First because I've attended all but one of these events - I was still posted overseas when the first one happened - and that means I'm intensely aware of being in the distinguished company of those who've spoken before me.
But second, because Andrew Olle was a good friend of mine, and probably the colleague I most admired as well. We first became friends in 1979, on the then-new program Nationwide. The program was led by John Penlington, a pioneer of current affairs television in Australia in the early days of Four Corners. Paul Murphy, Jenny Brockie, Richard Carleton and Geraldine Doogue were among the reporters and presenters. But Andrew stood out. He came to Nationwide already fully armoured as a journalist - Years of standing up to Joh 'feed the chooks' Bjelke Petersen saw to that. In fact one of Andrew's badges of honour was that Joh ended up refusing to talk to him.
We were friends from that time on, and we worked together again on Four Corners in the late eighties and early nineties. Andrew was a perfectionist and a stickler for facts. He also had a remarkable journalistic eye. Like every other reporter on the program, I used to write links for him to read before and after the story I'd put together. Andrew would retire to his office and shut his door, and after awhile, like every other reporter on the program, I'd find that he had torn my links apart and come up with something completely different. It would have been annoying, but in almost every case you had to admit that he'd improved on your work. He had a particular talent for finding the one key aspect of the story you hadn't emphasised enough, and bringing it to light.
Andrew was also at the time Australia's best interviewer. I think someone described it as tactful tenacity: but the fact that, as so many people remarked after his death, his politics were a mystery even to his friends, meant that he could be equally tough on either side. And Andrew's principles of interviewing, built around the base of close listening and short, well-researched questions, were just as effective in morning radio here in Sydney as they were in cross-questioning Bob Hawke or Alan Bond on Four Corners.
I still can't think without strong emotion of the day I answered the phone on assignment in Venice, of all places, to hear the news that Andrew Olle had been struck down. Whatever else happens tonight, please do give as much as you can to the evening's principal cause: research into brain tumours. Andrew was 47 when he died: as Annette and Nick and Sam and Nina would tell you, and as so many of his friends and his audience would agree, much, much too young.
It's Andrew I think of when I read, as I do daily now, attacks on what are variously called "old media", dead tree media", the MSM, for Main Stream Media, or the Lamestream media. Andrew with his meticulous attention to facts and his scrupulous fairness represented the best of old media. And let me say right up front, because much of what I say tonight will sound bleak or even apocalyptic, that I'm a journalism romantic.
I joined the ABC as a half-English dilettante with an arts degree and a Pommy accent. I remember going for an interview at the Herald. First mistake - I went to the Hunter St office, which was just their corporate headquarters, not the actual newspaper. Then I asked someone the way, but apparently the way I said 'Herald' was unintelligible, because I ended up at Harold Park. I did make it to Broadway on time despite all that, but the Herald found my minimal charm and talent easy to resist. Somehow, Aunty, where the BBC voice was still pretty prevalent in those days, saw something in me and, stylish in a denim jacket with patch pockets and a pair of flared trousers, I turned up on February the eleventh 1974 at 164 William St, headquarters of ABC News.
It was a time of turmoil in Australia and elsewhere. Gough Whitlam was Prime Minister. President Nixon was in trouble at home over Watergate, and losing the war overseas in Vietnam.
Britain, where I'd been at university until the previous year, was sinking further into a slough of intractable industrial disputes, three day weeks and power cuts. The Cultural Revolution in China was still not over, Brezhnev's stultifying rule still had a decade to run in the Soviet Union.
And so it was that a mere two months later, on what was effectively cadet work experience in Canberra, with most of my colleagues at lunch in the late lamented non-Members' bar, I found myself writing the ABC News story of the double dissolution of Parliament and the announcement of the Federal election.
"The aide said", wrote Suskind, "that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
So here we all are, and I imagine most of us here tonight would categorise ourselves as the reality based community, but we too are beleaguered.
Here in Australia we still regulate the airwaves. Not often, but sometimes. ACMA famously ordered fact-checking training for Alan Jones after he repeatedly used figures which were - egregiously - scientifically and mathematically wrong about carbon dioxide. But even if this has the desired effect on Jones, which I doubt, it's still shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. You no longer need Fox News or radio shock jocks to feed your prejudices and screen out the facts. You just create a world where you get all your news from the twitter and Facebook and blog sources you've chosen. And that world's already upon us. A September Pew research study showed that a third of under thirties in the US already get their news from social media - far, far more than newspapers and equal with TV. Australia's famously a land of technological early adopters, and I believe the figures here would be similar.
2012年11月4日星期日
2012年10月30日星期二
Microsoft rips a page from Spotify's playbook to take on iTunes
Apple has been the king of the digital music world for most of the last decade, and its iTunes Store continues to dominate the online music industry despite recent challenges from Amazon and Google. The combination of a tightly-integrated storefront and killer hardware gave Apple a combination that other competitors were unable to match — but just as consumers started shifting from physical to digital media a decade ago, we're at the beginning of another sea change in music. Companies like Spotify, MOG, and Rdio have emerged over the last few years, offering the promise of all the music you can handle anywhere you go, for the same price each month that you'd pay iTunes for a mere ten songs.
While Apple hasn't yet mustered a response to this growing trend, sticking with its hugely successful virtual record store model, Microsoft just announced it's ready to take on the streaming competition. The new Xbox Music is an all-in-one service that's equal parts iTunes and Spotify — while Microsoft is keeping the same a la carte store that it has offered for years, it's augmenting that with an updated version of its Zune Pass streaming service. For the first time, Microsoft will offer free, ad-supported streaming to anyone using a Windows 8 PC — just like Spotify — or a Windows 8 or RT tablet. There's also a Pandora-style Smart DJ feature for making artist-specific "stations," and for $9.99 a month, users can access also sync music to their Windows Phone 8 device and Xbox 360.
With this new service, Microsoft isn't directly trying to beat Apple — it's going after Spotify, Rdio, and all the rest of the streaming players out there. If Microsoft can be successful, Apple will be in the unfamiliar position of having to play catch-up in the digital music space for the first time. Success for Microsoft is far from assured — the company hasn't made much of a dent in the music world thus far — but it's hoping to use the strength of the Xbox brand, the ubiquity of the Xbox 360 console, and the wave of interest in its massive Windows 8 redesign to carve out a place of strength in the streaming world.
"We really wanted to build something from the ground up that solved a consumer problem," says Jerry Johnson, GM of Xbox Music. "It was clear to us that rebranding Zune doesn't solve the problem." Chief among the issues Johnson's team identified was the fragmented music experience many consumers have to deal with. Many music listeners have legacy collections of MP3s and also now use streaming services, sometimes more than one — Microsoft hopes to offer them a single experience that encompasses all listening options. Easier discovery and sharing of new music is another area that the company hopes to improve upon. "We wanted to do this with an all-in-one solution — music shouldn't be work, it should just work," Johnson says.
Social has long been an Achilles' heel for Apple, and iTunes continues to be no exception. As the software and store are based off an ownership model, users are not permitted to share songs with each other — the only built-in option is sharing links to songs in the iTunes Store via Facebook, Twitter, or email. Ping, Apple's recently-shuttered, first-party attempt at a social music service, was one of the company's most uninspired products and a perfect example of how out-of-touch Apple can be when it comes to the web. Sooner or later, that's going to have to change — if Apple ever launches a music service that isn't based on a la carte purchasing, social integration and easy sharing of music will need to be at the forefront, and the company hasn't yet really proved it's up to the task.
For its part, Microsoft is certainly not downplaying social, but nor is it going overboard at launch. "Sharing of music is very important," Johnson says, "and it's something we believe needs to be done in a measured and careful way." Specifically, Johnson's referring to "passive" sharing via the social graph and Facebook — "the hardcore group will like it if their friends are very much music enthusiasts, but you'll also hear a big group say they get very annoyed at the volume of things that flow through there." Xbox Music allows for active sharing via the Windows 8 charm bar, but passive sharing won't be implemented until next year. In addition to the "overshare," Johnson also wants to protect users who might not want to share their "guilty pleasure" listening habits to all of their friends on Facebook — though Johnson wasn't able to share how it'll overcome these pitfalls.
As important as those social hooks are, it's the integration with smartphones and tablets that really makes this generation of streaming, subscription services a viable option compared to their predecessors from the mid-2000s. For years, the vertically integrated iTunes and iPod combo was untouched by competition, but the launch of Apple's App Store in 2008 helped to break up this stranglehold. Finally, competing services had a way into Apple's hardware, which was previously locked down as tight as a bank. As iOS users now have a wide variety of music services to choose from, it seemed that Apple would have to offer streaming services of its own — but Apple's only move into the cloud has been iTunes Match.
While Apple hasn't yet mustered a response to this growing trend, sticking with its hugely successful virtual record store model, Microsoft just announced it's ready to take on the streaming competition. The new Xbox Music is an all-in-one service that's equal parts iTunes and Spotify — while Microsoft is keeping the same a la carte store that it has offered for years, it's augmenting that with an updated version of its Zune Pass streaming service. For the first time, Microsoft will offer free, ad-supported streaming to anyone using a Windows 8 PC — just like Spotify — or a Windows 8 or RT tablet. There's also a Pandora-style Smart DJ feature for making artist-specific "stations," and for $9.99 a month, users can access also sync music to their Windows Phone 8 device and Xbox 360.
