Hacks in tent uproar at Sun's ‘Net Effect’

Hacks were in uproar today at Sun's New York launch of its "Net Effect" strategy.

After heated encounters at the registration desk first thing, journalists were ferried into a large, sweaty white tent near Central Park for the presentation.

A gaggle of Sun execs, including company president and COO Ed Zander, senior VP chief marketing officer John Loiacono, and senior VP and chief technical officer Greg Papadopoulos, stood on stage under the canvas and preached about Sun's Internet prowess.

Not only were today's product launches - workstations and servers based on the UltraSparc III technology - better than HP and IBM, but Sun was a more forward-thinking company, they claimed. There was no talk of spanking products - unlike at HP's super-server launch in the Big Apple two weeks ago - but it made no bones about the fact that it was the best in its field, in its humble opinion.

To a background of New York police sirens blaring down Broadway, Sun wheeled out customers such as General Motors and McLaren that could barely contain their excitement at Sun's high-tech technology. Meanwhile, the California company got to show off its shiny Sun Blade 1000 workstation and Sure Fire 280R server which use UltraSpark III, while banging on about its lead in the "Net Effect".

After all this chat about Sun's prowess in the Web arena, the assembled journalists traipsed into the press tent looking forward to using a bit of this technology to file their stories over a quiet drink. But behold, not one PC could be found, and the three phone lines on offer did little to satisfy the assembled hack hordes.

Miffed and thirsty, some filed out to find solace in pricey cybercafes, while others decided to plump for the free buffet chicken wings. All seemed less than impressed with Sun's example of the "Net Effect". ®

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