Web Hosting

MyPC Backup Reviewed by Joomla Hosting Reviews

2011-12-20T02:14:00.000-08:00

MyPC Backup was well reviewed by Joomla Hosting Reviews because of their ease of use, prices, customer support and security. The review concludes that MyPC Backup is great for most home users but could have more options.

While reviewing Joomla Hosting Reviews’s editors tested MyPC Backup and found it to be very easy to use. Online backup expert, Steven Johnson, said, “We found that MyPC Backup is very easy to install and configure. The software and website are clean and look great.”

One of the criticisms was that MyPC Backup should have included a more detailed scheduler. There were not many criticisms and overall the review praised many of the backup companies efforts. The review says, “If you are looking for easy and reliable backup service, consider MyPC Backup.”

The review notes that medium and large size corporations will not be satisfied by the limited options. There are upgrades available at extra costs and the editors suggest adding up the cost of whatever upgrades are needed to the cost of the plan before making a comparison to other backup companies.

About Joomla Hosting Reviews -- Joomla Hosting Reviews, established in 2005, is owned and managed by Intown Web Design of Atlanta, GA. The site was created as a place for Joomla Users to post reviews and learn about the best joomla hosting companies. They are not related in any way with the Official Joomla Project or MyPC Backup. It is a website that brings hosting, server information, and help to the Joomla community.

About Intown Web Design (http://www.intownwebdesign.com) -- Located in Atlanta, Ga, they are a web design and development firm with a focus on creating functional websites for business. Clients range from startups to corporations traded on the NYSE. Founded in 2007, with a specialty in open source technologies including PHP, Joomla and WordPress. They have continued to expand their expertise into improving site performance, usability and search engine rankings.

Taxonomy of Web Hosting Terms

2011-11-29T08:31:00.000-08:00

Almost every one has the knowledge of present internet scenario! How fast it is!!? A bud of web pages nurture to trillions of pages on the Internet, providing several hosting plans to choose from under which comes affordable web hosting, Cheap Web hosting, ASP Web Hosting, Budget Hosting, Dedicated Servers, eCommerce Hosting, FrontPage Web Hosting, Hosting With Templates, Managed Web Hosting, PHP Web Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Shared Hosting, Unix / Linux Hosting, Virtual Private Servers, Windows Hosting, Co-location Hosting and few others.

Above mentioned are the few web hosting terms which reflects several faces of web hosting. The entire highlighted web hosting plans and terminologies can be categorized in terms of cost, programming languages, operation systems, Web servers, and functionality.

Broad description is given below:

1. Cost:

Web hosting plans are mentioned and divided between affordable web hosting, budget hosting and cheap web hosting. Cost of web hosting is the prime aspect that several small budget site holders are looking for. On displaying the cost of Affordable web hosting, budget hosting or cheap web hosting plan one will come to know that it is less than $5 a month.

2. Programming Languages:

When a user wants to make his/her site dynamic and interactive, he/she should search for hosting plans that support the programming languages that user have command over. Usually applicable languages are PHP, ASP, JSP, PERL etc. Hosting plans assisting such programming languages are called PHP Web hosting, ASP Web hosting, JSP Web hosting or PERL Web hosting.

3. Operating Systems:

After selecting suitable programming language(s), user still has sovereignty to choose the operating system that can host the concern websites. Moreover, as everybody that ASP is restricted to Microsoft Windows, further programming languages, PHP, JSP and PERL; work not only on Windows, but also on UNIX and Linux. Hosting plans assisting particular operating system is termed as Window Hosting, UNIX hosting or rather Linux hosting.

4. Web Servers:

Talking about web servers, Apache is the most widely supported Web server in Web hosting industry. It operates only on Microsoft Internet Information Server or IIS server. For JSP hosting, Web logic or Web sphere is the main requirement. When ever there is any discussion related to Web servers, the main attraction is server performance. There are several solutions available like Managed Web Hosting, Shared Hosting, Dedicated Servers, or Virtual Private Servers (VPS). Out of these shared hosting is the cheapest plan, and one can host as many sites as he/she likes with a Reseller Hosting option. The cost of VPS is just $50 a month, and Dedicated Server plan costs from $50 - $100 or more per month depending upon storage space and bandwidth of the hosting plan.

5. Functionality:

In the market, one can find several hosting plans which either makes the site creation simple or rather offer assistance for the protection of online transactions. Creating a simple website can be a game of certain hours if the hosting plan selected by user supports assorted templates.

Thus on the hope that this article will definitely serve its users we wish best of luck.