With this new service, Microsoft isn't directly trying to beat Apple — it's going after Spotify, Rdio, and all the rest of the streaming players out there. If Microsoft can be successful, Apple will be in the unfamiliar position of having to play catch-up in the digital music space for the first time. Success for Microsoft is far from assured — the company hasn't made much of a dent in the music world thus far — but it's hoping to use the strength of the Xbox brand, the ubiquity of the Xbox 360 console, and the wave of interest in its massive Windows 8 redesign to carve out a place of strength in the streaming world.
"We really wanted to build something from the ground up that solved a consumer problem," says Jerry Johnson, GM of Xbox Music. "It was clear to us that rebranding Zune doesn't solve the problem." Chief among the issues Johnson's team identified was the fragmented music experience many consumers have to deal with. Many music listeners have legacy collections of MP3s and also now use streaming services, sometimes more than one — Microsoft hopes to offer them a single experience that encompasses all listening options. Easier discovery and sharing of new music is another area that the company hopes to improve upon. "We wanted to do this with an all-in-one solution — music shouldn't be work, it should just work," Johnson says.
Social has long been an Achilles' heel for Apple, and iTunes continues to be no exception. As the software and store are based off an ownership model, users are not permitted to share songs with each other — the only built-in option is sharing links to songs in the iTunes Store via Facebook, Twitter, or email. Ping, Apple's recently-shuttered, first-party attempt at a social music service, was one of the company's most uninspired products and a perfect example of how out-of-touch Apple can be when it comes to the web. Sooner or later, that's going to have to change — if Apple ever launches a music service that isn't based on a la carte purchasing, social integration and easy sharing of music will need to be at the forefront, and the company hasn't yet really proved it's up to the task.
For its part, Microsoft is certainly not downplaying social, but nor is it going overboard at launch. "Sharing of music is very important," Johnson says, "and it's something we believe needs to be done in a measured and careful way." Specifically, Johnson's referring to "passive" sharing via the social graph and Facebook — "the hardcore group will like it if their friends are very much music enthusiasts, but you'll also hear a big group say they get very annoyed at the volume of things that flow through there." Xbox Music allows for active sharing via the Windows 8 charm bar, but passive sharing won't be implemented until next year. In addition to the "overshare," Johnson also wants to protect users who might not want to share their "guilty pleasure" listening habits to all of their friends on Facebook — though Johnson wasn't able to share how it'll overcome these pitfalls.
As important as those social hooks are, it's the integration with smartphones and tablets that really makes this generation of streaming, subscription services a viable option compared to their predecessors from the mid-2000s. For years, the vertically integrated iTunes and iPod combo was untouched by competition, but the launch of Apple's App Store in 2008 helped to break up this stranglehold. Finally, competing services had a way into Apple's hardware, which was previously locked down as tight as a bank. As iOS users now have a wide variety of music services to choose from, it seemed that Apple would have to offer streaming services of its own — but Apple's only move into the cloud has been iTunes Match.
2012年10月24日星期三
Nokia to bring division from Itasca to Chicago
Nokia will move its Mobile Phones Xpress Internet Services division from Itasca to Chicago starting later this year, bringing 150 jobs to the West Loop.
The company and Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the move Tuesday at 425 W. Randolph St., where the Finnish technology company has its Chicago office. Nokia also plans to add 100 local tech jobs to its Location & Commerce business. Nokia expanded that business with its 2008 acquisition of digital mapping company Navteq and is making a big push with its mapping services, particularly on mobile phones and in-dash vehicle navigation systems.
The Chicago office, with about 1,200 employees, is Nokia's largest in North America. The move from Itasca and the new hires will push the count close to 1,500. There were no financial incentives involved in moving the Itasca team to Chicago.
"We've been perfecting digital maps for more than 15 years in the Chicago area," said Ogi Redzic, vice president, traffic, at Nokia Location & Commerce. "To help achieve that, we're actively recruiting for employees in Chicago."
The Location & Commerce unit also has operations in Boston and Berlin. Nokia has sensor-equipped cars driving around 190 countries to gather mapping data and provides turn-by-turn navigational guidance in about 110 countries.
Emanuel met with Stephen Elop, global CEO of Nokia, on Aug. 1 to discuss the company's move and its broader plans for Chicago. On Tuesday, the mayor returned to his frequent theme of touting Chicago's standing as a high-tech job center.
"We are making Chicago not only a center for technology, a center for research and development ... in fact, the technology will now be developed, enhanced and shipped around the world to Nokia's centers in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and other developing economies," Emanuel said. "Now, I think this is another example, when it comes to what I would say is the Second City, we are not second to anybody in developing this technology."
In August, Nokia announced a partnership with Chicago-based daily deals company Groupon to integrate real-time Groupon Now offers into the Nokia Maps function on Lumia smartphones. Lumia devices run Microsoft's Windows Phone operating software. Nokia is anchoring its smartphones on Windows mobile software as part of a partnership with Microsoft sealed last year.
The company and Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the move Tuesday at 425 W. Randolph St., where the Finnish technology company has its Chicago office. Nokia also plans to add 100 local tech jobs to its Location & Commerce business. Nokia expanded that business with its 2008 acquisition of digital mapping company Navteq and is making a big push with its mapping services, particularly on mobile phones and in-dash vehicle navigation systems.
The Chicago office, with about 1,200 employees, is Nokia's largest in North America. The move from Itasca and the new hires will push the count close to 1,500. There were no financial incentives involved in moving the Itasca team to Chicago.
"We've been perfecting digital maps for more than 15 years in the Chicago area," said Ogi Redzic, vice president, traffic, at Nokia Location & Commerce. "To help achieve that, we're actively recruiting for employees in Chicago."
The Location & Commerce unit also has operations in Boston and Berlin. Nokia has sensor-equipped cars driving around 190 countries to gather mapping data and provides turn-by-turn navigational guidance in about 110 countries.
Emanuel met with Stephen Elop, global CEO of Nokia, on Aug. 1 to discuss the company's move and its broader plans for Chicago. On Tuesday, the mayor returned to his frequent theme of touting Chicago's standing as a high-tech job center.
"We are making Chicago not only a center for technology, a center for research and development ... in fact, the technology will now be developed, enhanced and shipped around the world to Nokia's centers in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and other developing economies," Emanuel said. "Now, I think this is another example, when it comes to what I would say is the Second City, we are not second to anybody in developing this technology."
In August, Nokia announced a partnership with Chicago-based daily deals company Groupon to integrate real-time Groupon Now offers into the Nokia Maps function on Lumia smartphones. Lumia devices run Microsoft's Windows Phone operating software. Nokia is anchoring its smartphones on Windows mobile software as part of a partnership with Microsoft sealed last year.
2012年10月22日星期一
BMW Urban Mobility
The ITS World Congress is the premier international exhibition for devices, technologies and services associated with intelligent traffic systems. This year’s exhibition hosts a total of 300 exhibitors. The exhibition at the ITS World Congress in 2012 has the motto “smarter on the way”, and it has attracted all the key companies and innovators in this area. The exhibitors cover all aspects of traffic systems including complex information and communication systems, advanced navigation and payment systems through to the areas of safety, ecology and electromobility.
The BMW Group presents innovations from BMW ConnectedDrive at the ITS World Congress under the motto “BMW Urban Mobility”. BMW ConnectedDrive is the BMW Group’s definition of Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS), because BMW ConnectedDrive provides the occupants of the vehicle and the vehicle itself with an intelligent network to connect them with the outside world. This network offers customers more safety, comfort and infotainment whether it is through driver assistance systems, navigation options or personalized entertainment. The network permits innovations for urban mobility that make interaction with city traffic even safer, more efficient and more convenient. The BMW Group stand presents App and vehicle-based routing functions, safety systems and solutions for mobility on two wheels.
Going about your business quickly and smoothly in a densely populated city is a big challenge. How can I get to my destination on time? Will there be any free parking spaces when I arrive? Where is the nearest charging point for my electric car? Will I be quicker with Park+Ride? The Mobility Assistant from the BMW Group will provide all the answers to these questions in future. It is currently being tested in Berlin as an iPhone application. This service is going to provide individual, intermodal navigation. When you enter a destination, the mobility assistant will display various routes to allow you to reach this destination cost-effectively and quickly – whether you are travelling by car, using suburban public transport or combining the two modes of travel.
“The Mobility Assistant is an initial step towards the reality of actual intermodal traffic use. The objective is to ensure mobility over a range of different modes of transport. This is empowering the BMW Group to support mobility sustainably and tailored to individual needs,” according to Martin Hauschild, Head of Traffic Technology and Traffic Management at the BMW Group. For example, all drivers with BMW cars equipped with ConnectedDrive encompassing RTTI (Real Time Traffic Information) are in a position to obtain the latest information about traffic conditions on the road. This new service is updated every three minutes and shows the current rates of traffic flow on the roads in five stages (gridlocked, congested, heavy traffic, slow-moving traffic, flowing normally).
