When the big boy kicks sand in your face, you can either go home and sulk or make jokes about what big feet the bully has. You’ve gotta love upstart Zoho for taking the second course of action.

An early provider of online productivity applications, Zoho has moved quickly to build out a substantial suite of integrated applications that compete with Google and others in the cloud computing space.

Zoho’s CEO Sridhar Vembu had an entertaining blog post yesterday responding to a Microsoft executive’s reference to “fake Office” products. Earlier this week, Microsoft announced price cuts to its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) by a third, bringing the price down from $15 per user to $10 per month. Google’s App Suite, by comparison, costs $50 per user, per year.

Vembu quotes Ron Markezich, corporate vice president of Microsoft Online, as noting the company offers a scaled-down version of BPOS for $36 a year. And furthermore “…we’re not seeing any inclination that Zoho or Google or Zimbra or any other of those offering fake Office capabilities can replace [Microsoft Office].”

That was all too much of a red flag for Vembu not to charge after:

A pair of bills that would require businesses to notify consumers in the event of a data breach cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, moving on to the full Senate for consideration.

The Data Breach Notification Act, sponsored by Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), would authorize the attorney general to bring civil actions against firms that failed to notify people whose personal information had been compromised in a breach. It would also extend notification requirements to government agencies.

The more comprehensive Personal Data Privacy and Security Act, introduced by Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and co-sponsored by Utah Republican Orrin Hatch and others, would also set notification requirements, as well as tighten criminal penalties for identity theft and willfully concealing information about a breach.

From the 'Open Source Development' files:

Google builds a lot of its own tools as part of its development efforts. Sometimes we get all 'get lucky' and the tools become open source and available too.

That's what has happened today with the Google Closure tools which are a set of JavaScript optimization tools.  Considering the extreme importance of JavaScript in all modern web applications and browsers, it makes sense in my opinion for Google and everyone else to have the best JavaScript code possible.

Among the tools released by Google is the Closure Compiler which aims to compile web apps down into compact, JavaScript code.

"The compiler removes dead code, then rewrites and minimizes what's left so that it will run fast on browsers' JavaScript engines," Google stated. "The compiler also checks syntax, variable references, and types, and warns about other common JavaScript pitfalls."

That's kinda cool, but what's even more impressive in my opinion are the usage mechanisms that Google is making available for the Closure Compiler. In addition to the command-line they've also got a Firefox extension that works with their Page Speed optimization tool.

What that means to me is I can easily check JavaScript on any page and see how the JavaScript can be improved.

That's one heck of a powerful tool to have.

From the 'Former Wang Employees'  files:

Sometimes is not what you know that's important, it's who you know -- right?

This week, Cisco, EMC and VMware entered into a partnership for delivering integrated virtual data center solutions.

Aside from the news itself, one of the most interesting pieces of drama in the whole event was the extreme chumminess between Cisco CEO John Chambers and EMC CEO Joe Tucci.

During the event there were a few back slaps (and the pic left from Cisco shows one of them, that's Chambers on the left and Tucci on the right) and many friendly words shared and said between the two CEOs.

Chambers said at multiple points during the launch press conference how his 20 years of friendship with Tucci helped to make the deal possible. Chambers actually worked for Tucci at one point, when both men were at the now-defunct Wang Labs.

From the 'Shocking Updates' files:

Adobe Shockwave users, it's time to update.

Adobe has issued an updated version of its Shockwave Player to address 5 critical vulnerabilities. The flaws affect  Adobe Shockwave Player 11.5.1.601 and prior versions. The new version is numbered 11.5.2.602.

"The vulnerabilities could allow an attacker, who successfully exploits the vulnerabilities, to run malicious code on the affected system," Adobe stated in its advisory.

Two of the vulnerabilities deal with invalid pointer issues that could lead to arbitrary code execution.

Arbitrary code execution is also the potential end result for two of the other flaws fixed by Adobe in this new Shockwave update. There is an invalid index issue that could also lead to code execution vulnerabilities. As well there is an invalid string length vulnerability that has now been addressed.

A potential Denial of Service (DoS) attack vector is fixed in the Shockwave Player 11.5.2.602 release thanks to a fix for a boundary condition issue.

The  Shockwave Player 11.5.2.602 is the third security update for the Adobe product this year.

In June, Adobe issued the 11.5.2.600 update fixing a critical zero day flaw. That update was followed in July with the 11.5.3.601 update which was related to Microsoft's Active Template Library (ATL) fixes made at the same time.

It looks like AMD and Globalfoundries are going to set up shop in Dubai after taking a hefty chunk of change from an investment firm based in the emirate. AMD CEO Dirk Meyer told Emirates Business that the firm is looking to a open chip design center in Dubai, and maybe a fabrication plant in Abu Dhabi.

"We have chip design centers around the world, including in India and China, and the capabilities by Dubai Silicon Oasis present interesting future opportunities. In time we will [design chips in the UAE], and it's hard to be specific on the time frame. There is a definite opportunity in such a partnership," said Meyer.

The Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA) is a proposed massive integrated technology park intended to create a Silicon Valley for the Middle East to lure offices for the major players in the semiconductor industry, except this would be design on the large scale like everything else in Dubai. The intention is to provide a giant "technology oasis" for all of these firms, with housing, commercial and other considerations all close to work.

But the first priority is a new Globalfoundries fab in Abu Dhabi. "The top priority for AMD is to deepen our partnership with ATIC and Globalfoundries, which continues to expand its partner pool to make sure that infrastructure in Abu Dhabi gets ready for a fabrication plant in the future," said Meyer.

Meyer went on to say that "as a company, we will want to participate fully in the market through our sales and marketing team and make sure people are IT savvy. Acquisitions are not on the agenda presently but could be a possibility over a period of time."

Such talk and interest is not surprising, given Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) owns approximately two-thirds of Globalfoundries' fully-converted common stock and a large chunk of AMD as well. AMD might be bankrupt by now were it not for the ATIC bailout. ATIC's sole shareholder is the government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, making it a state-owned investment firm.

(Two new e-reader entries: left, Spring Design's Alex; right, B&N's Nook.)

Creative Labs, maker of the Zen MP3 player, PC speakers and other hardware, surprised investors by showing off a prototype of a touchscreen e-reader during a recent annual meeting -- and by trash-talking the Kindle.

If reports are true as described by blog EpiZENter, the device is being called the MediaBook for now and features a touchscreen, text-to-speech, SD memory card slot and will offer Internet access. It will be powered on the company's Zii processor.

Though spokesmen for Creative had not returned calls by press time, CEO Sim Wong Hoo wrote in the introduction of the company's most recent earnings filings that new Zii products "can possibly include mobile phones, TV set-top boxes, video conferencing systems, digital signs, netbooks, eBooks and other mobile communication devices."

The MediaBook would join a fleet of fledgling wireless reading devices, including Barnes & Noble's Nook, Sony's Daily Edition, the iRex by iRex Technologies, Que by Plastic Logic and Spring Design's Alex, all chasing after Amazon's front-runner, the Kindle.

However, William Png, Creative's chief of strategic business, believes the MediaBook will stand out from the crowd. He reportedly described the Kindle as "just another electronic device that displays books in text," while the Creative device would appear to be almost an e-reader-multimedia-tablet hybrid that "will harness videos, pictures, text and services in one device that supports a media-rich experience."