DiscountASP.NET Wins Visual Studio Magazine 2010 Readers' Choice Merit Award for Best ASP.NET Web Hosting

2010-11-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

ASP.NET web hosting and Team Foundation Server hosting provider, DiscountASP.NET, proudly announces receiving the Best ASP.NET Web Hosting merit award from leading technology publication, Visual Studio Magazine in their 2010 Readers' Choice Award.

With more than 400 developer products compiled, Visual Studio Magazine turned to its readers to vote for the most valued third-party tools and services in the Visual Studio and Microsoft .NET Framework development space which represent key technologies and advances that will impact developers in the years to come. For this year's Readers Choice Awards, there were 29 categories, including web design and development tools, application lifecycle management and .NET web hosting.

"We are proud to win this merit award for Best Web Hosting because it is the collective voice of real-world Visual Studio developers," added Takeshi Eto, DiscountASP.NET Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. "Our mission is to provide cutting edge hosting services for the Visual Studio developer - both web application hosting and source control hosting."

About Visual Studio Magazine
Visual Studio Magazine is the world's leading independent Microsoft development magazine, serving the enterprise development reader -- software architects, senior developers and development managers. Each issue includes practical, proven, unbiased how-to articles readers can put to use immediately. VisualStudiomagazine.com offers all the content of Visual Studio Magazine online plus exclusive news, online-only how-to, extensive code downloads, blogs and plenty of ways for developers to interact with the editors, each other and the larger community. For more information: www.visualstudiomagazine.com
About DiscountASP.NET
DiscountASP.NET is an innovative global leader in hosting for .NET developers, focused on providing the best value in ASP.NET web hosting and Team Foundation Server hosting. A Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, DiscountASP.NET recently launched Team Foundation Server hosting as a SaaS solution. As a leader in bleeding edge ASP.NET web hosting, DiscountASP.NET supports Windows 2008 R2, SQL 2008 R2, web deploy, IIS remote management, URL rewrite, and IIS smooth streaming. Through strong word-of-mouth and their commitment to ASP.NET technology, DiscountASP.NET has become the choice for affordable enterprise-class ASP.NET web hosting and TFS hosting. For more information, visit www.DiscountASP.NET

Web Hosting Year in Review: Hosting Software and Technology

2009-12-28T22:57:00.000-08:00

By David Hamilton, December 28, 2009

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- The original promise of cloud computing - computing served as a limitlessly scalable, always accessible, dependable utility - is finally being realized by both consumers and businesses thanks to advances in hosting software and technology, and 2009 has been a crucial year to that effect.

Open-Xchange has made incredible advances in web-based email and collaboration. R1Soft's CDP 3.0 represents the importance of data backup to enterprise customers interested in benefiting from the cloud. Parallels has made it easier for web hosting businesses to manage their hosting, and provide Software-as-a-Service applications. VMware has created what it calls the first cloud operating system. Finally, Windows launched its latest server operating system release, adding features for new server infrastructures. virtualization tools, and web resource management.

Put together, these new technologies form an exciting picture, showing that the advances in the web hosting realm are quickly meeting the needs of individuals and businesses, and paving the way for more enhancements as we wake up from dream clouds to find they are are real.

Open-Xchange

While Microsoft Exchange remains the choice email client for most business applications, open-source messaging and collaboration platform Open-Xchange (www.open-xchange.com) has added features this year that integrate all sorts of social features alongside business-class functionality, making it no wonder it has seen an 80 percent increase in its user base in 2009.

Open-source groupware provider Open-Xchange announced its "Social OX" concept in July, providing features that bridge isolated information such as email, contacts, calendars and documents. Under Social OX, all email and contact information are in one place, whether personal or business. It can aggregate webmail from Google, Yahoo and many others into a folder in Open-Xchange, plus automatically add and incorporate contact details from social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Xing to the Open-Xchange address book.

In 2009 alone, Open-Xchange has formed relationships with domain name registrars Dotster and NameCheap, as well as French web host Nexen-Alterway Hosting, and Asian SaaS distributor NTS.

CDP Server 3.0 Standard Edition

Unveiling the next major update to its continuous data protection technology used in many of the finest data centers around the world, software developer R1Soft (www.r1soft.com) unveiled the latest version of its CDP software at the cPanel Conference in October. CDP Server 3.0 Standard Edition, the first release of R1Soft's CDP 3.0 products, offers users high-performance CDP backups on a single server without the need of a dedicated backup server.

R1Soft's enterprise-level backup solution provides data protection for Linux and Windows servers with near-continuous disk-based backups that can be scheduled as often as every 15 minutes. It also increases server uptime with its bare-metal restores, which skip the OS re-installation step, allowing data to be recovered from any point-in-time backup in minutes.