The concept of intermodal routing is optimally enhanced by the DriveNow package available in Munich, Düsseldorf, Berlin and San Francisco. This Premium Car Sharing with BMW and MINI automobiles is independent of car-hire stations. This service is now available in four cities and is proving to be extremely popular. You can get mobile after completing a simple registration process. If you need a car, the DriveNow App displays the nearest DriveNow vehicle in the vicinity. After you have finished your journey, you can simply park the vehicle at your destination and another driver will be able to use it from that location.
BMW subsumes two functions under the concept of “Urban Navigation” both of which use local “traffic knowledge” to make navigation in cities faster, simpler and more predictable, particularly during rush-hour periods: adaptive navigation and strategic routing. “The BMW Group highlights its leadership role in intelligent and networked route management with the functions of urban navigation,” explained Martin Hauschild, Head of Traffic Technology and Traffic Management at the BMW Group. With strategic routing, the BMW Group is working together with cities to make traffic management data such as information about temporary disruptions (roadworks) or events and strategic diversion recommendation accessible to navigation systems and to take this into account in route planning. These future routing options create a route based on adaptive traffic management that takes local traffic planning into account and enables you to have a smooth drive through the city with minimum impact on the environment.
The BMW Group presents innovations from BMW ConnectedDrive at the ITS World Congress under the motto “BMW Urban Mobility”. BMW ConnectedDrive is the BMW Group’s definition of Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS), because BMW ConnectedDrive provides the occupants of the vehicle and the vehicle itself with an intelligent network to connect them with the outside world. This network offers customers more safety, comfort and infotainment whether it is through driver assistance systems, navigation options or personalized entertainment. The network permits innovations for urban mobility that make interaction with city traffic even safer, more efficient and more convenient. The BMW Group stand presents App and vehicle-based routing functions, safety systems and solutions for mobility on two wheels.
Going about your business quickly and smoothly in a densely populated city is a big challenge. How can I get to my destination on time? Will there be any free parking spaces when I arrive? Where is the nearest charging point for my electric car? Will I be quicker with Park+Ride? The Mobility Assistant from the BMW Group will provide all the answers to these questions in future. It is currently being tested in Berlin as an iPhone application. This service is going to provide individual, intermodal navigation. When you enter a destination, the mobility assistant will display various routes to allow you to reach this destination cost-effectively and quickly – whether you are travelling by car, using suburban public transport or combining the two modes of travel.
“The Mobility Assistant is an initial step towards the reality of actual intermodal traffic use. The objective is to ensure mobility over a range of different modes of transport. This is empowering the BMW Group to support mobility sustainably and tailored to individual needs,” according to Martin Hauschild, Head of Traffic Technology and Traffic Management at the BMW Group. For example, all drivers with BMW cars equipped with ConnectedDrive encompassing RTTI (Real Time Traffic Information) are in a position to obtain the latest information about traffic conditions on the road. This new service is updated every three minutes and shows the current rates of traffic flow on the roads in five stages (gridlocked, congested, heavy traffic, slow-moving traffic, flowing normally).
The concept of intermodal routing is optimally enhanced by the DriveNow package available in Munich, Düsseldorf, Berlin and San Francisco. This Premium Car Sharing with BMW and MINI automobiles is independent of car-hire stations. This service is now available in four cities and is proving to be extremely popular. You can get mobile after completing a simple registration process. If you need a car, the DriveNow App displays the nearest DriveNow vehicle in the vicinity. After you have finished your journey, you can simply park the vehicle at your destination and another driver will be able to use it from that location.
BMW subsumes two functions under the concept of “Urban Navigation” both of which use local “traffic knowledge” to make navigation in cities faster, simpler and more predictable, particularly during rush-hour periods: adaptive navigation and strategic routing. “The BMW Group highlights its leadership role in intelligent and networked route management with the functions of urban navigation,” explained Martin Hauschild, Head of Traffic Technology and Traffic Management at the BMW Group. With strategic routing, the BMW Group is working together with cities to make traffic management data such as information about temporary disruptions (roadworks) or events and strategic diversion recommendation accessible to navigation systems and to take this into account in route planning. These future routing options create a route based on adaptive traffic management that takes local traffic planning into account and enables you to have a smooth drive through the city with minimum impact on the environment.
2012年8月16日星期四
Boundary punts chargeless app ecology from the clouds
Application ecology apparatus provider Boundary, which alone peddles its articles as a account active on a cloud, is alms abeyant barter a chargeless adaptation of the account to alarm up some business.
The aggregation is aswell rolling out a 2.0 absolution of the eponymous app ecology account while at the aforementioned time partnering with belvedere billow provider Engine Yard to accommodate Boundary into its own cloud.
Gary Read, who came on lath Boundary beforehand this year to be CEO, is no drifter to blurred tools. Read was architect and CEO of Nimsoft, which created a set of cloud-based accoutrement aimed at allowance account providers administer their systems and networks.
CA Technologies, aforetime accepted as Computer Associates, acquired Nimsoft in March 2011 for a ample sum of $350m, and the aforementioned array of affair could appear a few years appropriately if Boundary takes off.
Boundary thinks that appliance and arrangement ecology is too circuitous for the kinds of changeless accoutrement that were acclimated in the old dot-com days, if IT environments themselves were static, Read tells El Reg.
"Cloud agency the server agreement can change at any time, software-defined networking agency the arrangement agreement can change at any time, and active development agency that the cipher in an appliance can change at any time," explains Read. "Application ecology is accordingly an analytic problem, and you charge to aggregate abstracts continuously and run analytics continuously."
The Boundary account caWith the chargeless Boundary service, all of the accretion and whistles work, but the aggregation puts some limitations on it so you don't get agitated abroad and drive up its own costs on its cloud. THe account is hosted at an Equinix abstracts centermost in Ashburn, Virginia, like Amazon's EC2 area on the East bank of the US.
Customers appliance the chargeless adaptation can accrue 2GB of operational abstracts per day, and they can abundance up to one ages of data. Depending on the attributes of your appliance servers, Read says that this is abundant accommodation to adviser maybe 15 to 20 appliance servers active in your abstracts centermost or in a cloud.
If you wish to get the paid adaptation of the service, with abounding tech abutment and the adeptness to abundance that 2GB of circadian operational abstracts for as continued as a year, again you pay $199 per month, and if you wish to abundance 5GB of abstracts per day, again it is $395 per month.
Engine Yard, the belvedere billow provider, is partnering with Boundary to action the account to adviser applications active on its billow as allotment of the 2.0 release. There are aswell predefined integrations for Amazon EC2 and Rackspace Billow as able-bodied as the adeptness to blot in RSS-based cachet alerts from devops accoutrement from New Relic, Splunk, and Papertrail.n yield in all kinds of operational abstracts from systems through agents as able-bodied as demography in ascribe from third affair ecology tools, accessories accoutrement such as Chef or Puppet, and the APIs from billow providers such as Amazon EC2, Rackspace Cloud, SoftLayer, and Google Compute Engine.
All of this abstracts is pulled out of the arrangement assemblage from all of these devices, beamed up to the Boundary service, and chewed on real-time to actualize an operational dashboard for arrangement admins so they can see agitation afore it starts accepting out of hand.
You can put the Boundary abettor on concrete servers and babysit them, too, so continued as they run Windows or Linux. The aggregation has not apparent appeal for any Unix variants yet and so has not created an abettor for Solaris, AIX, or HP-UX.
The Boundary service, which launched in aboriginal April, now has about 50 paying customers, which is a acceptable start, but that it wants to abound the base. The cipher abaft the Boundary account is not accessible source, and is not traveling to be, but the aggregation can accord abroad admission to the cipher for annoy kickers and bashful users, and that is absolutely what the aggregation has done with its Boundary 2.0 absolution appear this week.
The aggregation is aswell rolling out a 2.0 absolution of the eponymous app ecology account while at the aforementioned time partnering with belvedere billow provider Engine Yard to accommodate Boundary into its own cloud.
Gary Read, who came on lath Boundary beforehand this year to be CEO, is no drifter to blurred tools. Read was architect and CEO of Nimsoft, which created a set of cloud-based accoutrement aimed at allowance account providers administer their systems and networks.
CA Technologies, aforetime accepted as Computer Associates, acquired Nimsoft in March 2011 for a ample sum of $350m, and the aforementioned array of affair could appear a few years appropriately if Boundary takes off.
Boundary thinks that appliance and arrangement ecology is too circuitous for the kinds of changeless accoutrement that were acclimated in the old dot-com days, if IT environments themselves were static, Read tells El Reg.
"Cloud agency the server agreement can change at any time, software-defined networking agency the arrangement agreement can change at any time, and active development agency that the cipher in an appliance can change at any time," explains Read. "Application ecology is accordingly an analytic problem, and you charge to aggregate abstracts continuously and run analytics continuously."
The Boundary account caWith the chargeless Boundary service, all of the accretion and whistles work, but the aggregation puts some limitations on it so you don't get agitated abroad and drive up its own costs on its cloud. THe account is hosted at an Equinix abstracts centermost in Ashburn, Virginia, like Amazon's EC2 area on the East bank of the US.
