will provide some information concerning the quality of service being received.

Oracle pricing harmony?

Following news last week that Oracle is leading the database war against archrivals Microsoft and IBM, it has been announced this week that Oracle Japan is having a bit of a garage sale. In the land of the rising sun, Oracle is discounting database software by 25 per cent with volume discounts going up to 35 per cent.

The Japanese price change, due to be implemented from the start of next month, is the second such reduction so far this year. Oracle Japan had originally streamlined its pricing method to match that of the US company, leaving customers with the choice of per user licences or processor-based licences commonly referred to as universal power unit (UPU).

The Japanese, unlike their American counterparts, welcomed the UPU-based pricing policy with over 70 per cent of customers gaining cost savings by switching to the new model. In the US, the pricing model was met with complaints that it increases costs and in some cases leads to the delay or cancellation of projects.

The actions of Oracle Japan appear to have caused some degree of confusion in the US. The company operates as an independent unit but Oracle Corporation has majority control. While Oracle US is aware of its Japanese counterpart's actions, they have still to translate the press release to fully understand what exactly is going on. Once they've done that we may find out whether such price cuts will be implemented in the US and the rest of the world.

One thing that is for sure is that Oracle hasn't become Oracle without demonstrating a certain degree of business acumen. Like any other large corporation they may have a chequered past but who would bet against Larry keeping his crown?