The beta version of the CDP 3.0 Standard Edition also provided early access to some of the features from CDP 3 Enterprise, which would be released later. CDP advancements include file and folder excludes, on-disk journaling, and storage of disk-based backups on NAS, Windows shares, cloud storage and other places. And unlike CDP 2.0, which required a dedicated CDP Server be set up, version 3 lets users install it directly on the server being backed up.

Along with this added functionality, there are also more user friendly interfaces and reporting features to boost web host productivity.

Web hosts such as NEXCESS.NET (www.nexcess.net) have chosen to make R1Soft CDP available to their entire client base, letting them protect their clients`s mission-critical data. As CDP 3 goes into wide release, it is likely that more web hosts will be won over.

Parallels Small Business Panel 10

Parallels Panel 9 went into wide release in December 2008, and would have more than qualified for a mention as one of the top technologies of 2008 because of the immense power and control it gives to web hosts. With Parallels' Small Business Panel 10, released this year, the virtualization automation provider has come out with a streamlined and accessible control panel application that can be used to let a hosting provider easily offer a full line of services.

With Small Business Panel, Parallels introduced a new control panel designed to offer virtual private server and dedicated server hosts added ease-of-use and more revenue streams, as well as making self-service possible for SMB clients.

And Parallels` new Partner Marketplace offers commercial applications that cloud service providers can sell to their small business customers through an easy-to-use storefront, along with open-source apps such as SpamAssassin, Application Pack, Helpdesk, Tomcat, ColdFusion and MSSQL.

Essentially, Parallels SMB Panel 10 gives users the control and access to a wide range of solutions to make them a one stop shop for all of their clients` needs.

VMware vSphere 4

Billed as "the industry's first cloud operating system," and "the next evolutionary step in IT computing," VMware vSphere 4 emerged in 2009 as the foundation for a new kind of cloud. Evolving from VMware's proven virtualization platform, vSphere uses federation and standards to bridge cloud infrastructures, creating a hybrid cloud structure that can respond to both public and private cloud needs.

VMware vSphere lets users get more from their existing IT assets and reduce capital expenses of the datacenter by up to 60 percent, and lower power, cooling and real estate needs can cut energy costs by up to 80 percent, while keeping the flexibility to still use any OS, application or hardware.

vSphere 4 also includes support for up to 8 core virtual CPUs with a maximum of 255GB of virtual machine ram, and can run on host machines that have up to 64 CPU cores and 1TB of memory. vSphere 4 workload throughput is improved as a result of resource management and processor scheduling. Hardware-assisted memory virtualization also reduces both CPU and memory overhead. As well, storage is improved through a new para-virtualized SCSI driver, and additional ESX kernel-level storage stack optimizations.

Virtual server technology provider Infinitely Virtual (www.infinitelyvirtual.com) recently completed an upgrade to vSphere 4, increasing its operational efficiencies, and providing customers with break-though virtualization features, scalability and performance. And it was done with no downtime. Furthermore, it lets customers gain more out of their infrastructure, and lets Infinitely Virtual release new products, including those based on VMware Fault Tolerance, which provides continuous availability to any application without any data loss or downtime. Infinitely Virtual also plans to offer support for vApps, which ensures seamless application movement and choice between clouds using Open Virtualization Format to designate and enclose all components of a multi-tier application, as well as the operational policies and service levels relevant to it.

VMware vSphere is available in several different flavors for small business and medium-sized businesses, and enterprises.

Windows Server 2008 R2

Launched in the fall, Microsoft`s latest server operating system release, Windows Server 2008 R2, while not nearly as hyped as its other OS release, Windows 7, proved to be a major deal for Windows-based web hosts and developers. Version enhancements included new functionality for Active Directory, new virtualization and management features, as well as support for up to 256 logical processors, and the use of Internet Information Services version 7.5.

Built on the foundation of Windows Server 2008, R2 lets organizations increase the reliability and flexibility of their server infrastructures. new virtualization tools, web resources, management enhancements, and Windows 7 integration, helping save time, reduce costs, and provide a platform for a dynamic and efficiently managed data center.

Powerful tools such as IIS 7.5, updated Server Manager and Hyper-V platforms, and Windows PowerShell version 2.0 combine to give customers greater control, increased efficiency, and the ability to react to front-line business needs faster than ever before.

How to make a user friendly 404 error page

2009-02-22T04:41:00.000-08:00

As much as web design is about big things – getting your site structure right, creating a compelling visual design, ensuring your code doesn't cause browsers to copiously vomit error messages on an absurdly regular basis shortly before committing seppuku – it's also about little things.

A good site is polished and finely tuned, taking care to include and refine content that many users won't ever see, because the savvy designer knows full well that some of them will.

A case in point: the humble 404 error, an HTTP standard response code that's shoved in your face when a browser communicates with a server and promptly discovers that what it was looking for isn't there.