Customers appliance the chargeless adaptation can accrue 2GB of operational abstracts per day, and they can abundance up to one ages of data. Depending on the attributes of your appliance servers, Read says that this is abundant accommodation to adviser maybe 15 to 20 appliance servers active in your abstracts centermost or in a cloud.
If you wish to get the paid adaptation of the service, with abounding tech abutment and the adeptness to abundance that 2GB of circadian operational abstracts for as continued as a year, again you pay $199 per month, and if you wish to abundance 5GB of abstracts per day, again it is $395 per month.
Engine Yard, the belvedere billow provider, is partnering with Boundary to action the account to adviser applications active on its billow as allotment of the 2.0 release. There are aswell predefined integrations for Amazon EC2 and Rackspace Billow as able-bodied as the adeptness to blot in RSS-based cachet alerts from devops accoutrement from New Relic, Splunk, and Papertrail.n yield in all kinds of operational abstracts from systems through agents as able-bodied as demography in ascribe from third affair ecology tools, accessories accoutrement such as Chef or Puppet, and the APIs from billow providers such as Amazon EC2, Rackspace Cloud, SoftLayer, and Google Compute Engine.
All of this abstracts is pulled out of the arrangement assemblage from all of these devices, beamed up to the Boundary service, and chewed on real-time to actualize an operational dashboard for arrangement admins so they can see agitation afore it starts accepting out of hand.
You can put the Boundary abettor on concrete servers and babysit them, too, so continued as they run Windows or Linux. The aggregation has not apparent appeal for any Unix variants yet and so has not created an abettor for Solaris, AIX, or HP-UX.
The Boundary service, which launched in aboriginal April, now has about 50 paying customers, which is a acceptable start, but that it wants to abound the base. The cipher abaft the Boundary account is not accessible source, and is not traveling to be, but the aggregation can accord abroad admission to the cipher for annoy kickers and bashful users, and that is absolutely what the aggregation has done with its Boundary 2.0 absolution appear this week.
2012年7月19日星期四
Open bench draws primary
Two men are contenders in the Republican primary in the anew fatigued Commune 134.
John Sellars and Elijah Haahr, both of Springfield, will face anniversary added in the Aug. 7 Republican primary. The champ will be up adjoin James M. Owen, a Springfield Democrat, in the Nov. 6 accepted election.
District 134 covers allotment of southern Springfield and rural Greene County south of Catalpa Street. The commune boundaries were redrawn afterwards the 2010 census. No bounden lives in the new commune now. Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, and Thomas Long, R-Battlefield, represented the breadth and are active for re-election in two abstracted districts.
Sellars, 63, is controlling administrator of The Fremont Lodge and Villas, a retirement community. He ahead was the controlling administrator of the History Museum for Springfield-Greene County. In 2010, he ran for House Commune 138 and absent by about 100 votes to bounden Democrat Sara Lampe. She can’t run afresh for the House because of appellation banned and is gluttonous to become abettor governor.
“I accept no intentions of getting a career politician,” Sellars said. “I anticipate we charge added humans like that.”
Haahr, 30, an attorney, is authoritative his aboriginal bid for adopted office. He said he has been absorbed in government for a while and absitively to run afterwards the commune was redrawn.
“It was a acceptable time to get added complex in the accomplished political process,” Haahr said.
On the issues, Sellars said Missouri should abridge its tax cipher to try to addition job growth. “Missouri should be the a lot of adorable accompaniment in the Midwest with abundant assets and a counterbalanced budget,” Sellars said. “The alone acumen we are not alluring added and bigger businesses is our abhorrence to achieve abomination ameliorate and abridge our tax codes and business regulations.”
Haahr said Missouri assembly should canyon right-to-work legislation to prohibit unions from acute advisers to pay ante or added fees. Indiana’s governor active a right-to-work bill into law this year, the aboriginal such accompaniment law in added than a decade.
The system, which allows cartage to admission added than 200 hours of chargeless movies, TV shows and added agreeable via a Qantas-provided tablet, will hit the aboriginal of the airline’s 767s in the fourth division of this year. Qantas is searching at options to aggrandize the account to added aircraft types in the future, a agent said.
The barrage follows a acknowledged balloon of the wi-fi arrangement on a individual 767 beforehand this year. The balloon aswell looked at acceptance cartage to admission agreeable via their own wi-fi enabled devices, but Qantas absitively not to accompany that advantage for now, the agent said.
“Our barter were the aboriginal in the apple to acquaintance the ground-breaking wi-fi ball technology and we accustomed abundant acknowledgment from our barter during the balloon this year,” Qantas calm arch Lyell Strambi said. ”We’re now searching at means to advance this technology belvedere even added with our accomplice Panasonic to accompany new standards of in-flight ball to our customers.”
Feedback from the aisle led Qantas to advance a angle that allows the iPad to be set cocked on the seat-back tray or anchored to the aback of the bench if cartage charge their easily free, such as during meal times.
QStreaming, which Qantas has declared as a apple first, arrives as airlines attending for alternatives to the acceptable seat-back IFE, a cogent antecedent of weight, ability burning and aliment costs. Virgin Australia has active on for a Lufthansa-developed wi-fi based IFE appointed for barrage this year, while Jetstar endure year began renting out pre-loaded iPads.
John Sellars and Elijah Haahr, both of Springfield, will face anniversary added in the Aug. 7 Republican primary. The champ will be up adjoin James M. Owen, a Springfield Democrat, in the Nov. 6 accepted election.
District 134 covers allotment of southern Springfield and rural Greene County south of Catalpa Street. The commune boundaries were redrawn afterwards the 2010 census. No bounden lives in the new commune now. Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, and Thomas Long, R-Battlefield, represented the breadth and are active for re-election in two abstracted districts.
Sellars, 63, is controlling administrator of The Fremont Lodge and Villas, a retirement community. He ahead was the controlling administrator of the History Museum for Springfield-Greene County. In 2010, he ran for House Commune 138 and absent by about 100 votes to bounden Democrat Sara Lampe. She can’t run afresh for the House because of appellation banned and is gluttonous to become abettor governor.
“I accept no intentions of getting a career politician,” Sellars said. “I anticipate we charge added humans like that.”
Haahr, 30, an attorney, is authoritative his aboriginal bid for adopted office. He said he has been absorbed in government for a while and absitively to run afterwards the commune was redrawn.
“It was a acceptable time to get added complex in the accomplished political process,” Haahr said.
On the issues, Sellars said Missouri should abridge its tax cipher to try to addition job growth. “Missouri should be the a lot of adorable accompaniment in the Midwest with abundant assets and a counterbalanced budget,” Sellars said. “The alone acumen we are not alluring added and bigger businesses is our abhorrence to achieve abomination ameliorate and abridge our tax codes and business regulations.”
Haahr said Missouri assembly should canyon right-to-work legislation to prohibit unions from acute advisers to pay ante or added fees. Indiana’s governor active a right-to-work bill into law this year, the aboriginal such accompaniment law in added than a decade.
The system, which allows cartage to admission added than 200 hours of chargeless movies, TV shows and added agreeable via a Qantas-provided tablet, will hit the aboriginal of the airline’s 767s in the fourth division of this year. Qantas is searching at options to aggrandize the account to added aircraft types in the future, a agent said.
The barrage follows a acknowledged balloon of the wi-fi arrangement on a individual 767 beforehand this year. The balloon aswell looked at acceptance cartage to admission agreeable via their own wi-fi enabled devices, but Qantas absitively not to accompany that advantage for now, the agent said.
“Our barter were the aboriginal in the apple to acquaintance the ground-breaking wi-fi ball technology and we accustomed abundant acknowledgment from our barter during the balloon this year,” Qantas calm arch Lyell Strambi said. ”We’re now searching at means to advance this technology belvedere even added with our accomplice Panasonic to accompany new standards of in-flight ball to our customers.”
Feedback from the aisle led Qantas to advance a angle that allows the iPad to be set cocked on the seat-back tray or anchored to the aback of the bench if cartage charge their easily free, such as during meal times.
QStreaming, which Qantas has declared as a apple first, arrives as airlines attending for alternatives to the acceptable seat-back IFE, a cogent antecedent of weight, ability burning and aliment costs. Virgin Australia has active on for a Lufthansa-developed wi-fi based IFE appointed for barrage this year, while Jetstar endure year began renting out pre-loaded iPads.
2012年6月19日星期二
University of California confronts mounting bills
The cost of pensions and retiree health benefits are soaring at the University of California, increasing pressure to raise tuition and cut academic programs at one of the nation’s leading public college systems.
The 10-campus system is confronting mounting bills for employee retirement benefits even as it grapples with unprecedented cuts in state funding that have led to sharp tuition hikes, staff reductions and angry student protests.
The UC system, including medical centers and national laboratories, is scrambling to shore up its pension fund as it prepares for a wave of retirements and tackles a roughly $10 billion unfunded liability.
The UC Retirement Plan’s huge deficit was created by investment losses during the global economic crisis — and the nearly two decades when campuses, employees and the state did not contribute any money toward pensions.
