Today’s the big day. Just shortly after this post, the shareholder’s meeting starts to decide whether HP and Compaq will officially merge (see Reuters story on Yahoo). This has been one of the more interesting stories this year. It’s been a tug-of-war between the old and the new, as HP CEO Carly Fiorina works to bring HP into a space that’s competitive with the IBM Global Services that former IBM CEO Lou Gerstner created. Make no mistake — this deal isn’t about Compaq’s ability to manufacture computers. This deal is almost entirely about the integration and services group at Compaq. A merged company would hold a substantial stake in the lucrative computer services market.

Historically, HP has been a collegial environment, but that will change with this merger. This is what has been troubling the Hewlett families. The employment-for-life, laid back environment of the HP Way (the inspiration for the Apple Way) must change in today’s economy. Until last year, HP had never had a layoff. Pretty amazing, but Fiorina believes that life has changed enough now that HP must change with it.

This vote is as much a vote about Carly Fiorina and her leadership as it is about merging two companies. If this merger fails, it will take all of 10 minutes for Fiorina to clean out her desk. That would likely be a real shame. Although she has had her ups and downs at HP, her vision of HP as an IBM competitor is probably the only way for HP to continue to exist.

This article from Business 2.0, The Island of the Wireless Guerrillas describes a wireless broadband initiative now going on in Hawaii. Essentially, Bill Wiecking is bringing wireless access to areas in Hawaii that have DSL or other broadband connections. He’s doing it by taking standard 802.11b (Wi-Fi) access points and adding amplifiers, antennae, and other equipment to extend the normal range of 802.11b from 300 feet to 26 miles.

This “back to the future” concept was actually the basis for one of the most well known technologies today — Ethernet. The inspiration for Ethernet – CSMA/CD networking – originated in Hawaii with the ALOHAnet, a wireless network that was connected to the ARPAnet in the early 70s. ALOHAnet implemented CSMA/CD — carrier sense, multiple access, collision detect — to deal with the problems of radios transmitting packets at the same time. Bob Metcalfe based his Ph.D. work on improving ALOHAnet, which led him to develop Ethernet [click here for info about Bob]. Norm Abramson was the engineering professor at the University of Hawaii that developed ALOHAnet [click here for info about Norm].

Just had to post this article from FT.COM on the porn industry’s move to cellular phone technology. Wireless carriers and porn producers are signing partnership deals to deliver “adult entertainment” products on cell phones and other handheld devices. Sex has driven many major technology advances and it’s possible that this may start driving the wireless industry towards new killer apps.

If you’ve been following the Movie88 saga, you know that their ISP (Hinet) has shut them down, caving in to the Taiwanese government with caved in to the MPAA. The press release is on their site — I’m sure Jack Valenti must be very proud of himself.

What I want to report is this — Movie88 was not a pirate site. The person who started it is a lawyer who studied the laws in several countries before opening up Movie88. Taiwan was selected because of its laws, not because it was easy to setup a piracy operation.

How can I make this assertion? Two reasons. First, look at the previous posts on this site which point to news articles about Movie88, especially the interview of the founder. Second, a friend of mine who actually paid them $20 get movies got a refund when he asked. He sent them an e-mail and received a credit memo back. That’s not generally indicative of a site intent on piracy. (Those of you that use the site should request a refund also.)

I’m looking forward to Movie88’s return — perhaps they can find some other country to setup the service. Or maybe the MPAA will just get smart and decide that Movie88 was really an opportunity, not a threat. The Movie88 model was a good business model, targeting the right product at the right price. It would even have worked if the MPAA had asked for a 10 to 25 percent royalty. If the MPAA doesn’t decide to allow sites like that to exist, then what will happen is that consumers will not get into the habit of paying for movies delivered on-line. People will subvert the system and a start trading films even more blatantly through the P2P channels, much like they do music today.

Jack — it’s time to learn the lessons that the Internet economy is teaching —