There are a whole bunch of reasons why a user might happen across such an error message, but they usually arrive because of one of two reasons: user error or webmaster error – unintended or otherwise.

Spulling mistokes

Probably the most common reason for a 404 is that someone with sausage fingers (or, indeed, perfectly normal fingers, but that's a much less funny image) hammered away at the keyboard, hit Enter, and failed to realise that the URL they wanted doesn't actually exist due to, for example, cunningly spelling 'contact-details.html' with some exciting extra characters that really shouldn't be there.

Net result: the server unintelligently goes "We're all out of cpntact-details.html, I'm afraid" and spews out a 404. The other issue is your fault (assuming you're a designer, developer or general website-making person), if you've linked to something that doesn't exist (due to some amazing sausage-finger handiwork of your own) or if a once perfectly valid URL is now a dead link, due to you moving content about.

Depending on your hosting environment, the 404 can take on all manner of guises, most of which are somewhat unhelpful. On IIS, you often get an error message that makes perfect sense to web designers, but that will make the typical user squeal in horror at its barrage of technical information.

Apache is rather more blunt, uttering 'Not Found' and scant other information, doing the rough digital equivalent of slamming the door in your face and grumpily muttering about "when it was much quieter around these parts and you didn't keep getting interrupted". And if you're using Internet Explorer, there's a good chance it'll hijack whatever it should be showing to instead display Microsoft's 'friendly' error message anyway. (To be fair to Microsoft, its message is friendlier than the standard one, but hijacking default behaviour is always reprehensible and makes us angry.)

Creating custom error messages

With a little thought, most of this nastiness can be avoided, since it's simple enough to create custom error messages for the vast majority of hosting environments. This means that instead of seeing whatever garbage a server spews out, or whatever branded message your host has decided to apply (several hosts now cunningly hijack 404s to present an equivalent page with a URL back to their homepage, rather than yours), you get to decide exactly what appears on the error page. The important thing is to ensure that whatever you present is a lot better than what exists by default.

Jakob Nielsen more or less suggests that because default error messages are so appallingly bad, the very act of changing them at all is an improvement. However, he cites as a starting point taking into account three basic guidelines.

First, the error message must be written in a language that can be fully understood by everyone, including non-technical users, and in a way that doesn't imply what's happened is the user's fault. Secondly, the message needs to detail precisely what's gone wrong. Finally, suggestions need to be made regarding how the user can deal with the problem at hand.

A quick scoot around dozens of 404 pages shows that the majority of sites don't in fact take a great deal of notice of such advice. Some actually go as far as to call the user a ham-fisted idiot, which might just about be OK for a cartoon site for teens, but it's not going to win much praise for a shopping portal.

Too many sites also have a seriously geeky love-in, peppering their 404 pages with imagery and in-jokes that'd even make the typical B3ta aficionado wince and then request a claw hammer for uncurling their toes. (As a quick sidenote, the characters '404' are particularly overused as a design device, despite meaning nothing at all to non-technical people.) Most importantly, many of the pages simply aren't usable: they don't provide any indication of what's happened to get the user there, nor do they offer any means of helping them figure out what to do next.

Amazon's 404 page is brutally simple but surprisingly effective, and covers most of Nielsen's points in just a few lines of text. The user is told that the address entered is not a functioning page on the website, and a clear link is provided back to Amazon's homepage (along with a logo, which does the same).

Yes, the company could do more to help, but as a minimum Amazon's is a good model to follow. Play.com, by comparison, commits one of the worst sins in 404 world, by just redirecting you to its homepage instead of displaying any kind of error message.

The problem there is that a user might assume that the site itself is defective (rather than their typing or a search-engine listing) and go elsewhere. At the very least, it'll take a second attempt to get to relevant content, which psychologically makes people think negatively of the site that's being used.

If no-frills 404 doesn't appeal, others have taken their pages a bit further, with varying degrees of success. BBC News offers simple branding on a white background, and displays "404 - Page Not Found" in red.

Underneath, there's a clear explanation of why this page may have been arrived at, including a brief explanation of link conventions, stating that spaces and capital letters don't exist in BBC URLs. It also explains that the user can click the back button, and gives links to homepages and the BBC's full list of sites and services.

Note that the BBC provides a link to its sites and services, rather than nailing a site map to its error page. The latter was once considered good practice, but it can be overwhelming on an error page for lost users; nowadays, a diminishing number of sites use site maps in this way.

ORCS Web Inc Selected as Network Partner for Microsoft BizSpark Program

2009-02-15T03:08:00.000-08:00

by Tabitha Berg

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — ORCS Web, a specialist in Windows-based internet hosting for small businesses, announced that it has been selected to join the Microsoft BizSpark Program as a Network Partner. The BizSpark Program is a new global program designed to accelerate the success of early stage Startups by connecting them to Network Partners who can provide mentorship, guidance and resources to BizSpark Startups. BizSpark creates an ongoing, mutually beneficial relationship among Microsoft, Startups and Network Partners.