“The regents made a serious error and the Legislature made a serious error by not putting money aside for 19 years while accumulating this obligation,” said Robert Anderson, a UC Berkeley economist who chairs the system’s Academic Senate. “Now we have to pay for it.”
The UC system faces spiraling pension costs for 56,000 current retirees and another 116,000 employees nearing retirement.
As of May, there were 2,129 UC retirees drawing annual pensions of more than $100,000, 57 with pensions exceeding $200,000 and three with pensions greater than $300,000, according to data obtained by The Associated Press through a state Public Records Act request.
The number of UC retirees collecting six-figure pensions has increased by 30 percent over the past two years, according to Californians for Fiscal Responsibility, an advocacy group that has analyzed UC pension data.
Topping the list is Marcus Marvin, a retired professor of dentistry and public health at UCLA, who receives an annual pension of $337,000.
If UC President Mark Yudof, 67, serves for seven years, he would receive an annual pension of $350,000 — in addition to regular benefits he accrues through the UC Retirement Plan, according to university documents.
The university caps employee pensions at the IRS limit of $250,000, but that ceiling does not apply to the “supplemental retirement benefits” promised to Yudof.
In the coming year, the university is expected to contribute about $240 million to its retirement fund from a roughly $6 billion core operating budget. That amount is expected to more than double to about $500 million annually by 2015-16, according to UC officials.
The university also faces skyrocketing costs for its retiree health care benefits.
The unfunded liability for its retiree health program was $14.6 billion in July 2011. UC is expected to spend $270 million on retiree health care this year, and that amount is expected to rise significantly over the next several years, according to UC documents.
While UC seeks to pay its retirement bills, the system is wrestling with the loss of $750 million in state funding this past year. And it could lose another $250 million in the coming academic year if voters reject Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative in November.
The 10-campus system is confronting mounting bills for employee retirement benefits even as it grapples with unprecedented cuts in state funding that have led to sharp tuition hikes, staff reductions and angry student protests.
The UC system, including medical centers and national laboratories, is scrambling to shore up its pension fund as it prepares for a wave of retirements and tackles a roughly $10 billion unfunded liability.
The UC Retirement Plan’s huge deficit was created by investment losses during the global economic crisis — and the nearly two decades when campuses, employees and the state did not contribute any money toward pensions.
“The regents made a serious error and the Legislature made a serious error by not putting money aside for 19 years while accumulating this obligation,” said Robert Anderson, a UC Berkeley economist who chairs the system’s Academic Senate. “Now we have to pay for it.”
The UC system faces spiraling pension costs for 56,000 current retirees and another 116,000 employees nearing retirement.
As of May, there were 2,129 UC retirees drawing annual pensions of more than $100,000, 57 with pensions exceeding $200,000 and three with pensions greater than $300,000, according to data obtained by The Associated Press through a state Public Records Act request.
The number of UC retirees collecting six-figure pensions has increased by 30 percent over the past two years, according to Californians for Fiscal Responsibility, an advocacy group that has analyzed UC pension data.
Topping the list is Marcus Marvin, a retired professor of dentistry and public health at UCLA, who receives an annual pension of $337,000.
If UC President Mark Yudof, 67, serves for seven years, he would receive an annual pension of $350,000 — in addition to regular benefits he accrues through the UC Retirement Plan, according to university documents.
The university caps employee pensions at the IRS limit of $250,000, but that ceiling does not apply to the “supplemental retirement benefits” promised to Yudof.
In the coming year, the university is expected to contribute about $240 million to its retirement fund from a roughly $6 billion core operating budget. That amount is expected to more than double to about $500 million annually by 2015-16, according to UC officials.
The university also faces skyrocketing costs for its retiree health care benefits.
The unfunded liability for its retiree health program was $14.6 billion in July 2011. UC is expected to spend $270 million on retiree health care this year, and that amount is expected to rise significantly over the next several years, according to UC documents.
While UC seeks to pay its retirement bills, the system is wrestling with the loss of $750 million in state funding this past year. And it could lose another $250 million in the coming academic year if voters reject Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative in November.
2012年6月13日星期三
Web performance optimization and why It matters
Given two competitive sites that are identical in practically every other way, the faster site will be more successful. Site speed is associated, in the mind of the end user, with a site’s reliability, credibility, security, and stability. Because faster web sites provide a better user experience, they typically result in higher conversion rates, average order values, and site stickiness. In fact, according to the web site performance measurement firm Gomez, the average online visitor expects pages to load in two seconds or less -- and after three short seconds, as many as 40 percent of visitors will abandon your site. So what can you do to accelerate your site performance?
Web Performance Optimization (WPO) is a relatively new discipline focused on improving the web user experience by making pages load faster. This is done through a variety of front-end optimization techniques that make it easier for web browsers, as well as networks that deliver traffic, to load and render web page content. These techniques include front-end optimization techniques such as minification, concatenation, subdomain sharding, and content compression (collectively referred to as Front End Optimization or “FEO”); cache optimization such as expires-time extension, and network optimization utilizing real-time network measurements to determine fastest paths from any end-user location, for example.
Perhaps the most common mistake that companies make when working to optimize site performance is to assume that there is a “one size fits all” solution. This is rarely is the case, since designing and delivering different performance optimizations to different browsers, operating systems, geographies, devices, and visitor types is very difficult to do manually. Unless, of course, you have an automated WPO solution that allows you to target and test different performance optimization techniques in real-time in an otherwise non-intrusive way. The non-intrusive part is important because it relieves your site developers and IT staff from having to spend a lot of time making code changes.
This kind of WPO solution allows site operators to test and target the delivery of performance optimization techniques to different site visitors based on their geography, device, browser, or relationship with your online business. What’s more, these solutions help you understand the impact of performance on the user experience — as well as marketing and financial goals — of the entire blend of optimizations that are being tested. In other words, measuring not only speed but also specific KPIs (key performance indicators) that are important to your online business, including bounce rate, conversion rate, average order value, abandonment, and compound metrics that look at multiple behaviors both within and across multiple visits.
Web Performance Optimization (WPO) is a relatively new discipline focused on improving the web user experience by making pages load faster. This is done through a variety of front-end optimization techniques that make it easier for web browsers, as well as networks that deliver traffic, to load and render web page content. These techniques include front-end optimization techniques such as minification, concatenation, subdomain sharding, and content compression (collectively referred to as Front End Optimization or “FEO”); cache optimization such as expires-time extension, and network optimization utilizing real-time network measurements to determine fastest paths from any end-user location, for example.
Perhaps the most common mistake that companies make when working to optimize site performance is to assume that there is a “one size fits all” solution. This is rarely is the case, since designing and delivering different performance optimizations to different browsers, operating systems, geographies, devices, and visitor types is very difficult to do manually. Unless, of course, you have an automated WPO solution that allows you to target and test different performance optimization techniques in real-time in an otherwise non-intrusive way. The non-intrusive part is important because it relieves your site developers and IT staff from having to spend a lot of time making code changes.
This kind of WPO solution allows site operators to test and target the delivery of performance optimization techniques to different site visitors based on their geography, device, browser, or relationship with your online business. What’s more, these solutions help you understand the impact of performance on the user experience — as well as marketing and financial goals — of the entire blend of optimizations that are being tested. In other words, measuring not only speed but also specific KPIs (key performance indicators) that are important to your online business, including bounce rate, conversion rate, average order value, abandonment, and compound metrics that look at multiple behaviors both within and across multiple visits.
2012年6月5日星期二
Nursing Programs See Real Life Results from Real Life Clinical Reasoning Scenarios
As the time nursing faculty have to supervise students in hands-on procedures continues to decline, many nursing students are not fully developing clinical reasoning skills. As a result, students and faculty believe that nursing students are not adequately prepared for their first job.
“Nursing programs and educators have limited resources and time to provide valuable, hands-on clinical experience to each student,” said Sheryl Sommer, director of nursing education and curriculum at ATI Nursing Education. “Online, interactive simulation brings the real-life nursing experience and clinical scenario training to the student regardless of location.”
To help nurse educators address the gap of providing students with meaningful clinical situations, ATI Nursing Education, the leading provider of online nurse education programs, created Real Life Clinical Reasoning Scenarios. Real Life allows students to build clinical decision making skills by being exposed to clinical situations without requiring time in a physical, clinic setting. Approximately 90 nursing programs are currently using Real Life, ranging from two-year PN programs to four-year RN programs. Real Life can add value to any nursing program, maximizing both class and clinical periods for students.
“Nursing students today are mobile citizens, using computers, apps and phones for data retrieval and analysis, allowing them to find the most current information. Real Life Clinical Reasoning Scenarios fit in beautifully with their need for just-in-time learning,” said Beth Phillips, MSN, RN, CNE, an assistant professor at the Duke University School of Nursing. “The scenarios present realistic patient situations with multiple choices for students to select. I can see the students’ line of thinking based on their decisions, responses, and reactions. Equally important, the students can see where they may have gotten off track, but only after they have worked through the entire case. Real Life prepares them to be critical thinkers and utilize clinical reasoning when they care for real patients.”
