This last installment deals with various Novell-related news that can't be fitted anywhere else.

Novell's Jeff Merkey

Wikipedia deals with a controversial story of drama and misconduct. In thus latest episode, Wikipedia suffered a major blow after this incident involving an indirect exchange of money. Jeff Merkey (of "Novell fame") and Jimmy Wales come under the radar.

The toughest two weeks of Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales's career just became a whole lot worse, with a former chief scientist at one of the world's biggest technology companies claiming Wales traded Wiki edits for donations.

Jeff Merkey, a former computer scientist at Novell, claims Wales told him in 2006 that in exchange for a substantial donation from Merkey, he would edit his uncomplimentary Wikipedia entry to make it more favourable.

Novell, Novacoast and Other Partners

A Novell Platinum Partner, Novacoast, acquires a company.

Bill Long, President of Integrated Network Systems, commented, "We look forward to becoming part of the Novacoast family and are eager to continue and grow our relationship with Novell. This partnership will provide us access to greater resources and expertise in order to grow our business and provide a broader range of solutions and expertise to our customers through Novell product offerings."

Tim Wolfe, North American President of software manufacturer Novell, Inc., said, "The growth of Novacoast into these new markets is good news for Novell and our customers. Novacoast is one of our top solution partners in North America and Integrated Network Systems has been a strong Novell partner in the Gulf Coast for over a decade. The merging of these two great partners will result in a broader adoption of Novell technologies into new and existing customers. It's great to see our partners successfully growing their business by partnering with Novell to develop world-class solutions to their customers' business problems."

Another Novell (and Microsoft) partner, Warren Wyrostek, writes about certifications, including Novell's.

If you have ever taken a Novell exam, a Microsoft exam, a Cisco exam, and/or a CompTIA exam, you probably have been told to answer the questions on the exam the way the given vendor wants you to answer the questions.

Don’t worry if the answer is ridiculous; if you want to get certified, give the Novell answer, or the Microsoft answer, or the Cisco answer, or the CompTIA answer. For the same question, each vendor could potentially have different correct responses. This is maddening at best.

Customers and Products

Novell's software sneaks its way into Corpus Christi.

The City of Corpus Christi chose Touchpaper primarily for its ITIL expertise, and its tight integration with Novell desktop management tools and CiscoWorks Network Management.

GroupWise gets a hand with another new software integration.

Omni Technology Solutions Inc. (Omni) www.omni-ts.com and The Long Reach Corporation, www.infoathand.com, announced the immediate availability of Riva GroupWise Integration for info@hand.

Riva GroupWise Integration for info@hand provides transparent, server-side, bi-directional synchronization of appointments, tasks, notes and contacts between info@hand Customer Relations and Business Management (CRBM) and Novell GroupWise. Opportunities, quotes and cases are synchronized from info@hand to GroupWise. The Riva ConnectBarâ„¢ allows users to open info@hand opportunities, quotes and cases directly from their GroupWise clients. There are no modules to install on the info@hand CRBM server, on the GroupWise server or on the GroupWise clients.

That's about all for this week. Next week will be busier and nosier because of BrainShare. ⬆