ORCS Web’s CEO, Brad Kingsley, was delighted to be part of this program aimed at helping entrepreneurs transform their ambitions into sustainable, dynamic businesses and to foster innovation and growth. “Our hosting is geared to the realities of life in a small business,” he said, “which makes this a great match.”

The three areas of particular synergy he outlined were:

* Allowing entrepreneurs to focus entirely on their business growth by using ORCS Web to manage their firm’s internet presence, providing the expertise, resources, and dedication to keep everything running smoothly. Such professionalism gives website visitors the impression of a much larger, more established company.

* The ability to immediately address any requests or issues, by offering direct access to a dedicated support team. ORCS Web has no forms to complete, problem tickets to fill out, or other impediments to getting clients’ needs taken care of quickly and efficiently.

* Offering flexibility to change plans as needs change. Most plans have no minimum commitment period; and ORCS Web technical specialists monitor the site and recommend new configurations as appropriate to satisfy new requirements most economically.

BizSpark gives young companies fast and easy access to Microsoft’s full-featured development tools and platform technologies, as well as production licenses, to bring innovative solutions to market. For its part, ORCS Web gives them a stable, professional web presence with minimum investment and hassle and maximum flexibility and peace of mind.

To learn more about ORCS Web, visit www.ORCSWeb.com/SmallBiz .

About ORCS Web

ORCS Web is a Charlotte-based web hosting firm that has provided managed hosting solutions since 1996 for clients in more than 70 countries who develop and deploy their applications on Microsoft Windows platforms. Services include shared hosting, dedicated hosting, and webfarm hosting, with specialty in ASP .NET, SQL Server, and architecting highly scalable solutions. ORCS Web’s dedication to being Number One in customer service offers an Unrivaled Windows Web Hosting Experience. ORCS Web is a Gold Certified Microsoft Partner.

AuctionBytes Interviews GoDaddy GM on New Marketplace

2009-01-25T02:50:00.000-08:00

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com

AuctionBytes interviewed Jonathan Cottrell, General Manager of Marketing Solutions at GoDaddy.com, about the new Go Daddy Marketplace that launched on Tuesday. As we reported last week, GoDaddy is charging sellers $4.99/month to list on the site with a 10% commission fee on all sales. The company, known for its domain-name registration and web-hosting services, will process customer payments on behalf on merchants.

AuctionBytes: Where can users find the User Agreement/Terms of Service for the marketplace service?

Jonathan Cottrell: Upon adding a product to their cart and then moving forward to the check out, customers must indicate they have agreed to the following end user license agreement: Link

AuctionBytes: Can sellers cancel their subscription at any time?

Jonathan Cottrell: Yes. There is no obligation to remain a merchant.

AuctionBytes: Do you have customer support for buyers and for sellers?

Jonathan Cottrell: Go Daddy is renowned for its industry-best customer service. As usual with Go Daddy products and services, we offer 24/7/365 LIVE customer service support, whether by phone or email.

That being said, if a buyer had a product-specific question, we may find it prudent to direct them to the seller, as the only information our customer care representatives have is that which the seller has listed on their product pages.

We make all sellers' information available to buyers, as can be seen on the business listings (e.g. see the right sidebar here: Link)

AuctionBytes: Do you have an import tool for sellers to import product listings onto the Go Daddy Marketplace?

Jonathan Cottrell: We certainly do! It's called Quick Shopping Cart (QSC). As noted on our Go Daddy Marketplace offer, sellers can quickly import all their product listings directly from Quick Shopping Cart.

Quick Shopping Cart has been an incredibly successful application that Go Daddy's ecommerce customers have used over the years, and we view Go Daddy Marketplace as just another distribution point for those merchants who use it. Quick Shopping Cart creates a fully-functional ecommerce Web site for companies doing business exclusively online, or brick and mortar stores looking to expand their Internet presence. For more information about Quick Shopping Cart, see: Link

AuctionBytes: How will Go Daddy handle disputes of item not described or item not received from buyers?

Jonathan Cottrell: If a buyer wishes to dispute an item, they can call, enter a support ticket online, or email marketplacedisputes@godaddy.com and our dedicated dispute and compliance staff will contact both parties to gather information and make a decision based on that data.

We also have a returns and refund policy located here that describes what we expect in our transactions.

AuctionBytes: Will Go Daddy accept all types of merchandise and services? Digital content?