Real Life Clinical Reasoning Scenarios are developed by a team of nurse educators and practicing nurses. Students can access the electronic medical record of the patient as they progress through the scenario. Educators have the ability to turn on or off, a feature that highlights the optimal decision path. This allows students to work through a scenario with each “optimal choice” highlighted to facilitate remediation.
“Real Life allows our students the opportunity to see how their decisions have impact on patient care outcomes. Additionally, as the simulation progresses the program responds to their decisions leading to evaluation of their critical thinking processes when caring for patients,” said Lisa Young, Simulation Center Director, Ashland University. “Our team has also found it very easy to use for both faculty and students. It provides faculty greater flexibility and the student more independence to practice clinical reasoning skills.”
Real Life also offers reporting to assist nurse educators in curriculum planning. Reporting-per-student features reasoning scenario performance with date/time stamp, performance related to reasoning scenario outcomes, and decision log with optimal decisions highlighted. The group reports provide students’ composite scores, individual time use and scores, and group performance related to reasoning scenario outcomes. In addition to student growth, this reporting information can be an accreditation documentation resource.
“Nursing programs and educators have limited resources and time to provide valuable, hands-on clinical experience to each student,” said Sheryl Sommer, director of nursing education and curriculum at ATI Nursing Education. “Online, interactive simulation brings the real-life nursing experience and clinical scenario training to the student regardless of location.”
To help nurse educators address the gap of providing students with meaningful clinical situations, ATI Nursing Education, the leading provider of online nurse education programs, created Real Life Clinical Reasoning Scenarios. Real Life allows students to build clinical decision making skills by being exposed to clinical situations without requiring time in a physical, clinic setting. Approximately 90 nursing programs are currently using Real Life, ranging from two-year PN programs to four-year RN programs. Real Life can add value to any nursing program, maximizing both class and clinical periods for students.
“Nursing students today are mobile citizens, using computers, apps and phones for data retrieval and analysis, allowing them to find the most current information. Real Life Clinical Reasoning Scenarios fit in beautifully with their need for just-in-time learning,” said Beth Phillips, MSN, RN, CNE, an assistant professor at the Duke University School of Nursing. “The scenarios present realistic patient situations with multiple choices for students to select. I can see the students’ line of thinking based on their decisions, responses, and reactions. Equally important, the students can see where they may have gotten off track, but only after they have worked through the entire case. Real Life prepares them to be critical thinkers and utilize clinical reasoning when they care for real patients.”
Real Life Clinical Reasoning Scenarios are developed by a team of nurse educators and practicing nurses. Students can access the electronic medical record of the patient as they progress through the scenario. Educators have the ability to turn on or off, a feature that highlights the optimal decision path. This allows students to work through a scenario with each “optimal choice” highlighted to facilitate remediation.
“Real Life allows our students the opportunity to see how their decisions have impact on patient care outcomes. Additionally, as the simulation progresses the program responds to their decisions leading to evaluation of their critical thinking processes when caring for patients,” said Lisa Young, Simulation Center Director, Ashland University. “Our team has also found it very easy to use for both faculty and students. It provides faculty greater flexibility and the student more independence to practice clinical reasoning skills.”
Real Life also offers reporting to assist nurse educators in curriculum planning. Reporting-per-student features reasoning scenario performance with date/time stamp, performance related to reasoning scenario outcomes, and decision log with optimal decisions highlighted. The group reports provide students’ composite scores, individual time use and scores, and group performance related to reasoning scenario outcomes. In addition to student growth, this reporting information can be an accreditation documentation resource.
2012年6月4日星期一
“Contextual” Contact Notifications Must Be Unified
If you think about communication contacts with people, you must also consider their role as “recipients” of a contact, whether the contact is a real-time connection attempt, an asynchronous message from another person, or from an automated business process application. Until now, business communications has been heavily focused on the contact initiators, because that is where communication activity originates. This is true whether it be a person making a phone call, sending a message, etc., or, increasingly, an automated business application sending information or a message to an end user. In either case, we have been primarily trying to make contact initiation more efficient by dynamically providing contextual contact information and determining what mode of contact might be best for the recipient in order to minimize and simplify the efforts of the contact initiator. I discussed this perspective of what I called “Contextual Contacts” in a white paper I wrote for Microsoft when they were starting to get into UC at the desktop.
With legacy desktop phone systems, this involved guessing about the physical accessibility and location of the recipient, whether at an office extension, a home number, or another location. With increased use of cell phones, the next concern was recipient “availability” to insure a call attempt would be successful and not result in “voicemail jail.” That’s where IM and “presence” information have started to become useful as a prelude to a real-time voice or video conversation, where IM availability could start with chat but then escalate to a voice connection. But, as more forms of messaging information become exploited, including social networking, it is now becoming obvious that selective “notification” management must be more unified for recipients to optimize their accessibility and time. I guess this would fall under the label of UC-U, which benefits end user productivity.
I recently signed up to use a “spam blocker” feature on my email service, which filters out “known” spam and also screens out “suspected” email because they originate from contacts not currently in my address list. “Suspects” are notified that their message has not been delivered because they are “unknown,” and invites them to send a response message identifying themselves to the recipient. The “spam blocker’ notifies me whenever there are “suspect” messages (that I can review and also sends any responses from the message originators clarifying the purpose of the message. I then have options to accept the suspect message and add the address to my list.
Aside from the screening information that will be needed by recipients, the mode of real-time notification must also be an option that is dynamically controlled by the recipient and dependent on their environment and end point device they have available. This where mobile multimodal endpoint devices can provide the basis for flexible recipient control of contact notifications, whether it is a phone call, an IM request, or any form of asynchronous messaging.
With UC-enabled smartphones and tablets, I expect that the old “voicemail” may not be the only alternative to a failed direct voice connection. A good example of this type of flexibility is the increasing use of “voice messaging-to-text” for callers to leave a voice message that can then be optionally retrieved in text or voice by the recipient. However, just as one can “escalate” a contact from email to chat to a voice or video connection, a voice call attempt could also be shifted to chat or some other form of messaging by the recipient. With the increased use of “presence” information as a precursor to any call attempt, the “caller’ might easily end up with a messaging action when the recipient is not available to talk.
With legacy desktop phone systems, this involved guessing about the physical accessibility and location of the recipient, whether at an office extension, a home number, or another location. With increased use of cell phones, the next concern was recipient “availability” to insure a call attempt would be successful and not result in “voicemail jail.” That’s where IM and “presence” information have started to become useful as a prelude to a real-time voice or video conversation, where IM availability could start with chat but then escalate to a voice connection. But, as more forms of messaging information become exploited, including social networking, it is now becoming obvious that selective “notification” management must be more unified for recipients to optimize their accessibility and time. I guess this would fall under the label of UC-U, which benefits end user productivity.
I recently signed up to use a “spam blocker” feature on my email service, which filters out “known” spam and also screens out “suspected” email because they originate from contacts not currently in my address list. “Suspects” are notified that their message has not been delivered because they are “unknown,” and invites them to send a response message identifying themselves to the recipient. The “spam blocker’ notifies me whenever there are “suspect” messages (that I can review and also sends any responses from the message originators clarifying the purpose of the message. I then have options to accept the suspect message and add the address to my list.
Aside from the screening information that will be needed by recipients, the mode of real-time notification must also be an option that is dynamically controlled by the recipient and dependent on their environment and end point device they have available. This where mobile multimodal endpoint devices can provide the basis for flexible recipient control of contact notifications, whether it is a phone call, an IM request, or any form of asynchronous messaging.
With UC-enabled smartphones and tablets, I expect that the old “voicemail” may not be the only alternative to a failed direct voice connection. A good example of this type of flexibility is the increasing use of “voice messaging-to-text” for callers to leave a voice message that can then be optionally retrieved in text or voice by the recipient. However, just as one can “escalate” a contact from email to chat to a voice or video connection, a voice call attempt could also be shifted to chat or some other form of messaging by the recipient. With the increased use of “presence” information as a precursor to any call attempt, the “caller’ might easily end up with a messaging action when the recipient is not available to talk.
2012年5月22日星期二
Clean Energy 101
Our world’s energy challenges, as any loyal Dot Earth reader already knows, are intimately intertwined with our great environmental, economic, health, and social challenges.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that energy is one of the world’s largest industries, our society is woefully energy illiterate. Few people — even hardcore climate and clean energy advocates — stop to think (or to really understand) what’s happening behind that light switch or ignition (Let alone think for a moment about the energy it takes to deliver that Facebook page to their Macbook screen or a tomato to their plate.)
I’m working with Focus the Nation to help change that. We’re creating a resource that aims to demystify energy — the science, the economics, the technology, the history. You can consider it a primer or a user’s manual. Or a sort of 21st century textbook. Basically, we want it to be a complete Energy 101 education in language and charts and graphics that we all can understand.
The basic mission here is to combat energy illiteracy, with the basic reason being that you can’t properly advocate for what you don’t fully understand.
A really short history of how the project came to be should pretty well illustrate why we feel it’s necessary. For a few years now, Focus the Nation has been training young student leaders, developing their practical skill sets to drive clean energy solutions on their campuses and in their communities. Last January, when I was on staff at Good Magazine, I helped produce their Energy Issue, which was heavy on the infographics and the basic explainers. Garett Brennan, the executive director of Focus the Nation, reached out and asked if they could use the issue in their trainings. We all got to talking and decided that there was a lot more to be taught than was possible in the cozy confines of a printed periodical. So we developed the idea for The WATT? An Energy 101 primer.
