Chapter 169: Technology Flow (7)

California is best known for its Hollywood in Los Angeles, but the state capital here is Sacramento, and the name of the tongue-twisting place is reminiscent of the Sacramento Kings, the NBA's former powerhouse.

Oracle is located in Redwood City, the only deep-water port south of San Francisco in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is a small town of 80,000 residents. The city is also most impressive for two companies, EA's headquarters and a Blizzard studio, but the latter will be dismantled at the end of the year.

It's close to the beach and has a pleasant climate, but the only thing Huang Xuan remembers is the description on the family's stove: 2 Senate seats, 53 House seats, 55 electoral votes, the latter two are the first in the United States. This means that California is one of the most politically important states in the United States.

Huang Xuan sat in Lincoln's car, watching the energy screen recall what his mother had instilled in the past, and listening to Oracle employees explain the history of Redwood City and Oracle to him in stammering Chinese. Software companies such as Oracle will have research groups such as the Japan Project Department and the China Project Department, and the number of Asian employees is second only to that of Hispanics, but looking at the performance of this guy in front of him, it is really not complimentary.

Yu Liye's English is not very good, but Gan Lizheng beside him is a turtle, disdainful of listening to this kind of chewing gum-chewing Chinese, tilting his head and asking Huang Xuan: "Mr. Huang, what is your purpose this time?" ”

Huang Xuan smiled incomprehensibly and shook his head without mentioning it. Gan Lizheng pursed his lips, he didn't quite believe that the two cryptographic algorithms that Huang Xuan came up with were made by him, but there was indeed no similar algorithm on the market, and he was also quite curious when he came to Oracle this time.

Coming to receive it was Oracle's marketing director, Mark Murphy. Jarvis, he wore a gray "color" suit with a black "color" lapel and a thin "wool" jacket. The nearly 60-year-old Californian has high cheekbones and two deep eye sockets, and if he sees it at night, he will definitely be startled, but he is quite enthusiastic, but he recognizes the wrong person, mistakenly thinking that Yu Liye is the chairman of Hexin Industrial in Citi's invitation letter.

Of course, according to his age, Yu Liye is in his prime, which is indeed very in line with the theory of a rich man. But he himself just smiled and introduced Huang Xuandao: "This is the chairman of Hexin Industry, Mr. Huang Xuan." ”

A short sentence, the translation is also very accurate, Mark immediately patted his head in embarrassment, and apologized: "I didn't expect Mr. Huang to be so young, really young." ”

Huang Xuan shook his hand disapprerovingly and said in English: "Most people think so. ”

After a casual greeting, Mark obviously thought that Huang Xuan wanted to buy their database system, so he focused on introducing the latest version of their database, 10G, and said: "Oracle is the only company in the world that can implement global e-commerce solutions for customer relationship management - 'operation' application - platform facilities, Mr. Huang's business is located in Brazil and China, I believe that using Oracle's solution will definitely save you a lot of office costs." ”

Huang Xuan raised his eyebrows and said, "Actually, I also have a database system in my hand, if I can, I want to compare the two systems." ”

“OK。” Mark didn't expect it to be so easy to reach, and he instructed his men to prepare, "The whole world believes that Oracle is the best database management company in the world. ”

"IBM and Microsoft are also interested in entering this space?" Huang Xuan replied casually.

"They're not the climate yet." Marker paused: "Just this year, we have acquired Renke and Xibo Software, which has greatly strengthened Oracle's strength in enterprise software and customer relationship software, and to put it mildly, if IBM also uses our solution, the cost can be reduced by 10%."

Reducing costs has always been a trick that Oracle is known for, and in Harvard's classic case, Oracle's $1 billion reduction plan is listed.

Huang Xuan has done his homework on the plane, seeing more than a dozen professionals busy preparing for the start-up, he smiled secretly in his heart, the software in his hand comes from IBM DB2 9 a few years later, codenamed Viper, this is IBM sounded the horn to enter the database market, its characteristic "sex" is that it can be seamlessly compatible with the hierarchical database and the relational database information system platform, although now, the application of the hierarchical "sex" database is far less extensive than the relational data, But it represents the way of the future: pureXML (Pure XML, Extensible Annotation Language Technology).