Jonathan Cottrell: Currently, we are accepting only shippable products and service contacts, no downloadable content or chargeable services. In addition, we have a list of prohibited items

AuctionBytes: Must sellers reside in the U.S., or can they be located anywhere in the world? Are there other restrictions?

Jonathan Cottrell: Currently, buyers and sellers must reside in the U.S. However, we are working quickly to enable international shipping. This is a high priority for us.

AuctionBytes: Will there be any type of feedback system in which buyers and sellers can leave each other feedback?

Jonathan Cottrell: Certainly. Go Daddy provides avenues for both feedback and contact between buyers and sellers. This includes standard channels, such as comments, and will move toward more unique offerings, such as instant chat and using Go Daddy Customer Manager to inform sellers when their buyers or potential buyers have product questions or want to speak with them about the products they have already purchased.

Beyond that, our developers gather feedback regularly - directly from customer care calls -to make our products and services better and more effective.

AuctionBytes: Can sellers brand themselves?

Jonathan Cottrell: We are definitely not limiting Go Daddy Marketplace sellers from communicating their brand's name, information about their business, where they can be located, etc. In fact, Go Daddy intends to develop additional marketing solutions centered around Go Daddy Customer Manager that will enable our sellers to continue marketing to those customers for retention purposes. Above all, Go Daddy aims to empower our loyal vendors to establish and build their businesses online, and we see Go Daddy Marketplace as another extension of that objective.

Inaugural Microsoft Web Hosting Interview Series Highlights ORCS Web

2009-01-17T23:59:00.000-08:00

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:07:51 -0800 PST
by Aria Munro

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The importance of ORCS Web to the Microsoft web hosting community was underscored today as the company announced it had received top billing in Microsoft’s new Web Hosting Interview series. Representatives from ORCS Web, listed as “one of the most experienced Microsoft Platform hosting companies in business,” offered their insights into web hosting in the Windows world. “ORCS Web’s working relationship with Microsoft enables us to serve our shared, virtual, and dedicated plan clients with the highest level of technical expertise and timeliness in the business,” said Brad Kingsley, CEO.

He added, “We are pleased to be a key participant in Microsoft’s Web Hosting Interviews site, and look forward to nurturing the synergies that the two companies have, to provide superior service to our mutual customers.”

Among the key points made by ORCS Web in the interview were:

* Focusing only on Microsoft technologies has both increased the depth of technical expertise on the team, as well as enabled an outstanding relationship with Microsoft support personnel.

* Working with a single operating system vendor provides a level of predictability and continuity that is infeasible in the diffuse community of Linux/UNIX vendors.

* The reliability of Microsoft’s server products has been outstanding, despite impressions from years past.

* The ability to work with Microsoft in the early stages of new technologies such as IIS7 and SQL Server 2008 has given ORCS Web the ability to offer its clients access to new releases on Day One, ensuring new product support that is both cutting-edge and well tested.

Interview series: www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/compare/web-hosting-orcs-web.mspx

About ORCS Web

ORCS Web is a Charlotte-based web hosting firm that has provided managed hosting solutions since 1996 for clients in more than 70 countries who develop and deploy their applications on Microsoft Windows platforms. Services include shared hosting, dedicated hosting, and webfarm hosting, with specialty in ASP.NET, SQL Server, and architecting highly scalable solutions. ORCS Web’s dedication to being Number One in customer service offers an Unrivaled Windows Web Hosting Experience. ORCS Web is a Gold Certified Microsoft Partner.

To learn more about ORCS Web, visit www.ORCSWeb.com .

Sock and Awe Website Sells For More than £5000

2008-12-24T05:30:00.000-08:00

Ever since the high voltage shoe incident broke out, a large number of online games appeared over the web that enables users to virtually fling a shoe at President George W. Bush.

Out of the large number of such games available online, ‘Sock and Awe’, developed by Alex Tew, is among the favourites, as within few days of the incident a whopping 45 million shoes had been thrown by some 4.5 million users across the world, via the website.

Alex, a 24-year-old from London, has sold the game to an auction website for £5,215, a good deal for less than 4-days effort.

The game was purchased by the company called Fubra, which has reportedly put adverts on the website, and claiming to recover their amount within a couple of days.

In its auction page, amazed by the popularity of SockandAwe.com, Tew asserted that he had developed the website just for fun.

Describing the reasons for its auctioning, Tew wrote, “So, now we are selling it because a) we don't really know what to do with it, b) we can recover some of the hosting costs (plus pizza and beer costs!), and c) the money will be useful for our little four-man start-up”.

Figures have revealed that people from the United States have thrown the maximum number of shoes through the platform, followed by residents from France, Australia, and the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Go Daddy Ranks on 'Best Place to Work' List...yet Again!