Last fall, we published the first edition, a basic PDF document which was fairly comprehensive, but the production of which was rushed to the point of absurdity. This year, we’re revising and expanding that “Beta” effort, and also — crucially — turning it into an interactive e-book version.
We’re also expanding the audience reach this year. Reactions from Focus the Nation’s student trainees were beyond encouraging, and pretty much everyone who saw the thing said that it should be made more widely available. So here we are.
Like any big, unfunded idea these days, we’ve turned to Kickstarter to build the e-book version of The WATT? If all goes as planned, by September we’ll have a basic PDF version available for free download to the general public, a print-on-demand hard-copy book, and this fancy e-book, chalk full of interactive infographics, videos, “guest lectures,” and everything else constructive that we can think of.
This is a truly open effort, and we’d be thrilled for suggestions and feedback from the Dot Earth community. We know that producing a basic energy primer won’t solve our big energy challenges, but we do hope that we can do our small part to help combat energy illiteracy. First comes broader understanding, and then comes transformative action.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that energy is one of the world’s largest industries, our society is woefully energy illiterate. Few people — even hardcore climate and clean energy advocates — stop to think (or to really understand) what’s happening behind that light switch or ignition (Let alone think for a moment about the energy it takes to deliver that Facebook page to their Macbook screen or a tomato to their plate.)
I’m working with Focus the Nation to help change that. We’re creating a resource that aims to demystify energy — the science, the economics, the technology, the history. You can consider it a primer or a user’s manual. Or a sort of 21st century textbook. Basically, we want it to be a complete Energy 101 education in language and charts and graphics that we all can understand.
The basic mission here is to combat energy illiteracy, with the basic reason being that you can’t properly advocate for what you don’t fully understand.
A really short history of how the project came to be should pretty well illustrate why we feel it’s necessary. For a few years now, Focus the Nation has been training young student leaders, developing their practical skill sets to drive clean energy solutions on their campuses and in their communities. Last January, when I was on staff at Good Magazine, I helped produce their Energy Issue, which was heavy on the infographics and the basic explainers. Garett Brennan, the executive director of Focus the Nation, reached out and asked if they could use the issue in their trainings. We all got to talking and decided that there was a lot more to be taught than was possible in the cozy confines of a printed periodical. So we developed the idea for The WATT? An Energy 101 primer.
Last fall, we published the first edition, a basic PDF document which was fairly comprehensive, but the production of which was rushed to the point of absurdity. This year, we’re revising and expanding that “Beta” effort, and also — crucially — turning it into an interactive e-book version.
We’re also expanding the audience reach this year. Reactions from Focus the Nation’s student trainees were beyond encouraging, and pretty much everyone who saw the thing said that it should be made more widely available. So here we are.
Like any big, unfunded idea these days, we’ve turned to Kickstarter to build the e-book version of The WATT? If all goes as planned, by September we’ll have a basic PDF version available for free download to the general public, a print-on-demand hard-copy book, and this fancy e-book, chalk full of interactive infographics, videos, “guest lectures,” and everything else constructive that we can think of.
This is a truly open effort, and we’d be thrilled for suggestions and feedback from the Dot Earth community. We know that producing a basic energy primer won’t solve our big energy challenges, but we do hope that we can do our small part to help combat energy illiteracy. First comes broader understanding, and then comes transformative action.
2012年5月15日星期二
Republicans Kill Civil Unions in Colorado
A last-ditch effort by Colorado's governor to give gay couples in the state rights similar to married couples failed Monday after Republicans rejected the proposal during a special legislative session.
Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper had said the special session was needed to address a "fundamental question of fairness and civil rights."
The bill's demise was expected by Democrats, who have begun using the issue as a rallying cry to topple Republicans in the November elections. Republicans assigned the bill to House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, which was likely to reject it. The panel voted 5-4 along party lines to kill the measure.
"The gay community is being used as a political pawn," said Republican Rep. Don Coram, whose son is gay. Coram voted against the measure.
Rep. Mark Ferrandino, the Democrats' leader in the House and gay lawmaker co-sponsoring civil unions, sounded a note of optimism before the committee hearing, even as he braced for the bill's rejection.
"If it fails this year, we're going to work hard to make sure the public understands what happened, the games that were played, and next we're going to push it again," he said. "And as I've said a number of times, it's not a matter of 'if,' it's a matter of 'when.' And the 'when' keeps getting sooner and sooner. This will happen."
House Republicans hold a 33-32 voting advantage, but there was enough support for civil unions to pass.
Last week, Democrats tried to force Republicans who control the calendar to bring up the bill for debate. But it became clear Republicans were filibustering by unnecessarily talking at length about other bills.
Republicans then halted work for hours, killing the bill and several others that needed a vote before a key deadline.
"Transparency, accountability and the virtues of good government are compromised when the legislative clock is used to avoid consideration of important legislation," the governor said in a letter to lawmakers before the special session started.
The regular session adjourned Wednesday, the same day an emotional Hickenlooper announced his intent to call a special session over civil unions and other bills that died because of the GOP filibuster.
More than a dozen states allow either gay marriage or civil unions, including several that moved to pass such laws this year.
The debate in Colorado is playing out at a time when President Obama became the first U.S. president to publicly endorse gay marriage. But North Carolina voters approved a constitutional amendment that bars civil unions and defines marriage as solely between a man and a woman.
Earlier Monday, hundreds of supporters wearing red and waving signs greeted lawmakers returning to Denver for the special session.
Many of the gay-rights activists predicted the bill's demise. They urged Democrats to make the civil unions failure a rallying point for November.
"For too long Democrats have let the right corner the market no talking about values. Finally we've claimed the moral high ground, and we can talk about that," said activist Wiley Sherer, who was selling buttons that read, "Ignorance is forgivable. Pride in ignorance never is."
Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper had said the special session was needed to address a "fundamental question of fairness and civil rights."
The bill's demise was expected by Democrats, who have begun using the issue as a rallying cry to topple Republicans in the November elections. Republicans assigned the bill to House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, which was likely to reject it. The panel voted 5-4 along party lines to kill the measure.
"The gay community is being used as a political pawn," said Republican Rep. Don Coram, whose son is gay. Coram voted against the measure.
Rep. Mark Ferrandino, the Democrats' leader in the House and gay lawmaker co-sponsoring civil unions, sounded a note of optimism before the committee hearing, even as he braced for the bill's rejection.
"If it fails this year, we're going to work hard to make sure the public understands what happened, the games that were played, and next we're going to push it again," he said. "And as I've said a number of times, it's not a matter of 'if,' it's a matter of 'when.' And the 'when' keeps getting sooner and sooner. This will happen."
House Republicans hold a 33-32 voting advantage, but there was enough support for civil unions to pass.
Last week, Democrats tried to force Republicans who control the calendar to bring up the bill for debate. But it became clear Republicans were filibustering by unnecessarily talking at length about other bills.
Republicans then halted work for hours, killing the bill and several others that needed a vote before a key deadline.
"Transparency, accountability and the virtues of good government are compromised when the legislative clock is used to avoid consideration of important legislation," the governor said in a letter to lawmakers before the special session started.
The regular session adjourned Wednesday, the same day an emotional Hickenlooper announced his intent to call a special session over civil unions and other bills that died because of the GOP filibuster.
More than a dozen states allow either gay marriage or civil unions, including several that moved to pass such laws this year.
The debate in Colorado is playing out at a time when President Obama became the first U.S. president to publicly endorse gay marriage. But North Carolina voters approved a constitutional amendment that bars civil unions and defines marriage as solely between a man and a woman.
Earlier Monday, hundreds of supporters wearing red and waving signs greeted lawmakers returning to Denver for the special session.
Many of the gay-rights activists predicted the bill's demise. They urged Democrats to make the civil unions failure a rallying point for November.
"For too long Democrats have let the right corner the market no talking about values. Finally we've claimed the moral high ground, and we can talk about that," said activist Wiley Sherer, who was selling buttons that read, "Ignorance is forgivable. Pride in ignorance never is."
2012年5月8日星期二
As city decides on farmers market location, another sprouts at Maine Mall
Following an hour-long debate Monday night, the South Portland City Council narrowly rejected an offer by Hannaford supermarkets to host a local farmers market in its Mill Creek parking lot, agreeing instead to place the troubled showcase on Hinckley Drive during its sophomore season.
However, Monday’s 5-2 vote only closes the busy Knightville street to traffic from 2-8 p.m. on Thursdays, from May 10 to Oct. 1. Actually allowing vendors to set up shop in the roadway will require a special exemption to zoning rules in the “limited business” district – a waiver that can only be issued by the Planning Board. That vote was scheduled for Tuesday evening, after the deadline for this week’s print edition of The Current.
Meanwhile, some farmers who pulled out of the market due to the level of discourse leading up to Monday’s vote have taken up an offer from the Maine Mall to stage an alternative market there, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Tuesdays. According to City Manager Jim Gailey, ordinance language crafted when the council created the South Portland Farmers Market Association last spring will have to be amended before the cross-town option can open for business, even though it will operate independently from the downtown market association.