Although the HTML used by the Internet is good at layout and appearance, it lacks the ability to express the content, which makes it difficult for Internet users to find useful information for themselves. Specifically, HTML is good at human-computer interaction, but it can't support the interaction between machines well. We know that search engines use web spiders, or machines, to collect information about websites, and that the HTML design structure of each website is different, and it includes many tags that look very similar. The biggest difference between XML and HTML is that you can customize tags, which can be defined as a form that fully conveys your intentions, so that web spiders can easily find the corresponding content and categorize it. At the same time, because it is based on Unicode, it is possible to define multiple Chinese languages, including Chinese.

In the mouth of professionals, XML has excellent genes, but because it is not compatible with relational databases (XML is hierarchical), the use of XML in existing database software, like an application simulator, will greatly affect the "sex".

Now, Oracle is aware of the XML problem and is working on developing an information platform that is compatible with hierarchical and relational databases, but by the time they made the finished product, it was already three years later, and IBM was almost ahead of the curve.

Even Microsoft is on the verge of a decline in Oracle's famously relational database.

Of course, Oracle may not need to come up with such an advanced database this year, XML has not yet become popular, and few companies have similar needs, but what Huang Xuan has in his hands represents something else: patents.

The U.S. Patent Office is subordinate to the Department of Commerce, and the administrative officers of the Department of Commerce, who usually belong to the ruling party, are now owned by the Republican Party (for example, the director of the patent office is the administrative officer, who is served by a professional politician, and the deputy director is the administrative officer, who is not affected by the change of party affiliation and cannot be dismissed without reason).

Senator Melvin even greeted the Commerce Department through her aides, as Ms. Huang assured her on the phone that she would make a large donation in the year-end elections — in the United States, being able to donate and being able to raise donations are the top priorities for politicians.

Holding these patents, Huang Xuan was a little afraid to imagine the expressions of the gentlemen of Oracle. The reason why DB29 is codenamed Viper is a reflection of IBM's expectations for it, and after 3 years in advance, in the face of Oracle, which has not even prepared a stick, Viper can swallow them in one bite.

A guy who was said to be a senior engineer had adjusted the testing machine, walked over with his hands, nodded at Mark, and then said to Huang: "Mr. Huang, you can try it, this is a special modification for us according to the situation in Brazil and China." ”

This is the case with large companies, they have already designed a model for the supposed business object to use, and can put it on when needed, Huang Xuan was silent, and Gan Li was standing at the front, listening to the engineer's speech.

Huang Xuan took out a CD from the inner pocket of his upper suit, handed it to Mark, and said, "Mr. Jarvis, can you install this database and try it?" ”

“OK。” Although this kind of thing is not often encountered, Mark still handed the disc to the staff next to him and asked casually, "Which company's product is this?" ”

"Xinye Company." Huang Xuan's answer made Yu Liye a little overwhelmed, but when he looked at Huang Xuan's eyes again, he immediately lowered his head.

Mark is a little suspicious, just like Yu Liye said, the cost of developing a database software will definitely be too high to impoverish a small company, on the other hand, the mainstream of the market is still relational databases, and the main reason why IBM and Microsoft can't make databases with similar functions and costs is that Oracle owns most of the patents.

Spending a lot of money to make database software with someone else's patent is definitely a ridiculous thing in the world. Mark doesn't believe a 3billion billionaire could be so stupid.

The two engineers debugged it again, but they couldn't enter the background management of the software anyway, Huang Xuanshi walked over, typed in a string of passwords, and then tasted coffee again. All the contents of this disk are encrypted using a futuristic algorithm, which Huang Xuan calls No. 3, and as long as it is not sold on the market, the energy consumption caused by this algorithm will be very small.

The new interface gave Mark a sense of familiarity, in fact, by the time the software started running, Mark was already very familiar with the interface.

It's completely Oracle style, but Oracle doesn't have the same interface yet.

This made the Oracle employees present a little angry, and one engineer was very dissatisfied: "This is plagiarism." ”

"Patent law allows me to do that." Huang Xuan glanced back at him and said to Mark: "Seamlessly compatible with hierarchical databases and relational databases, if necessary, the two parts can be split and sold." ”

A familiar interface will make it easier to sell, for example, people are familiar with ORD, and if Kingsoft wants to sell well, it must learn and learn more, and in this regard, the definition of patent law is very weak.