2008-12-14T01:13:00.000-08:00

The Phoenix Business Journal has ranked GoDaddy.com on its list of "Best Places to Work" for the fifth consecutive year. The world's largest domain name provider ranked 19 in the category for large Valley companies.

"The Best Places to Work" ranking is based on employee surveys which measure retention rate, manager effectiveness, team effectiveness, employee alignment with company goals, trust in senior leadership and trust in fellow coworkers, among other performance categories. The data is compiled by Quantum Market Research and finalists are put into categories based on company size.

The Scottsdale-based company employs more than 18-hundred people in Arizona. Go Daddy prides itself on its competitive salaries, exceptional benefits and creative perks, including the company's legendary holiday parties where CEO and Founder Bob Parsons has a reputation for giving away thousands of dollars and other prizes, such as cars, motorcycles and trips for which the company also foots the tax bill.

"It's important for us to make Go Daddy a fun and rewarding place to work," said GoDaddy.com CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. "I learned a long time ago that happy employees, who are excited about what they're doing, they perform at a higher level, which in turn allows us to deliver the best customer service in the industry."

"Our employees are the heart and soul of our operation and it's nice to be recognized," said Go Daddy Human Resources Vice-President Lane Jarvis. "We strive to create a positive, healthy environment for our employees, where successes and contributions are celebrated."

Go Daddy has received many honors as a top employer, including five consecutive years on the Best Places list and recognition from the CNN Money list of Best Perks. GoDaddy.com was also named the 2007 Arizona Business Leader of the Year and was awarded a 2008 honorable mention for the Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility.

Go Daddy is also generous to local and national charities. In 2007, Go Daddy's philanthropic works totaled $1.4 million in donations and this year the company is on track to donate more than $1.65 million to charities, many of which help with women, children, education and health-related causes.

Go Daddy is on track for its best revenue year in the company's history. To celebrate, Parsons is hosting a spectacular holiday party for all the employees at Chase Field Saturday. Go Daddy is even flying in its out-of-state employees and their guests for the night and putting them up in a nearby hotel. Live entertainment at the big bash includes two legendary rock bands, an internationally renowned comedian, a laser show, random cash drawings, plus gifts for every one of the near 4,000 guests.

Go Daddy is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona and also has offices in Phoenix, Mesa, Gilbert, and Tempe, as well as Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Denver, Colorado and Washington, D.C. Go Daddy is always looking for highly talented, motivated professionals to join its dynamic team and now has more than 70 open positions.

To learn more about the wide variety of job opportunities with GoDaddy.com, visit: www.GoDaddy.com/Jobs.

About The Go Daddy Group, Inc.

Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and Web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce Web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 32 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world's No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. GoDaddy.com is also rated the world's largest hostname provider according to Netcraft Ltd. During 2007, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all domain names registered in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi. To view Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons' blog, visit www.BobParsons.tv.

Hosted VoIP in the Enterprise

2008-12-08T03:52:00.000-08:00

By: Richard “Zippy” Grigonis

Hosted solutions are attracting scads of new business customers. You don’t have to buy new equipment or pay IT staff to install, configure and maintain it. And new, flexible technologies allow services to interoperate with any legacy premise equipment you may have. Furthermore, many services can be offered with high “granularity” – you can buy them on a per-line basis, and your maintenance contract is generally based on per-seat licenses.

M5 provides IP Telephony and PBX (News - Alert) telephone key systems using VoIP in the greater New York and New Jersey area. Dan Hoffman, CEO of M5, says, “The good news for the field is that everyone is acknowledging that this is a good idea, and our prediction, along with some other analysts, is that in 5 or 10 years the mid-size enterprise will stop buying its own systems entirely. All signs of the economics of customer satisfaction point in that direction, and there has been a growth in the resiliency of the network to make hosting possible. Within that broad landscape, we see the end customer splitting the industry into two directions. First, there’s a group that wants to see that costs continue to be driven down, and get basic dial tone over the network. Second, there’s a group that views the technology as a way to drive costs down and drive service levels up.”

“So there’s this group of businesses that are very voice-connected to their customers,” says Hoffman (News - Alert), “and they consider this voice delivery model as a way to finally get some major impact from all of the R&D and all of the rich features that are going into the telephony world, and they want it hosted because feel these things are simply too complicated to deploy by themselves. Just about everybody likes the service model, and customers are gobbling it up as soon as they can find providers who can deliver the services well and reliably. But there are people who are increasingly using it as a way to deploy the advanced features, and that’s where we’re getting some really exciting stories.”

Sun Startup Essentials: An Interesting Deal For Start-Ups

2008-12-02T03:34:00.000-08:00

Posted by Steve Kennedy on 2 December 2008 at 8:00 am | Tagged as: Services, Business, Shift to Web delivery, UK

It’s possible that some people reading this won’t have heard of Sun. They’re a big computer company that has gone through many iterations (during the dotcom boon their moto was “The computer is the network”).