“We’re still working though the details with the city, getting all of our ducks in a row with the licensing and ordinance changes required,” Rochelle Zawaduk, business development manager for mall owner General Growth Properties, said on Tuesday.
Although a farmers market failed at the mall in 2005, Zawaduk said, a new management team is in place at the mall, including a new marketing director, and an advertising campaign is being geared to a May 29 opening in conjunction with the mall’s summer-long “healthy living” initiative.
The mall market, pegged for the “festival lot” at the corner of Gorham Road and Philbrook Avenue, will feature live music and children’s events, said Zawaduk.
“We want to be bring in more of the community and be a part of the community,” said Zawaduk. “We have a farmers market program that is a big part of our company at our other locations, so why not have one in Maine? It’s the perfect place.”
According to Caitlin Jordan, who manages the Hinckley Drive market, the mall approached her group in March, shortly after news broke that farmers wanted to move out of its original location in Thomas Knight Park, in hope of attracting a wider audience.
Jordan has said about half of the vendors lost money during the market’s inaugural season. Although there were several mitigating factors, including rain on many market dates, the conventional wisdom held that the venue itself was to blame, partly because of cobblestones that made patronage tough on older residents, and partly because the park itself was deemed too far off the beaten path.
Councilor Rosemarie De Angelis, who championed creation of the market during her term as mayor, tried to rectify that situation at a Feb. 28 council workshop. In addition to brokering a deal to pull the market off the cobblestones and onto Waterman Drive, she asked the council to approve a large promotional sign on Broadway. However, some on the council, most pointedly Jerry Jalbert, blocked that effort, saying it would send a poor signal to area businesses if the council were to appear to support some forms of commerce over others.
Instead, he suggested a move to Hinckley Drive, next to Mill Creek Park. That idea was seized upon by Jordan, prompting a flurry of emails that prospective vendor Pamela Harwood, of Longwoods Alpaca Farm in Cumberland, described as a “turf war.” Harwood eventually withdrew her application, citing the “incivility” of the discourse, as did Kathy Shaw, of Valley View Farm in Auburn.
At about the same time, Jordan said, the farmers dismissed the mall offer. The Hinckley Drive site, adjacent to Mill Creek Park, was deemed preferable to one stranded in a sea of asphalt, she said. In her resignation letter, Harwood, who works markets in Cumberland and Falmouth, announced her intent to pursue the mall offer.
Meanwhile, as Jalbert caucused his fellow councilors, reporting to De Angelis that he “had the votes” for Hinckley, Bob O’Brien resigned from the advisory committee, which never got a chance to weigh in on the question.
However, Monday’s 5-2 vote only closes the busy Knightville street to traffic from 2-8 p.m. on Thursdays, from May 10 to Oct. 1. Actually allowing vendors to set up shop in the roadway will require a special exemption to zoning rules in the “limited business” district – a waiver that can only be issued by the Planning Board. That vote was scheduled for Tuesday evening, after the deadline for this week’s print edition of The Current.
Meanwhile, some farmers who pulled out of the market due to the level of discourse leading up to Monday’s vote have taken up an offer from the Maine Mall to stage an alternative market there, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Tuesdays. According to City Manager Jim Gailey, ordinance language crafted when the council created the South Portland Farmers Market Association last spring will have to be amended before the cross-town option can open for business, even though it will operate independently from the downtown market association.
“We’re still working though the details with the city, getting all of our ducks in a row with the licensing and ordinance changes required,” Rochelle Zawaduk, business development manager for mall owner General Growth Properties, said on Tuesday.
Although a farmers market failed at the mall in 2005, Zawaduk said, a new management team is in place at the mall, including a new marketing director, and an advertising campaign is being geared to a May 29 opening in conjunction with the mall’s summer-long “healthy living” initiative.
The mall market, pegged for the “festival lot” at the corner of Gorham Road and Philbrook Avenue, will feature live music and children’s events, said Zawaduk.
“We want to be bring in more of the community and be a part of the community,” said Zawaduk. “We have a farmers market program that is a big part of our company at our other locations, so why not have one in Maine? It’s the perfect place.”
According to Caitlin Jordan, who manages the Hinckley Drive market, the mall approached her group in March, shortly after news broke that farmers wanted to move out of its original location in Thomas Knight Park, in hope of attracting a wider audience.
Jordan has said about half of the vendors lost money during the market’s inaugural season. Although there were several mitigating factors, including rain on many market dates, the conventional wisdom held that the venue itself was to blame, partly because of cobblestones that made patronage tough on older residents, and partly because the park itself was deemed too far off the beaten path.
Councilor Rosemarie De Angelis, who championed creation of the market during her term as mayor, tried to rectify that situation at a Feb. 28 council workshop. In addition to brokering a deal to pull the market off the cobblestones and onto Waterman Drive, she asked the council to approve a large promotional sign on Broadway. However, some on the council, most pointedly Jerry Jalbert, blocked that effort, saying it would send a poor signal to area businesses if the council were to appear to support some forms of commerce over others.
Instead, he suggested a move to Hinckley Drive, next to Mill Creek Park. That idea was seized upon by Jordan, prompting a flurry of emails that prospective vendor Pamela Harwood, of Longwoods Alpaca Farm in Cumberland, described as a “turf war.” Harwood eventually withdrew her application, citing the “incivility” of the discourse, as did Kathy Shaw, of Valley View Farm in Auburn.
At about the same time, Jordan said, the farmers dismissed the mall offer. The Hinckley Drive site, adjacent to Mill Creek Park, was deemed preferable to one stranded in a sea of asphalt, she said. In her resignation letter, Harwood, who works markets in Cumberland and Falmouth, announced her intent to pursue the mall offer.
Meanwhile, as Jalbert caucused his fellow councilors, reporting to De Angelis that he “had the votes” for Hinckley, Bob O’Brien resigned from the advisory committee, which never got a chance to weigh in on the question.
2011年4月28日星期四
Museum and Gallery Listings for April 29-May 5
American Folk Art Museum: ‘Eugene Von Bruenchenhein: Freelance Artist — Poet and Sculptor — Inovator — Arrow maker and Plant man — Bone artifacts constructor — Photographer and Architect — Philosopher,’ through Oct. 9. Whether photographing his wife as a sweetly chaste pinup girl; fashioning plant forms from scrounged clay or little thrones from salvaged turkey bones; or making delicate ballpoint-pen drawings or hallucinatory paintings rife with intimations of exotic undersea or sci-fi worlds, this self-taught, self-proclaimed multitasker (as made clear in the show’s subtitle) never wavered in his sense of his own greatness. Mounted 27 years after his death, his first American museum survey doesn’t quite do him justice and especially shortchanges the paintings, but it presents the fruits of his ceaseless labors with a clarity that makes them feel of a piece, and like a gift.
Bronx Museum of the Arts: ‘Stargazers: Elizabeth Catlett in Conversation with 21 Contemporary Artists,’ through May 29. This celebration of the artist Elizabeth Catlett, 96, includes contributions by a stellar array of younger colleagues from two generations. But Ms. Catlett herself, with her formally assured and expressively commanding art, is the life of the party just by being the quietest, wisest voice in the room. (An exhibition titled “Digame: Elizabeth Catlett’s Forever Love” is on view in the Neil L. and Angelica Zander Rudenstine Gallery, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University, through May 26.)
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum: ‘Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay,’ through June 19. Examining the more practical side of Delaunay’s pioneering achievement, this beautiful, enlightening exhibition offers some alluring artworks, garments and accessories, especially a passel of radiant scarves. But it bets most of the house on fabric swatches — Delaunay’s textile designs — and succeeds with a display of some 90 gouache studies for textiles and their equally vibrant commercial results: more than 120 hand-printed silks, velvets and cottons laid out in large vitrines. Patterns ranging from geometric to floral variously revisit, amplify and presage much of the history of modern painting and may even deserve a place in that history.
Bronx Museum of the Arts: ‘Stargazers: Elizabeth Catlett in Conversation with 21 Contemporary Artists,’ through May 29. This celebration of the artist Elizabeth Catlett, 96, includes contributions by a stellar array of younger colleagues from two generations. But Ms. Catlett herself, with her formally assured and expressively commanding art, is the life of the party just by being the quietest, wisest voice in the room. (An exhibition titled “Digame: Elizabeth Catlett’s Forever Love” is on view in the Neil L. and Angelica Zander Rudenstine Gallery, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University, through May 26.)
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum: ‘Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay,’ through June 19. Examining the more practical side of Delaunay’s pioneering achievement, this beautiful, enlightening exhibition offers some alluring artworks, garments and accessories, especially a passel of radiant scarves. But it bets most of the house on fabric swatches — Delaunay’s textile designs — and succeeds with a display of some 90 gouache studies for textiles and their equally vibrant commercial results: more than 120 hand-printed silks, velvets and cottons laid out in large vitrines. Patterns ranging from geometric to floral variously revisit, amplify and presage much of the history of modern painting and may even deserve a place in that history.
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