"Huh?" Mark wasn't actually very familiar with these technical problems, but the technician next to him had heard it clearly, and the highest-ranking engineer on the scene glared at him and said, "This can't be, you are, this is naked plagiarism." ”

"If you read it, you wouldn't say that." Huang Xuan said with peace of mind, this database system is from IBM, and the reason why IBM took so long to enter the database market is to circumvent Oracle's patents, of course, there may be one or two patents in the ranks that have not expired, but that is not the point, and after the market decides the ownership, some lawyers can carry out such a protracted lawsuit until the patent expires.

The new database software has no drawbacks other than some resource consumption, Mark asked the technician next to him in a low voice, and soon his face turned pale.

Oracle's founder and CEO, Larry Murphy. Ellison crouched on the table with tomorrow's speech written, and he liked to bite the shaft of the pen to deliberate, not the tip of the pen, but the middle of the shaft like a dog biting a bone, as if it would help him find balance.

"I'd be surprised if we didn't do this project." Ellison bit the pen again and said to himself, "Maybe it's a little ...... to use the word project."

His secretary knocked on the door slightly, and Ellison said impatiently, "I'm busy." ”

"I'm sorry, sir." The secretary did not leave and continued: "Mr. Mark is in trouble, he says, big trouble. ”

"He's always exaggerating." Ellison didn't look up and crossed out the "project."

Nussbaum agrees that this is a big problem. Nussbaum is Vice President and is familiar with technical issues within the group.

Ellison finally put down his pen, straightened his clothes, got up and opened the door, "If it's not a nuisance that has to be taken in, I'll wring their heads off." ”

"As long as it's not mine." The secretary didn't know what was going on, but still made a joke.

……

Huang Xuan sat on the sofa with his legs crossed, feeling like kicking the hall, only to see that the people in the room had clear barriers, the technicians gathered together to look at Huang Xuan angrily, and Mark and the others greeted Huang Xuan with unchanged expressions. Oracle's top officials are all professional managers, they fight for the interests of Oracle, but they will not work hard because of Oracle, who knows if the young people in front of you will become your boss in 1 hour, they just need to do their own thing.

Ellison hurried out of the special elevator, his shirt tied on and his head twisted on the way, and his leather shoes shiny.

At this time, it was already 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and many employees who left early could see the sound of Ellison walking briskly on the road, and most of them did not dodge, but guessed the whereabouts of the company's largest shareholder.

Nussbaum waited at the door, saw Ellison, immediately opened the door, leaned his head into his ear and whispered what had just happened, and said, "I'm sure I've applied for a patent." ”

Ellison nodded slightly, and instead of entering the inner room, he asked first, "What do you think?" ”

"It's much more advanced than 10G." Nussbaum also shook his head with some regret: "If it is a new product from Microsoft, it is possible." ”

"Is it his, then?"

"The patent applied for the day before yesterday." Nussbaum said softly, "It does belong to him." ”

"I see." Ellison said that, he walked into the room with a smile, looked around, easily found Huang Xuan, and said with a smile: "Hello Mr. Huang, I didn't neglect you." ”

"The coffee was delicious." Huang Xuan raised his glass.

"That's good." Ellison went around in circles as he spoke, and wanted to talk about database software.

Huang Xuan followed him around, and when he couldn't say clearly, he pretended that his pronunciation was inaccurate, or he couldn't understand it, which made Eric unable to discuss professional "sex" issues at all, he originally thought that he was just a very good child to deal with, but he didn't expect that the other party was also familiar with the negotiation table, wasted more than ten minutes, and finally mentioned the software in Huang Xuan's hand, and said: "Mr. Huang's own database software? ”

"Let's talk about it." Huang Xuan smiled, whether the database software is good or not, it is easy to understand, as for whether it is good or not, that is another matter.

Erison Nunu smiled at the people around him, "Compared to Japanese things, it's indeed a lot better." ”

Several people laughed. Huang Xuan just smiled faintly and said: "It's really hard for me to evaluate whether it's a few years ahead of Oracle's technology, but if Oracle isn't interested, I'll cooperate with IBM." ”

Ellison is actually more afraid of IBM than Microsoft, and the blue giant has always been a giant, an unrivaled behemoth, and every time its reaction is a little more agile, the market shrinks by 5%.

Ellison didn't know that Huang Xuan had already seen through his hole cards, and still wanted to steal the chicken and said, "OK, $30 million, pay in cash." ”

"If you count the patents, it will cost $2 billion, or, cash plus equity."

"Are you crazy?" Ellison could scarcely believe that Huang Xuan would make such an excessive condition.