Wombat, if you use me as a contrarian indicator, I'll use you as mine for stocks you pick that I have. Although I thrive on buying stocks of weak companies, I don't consider insider selling as one of my criteria. What if they just got a divorce and lost their house to their wife and need to buy a new mansion for cash?
On a lighter subject, here's some recent Sun info. that may impact companies like LKON in the future:
Sun ramps up initiatives to make Java top telco choice
By John Rendleman, PC Week Online
March 29, 1999 9:00 AM ET
Sun Microsystems Inc. is intensifying its push into telecommunications back-office systems with new initiatives to position Java as the platform of choice for next-generation telecom applications.
Sun's goal is to replace the massive legacy systems commonly used by telecommunications providers with more-flexible platforms running Java-based applications. This will enable providers to more quickly bridge the gap between traditional Public Switched Telephone Network services and new IP and data services.
Beginning in May, Sun will deliver on some of the promises set forth last June, when it announced its JAIN (Java in Advanced Intelligent Networks) initiative for creating interoperability between SS7 (Signaling System 7)-based intelligent networks.
First, Sun will publish a Java-based version of the Transaction Capabilities Application Protocol. The specification will let providers deploy intelligent network services, such as call forwarding or call waiting, to IP-based environments.
In June, at the SuperComm trade show in Atlanta, Sun will broaden JAIN's scope by unveiling an open Java architecture for building and managing back-office applications for critical functions, such as service creation, provisioning, management and billing, officials said.
The new architecture, which Sun has not formally named, will consist of software for specific back-office tasks, such as billing services, along with middleware components for building, deploying and managing multiplatform applications, said Paul Tempest-Mitchell, director of advanced network platforms at Sun, in Palo Alto, Calif.
The architecture "will drive back-office functions so [providers] can deploy these systems rapidly and on a large scale," Tempest-Mitchell said. Running on Sun servers, the applications will support "multimillion-subscriber-type deployments," he added.
At SuperComm, Sun will demonstrate several prototype JAIN applications, including voice-over-IP services supporting the Media Gateway Control Protocol and the H.323 specification for multimedia applications running on IP networks.
Sun also will announce new JAIN partners, including France Telecom. The company has already lined up an impressive roster of companies working on JAIN and Java projects, including AT&T Corp., IBM, and several telecommunications equipment manufacturers and service providers.
Java "allows us to get things up and running very quickly," said Julian Craddock, chief technology officer at Saraïde Inc., a San Mateo, Calif., service provider funded by Nortel Networks and others. With Java at the core of its Saraïde.com service, "we can best achieve our goal of connecting any content source out to any type of end device," Craddock said.
At AT&T Laboratories, Java forms the base of the company's Geoplex software platform for creating telecom services. The Geoplex project, which involves creating a software platform for service delivery functions such as authentication, registration, usage recording and billing, is in tests with undisclosed AT&T customers, said a spokesman for the AT&T research division, in Basking Ridge, N.J.
AT&T has made the Geoplex code available to research universities involved in Internet2 for their feedback and to further refine its capabilities, the spokesman said. A general release date for Geoplex has not been set.
The upcoming initiatives substantially broaden Sun's original push to bring Java into the telecommunications world. At JAIN's initial launch last June, "we were concentrating on [solving] the lack of [open-platform support] of SS7 applications," Tempest-Mitchell said. "As we got further into JAIN, it became obvious we could do so much more."
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