While users may have gasped when they read that System i server revenues plummeted during the second quarter, it's all business as usual, according to the group's GM.

By Chris Smith

IBM Power Systems had a "great quarter," according to Ross Mauri, general manager of IBM Power Systems, who recently returned from a five-week trip around the world, speaking with more than 10,000 customers in 20 countries. The trip, during which Mauri and staff also gave IBM Business Partners a few pointers on how to enhance the value of IBM products and services, sounded like part victory tour, part sales trip, and, undoubtedly, part fact-finding mission that probably exceeded the miles flown by most world leaders trying to generate support for a major foreign policy initiative.

When he came home, Mauri was pleased with the numbers being reported in the second quarter company financials....

The worlds may be virtual, but their future is real.

By Ron Exler (Ptolemy Jacobus in Second Life)

IBM and Linden Lab, creator of the virtual world Second Life (SL), recently announced that they demonstrated virtual world interoperability by teleporting avatars between the Second Life Preview Grid and an OpenSim virtual world server. The companies said that the joint development project "represents an industry first of a quantifiable milestone for virtual world interconnectivity." In related news, Google introduced its virtual world, Lively, at the beginning of July.

But do virtual worlds matter to businesses? Should they?