We’ve covered a background below to get you up to speed on Sun, but before that, we’ve got an overview on the Sun Startup Essentials, which is aimed at start-ups.

Sun Startup Essentials explained
Sun have been running their Start-up Essentials program in the US for a while and it’s now been introduced in the UK and Ireland.

It’s free to join, but the company must be a start-up and in operation for less than 6 years.

Once accepted, companies get access to help from Sun (could be an engineer to sort out a tricky issue or free training) and discounts on hardware - which can be significant.

They can also offer discounted hosting and have agreements with various hosting providers.

There are limits - a start-up is only allowed to purchased £75,000 worth of hardware a year - but that buys quite a lot of CPU.

Of course their aim is that you’ll continue to use Sun hardware and software as the company grows, so they’re taking some risk initially to help you succeed. If the start-up works, hopefully it will work for Sun too.

It’s really a no-brainer if you’re a start-up.

So, to the background on Sun …

Sun: A brief recap
When they started, they designed really cool workstations and they ran a cool operating system - SunOS - which was based on a BSD kernel and architecture.

They also developed their own CPUs (Main computer chips) known as Sparc which were RISC (Reduced Instruction Set), fast and came out with lots of software (NFS or Network File System for example which they gave away, making it adopted in virtually every other operating system).

They then moved to an operating system, Solaris, which many people criticised as being slow and it got the moniker of Slowlaris (though in reality it’s pretty fast whether it’s running on Sparc or PC x86).

Other goodies Sun have come out with are Java and other cool things like ZFS and DTRACE which we won’t go into, but take it from us, they are very cool bits of software.

Sun Hardware
Sun still make a range of hardware both workstations and servers. These come in many flavours supporting Sparc and x86 (both Intel and AMD CPUs). Sun want to sell hardware and are now being pragmatic and don’t care what you run on it. So if you buy an x86 server, yes they’d prefer it to run Solaris, but they’ll happily support it with Linux or even Windows.

Sun hardware used to be expensive and the really big servers still are (but then a system with 256 CPUs is never cheap), but the lower and medium end systems are competitive when pitched against servers from other vendors.

Sparc-based servers (and they come with CPUs with 4, 6 or 8 cores and run Cool Threads) can be much better at running certain applications than x86 CPUs, and Web servers fit into this category. Sparc servers aren’t necessarily more expensive than x86 servers.

Sun’s software stack
Many systems run on LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP [or Perl or Python]) and that’s been a standard configuration for a while.

In the past it’s been incredibly hard to implement AMP on Solaris (it was painful in fact).

Now that’s changed, as Sun recently bought the open source database, MySQL, which is now shipping with Solaris.

Solaris also comes with new versions of Apache/PHP/etc. so it’s easy to migrate from a LAMP environment to a SAMP (Solaris/Apache/MySQL/PHP) environment, and Sun are encouraging people to do so.

Utilising Solaris (especially with ZFS) means highly scalable systems can be designed and operated which can be small at first and grow as the requirements do, with minimal intervention and redesigning everything from scratch.

Lycos Closes European Portal Amidst Significant Losses

2008-11-29T17:05:00.000-08:00

Lycos Europe is to sell some of its assets and shut down the rest, after the company failed to find an investor in the current frosty economic environment, the company announced on Wednesday.

The Netherlands-based company, which provides web hosting, internet search, online shopping tools, and social networking services, has had a staff strength of 694 in September, out of which one-third were employed in Germany.

The company has faced some fierce competition in internet search domain, from the likes of Google and Yahoo, and registered a massive net loss of 17.1 million euros in the first three quarters of 2008, with total sales of 46.9 million euros.

The company said that its management had concluded selling some of its domains, including shopping activities and Danish portal, as the best possible option to sustain in this crisis situation.

Incidentally the company plans to shut down its web hosting and portal businesses; the rest of its business, which still ranks among top-most internet portals, is owned by Daum Communications, a South Korean internet firm.

The group, which is currently controlled by Spanish telecom firm Telefonica and German Media group Bertelsmann, currently holds a market capitalization of 45 million euros.

The decision on the move will be taken after its shareholders’ meeting on 12 December.

MyLocalWay Introduces Web Presence Solution for Small Businesses

2008-11-15T20:14:00.000-08:00

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:20:24 -0800 PST
by Aria Munro

PORTLAND, Ore. — MyLocalWay(TM), the small business Internet presence company, introduces SnapDesign(TM) technology enabling small business owners and service providers to quickly create and maintain professional web sites. Many small business owners do not have websites because they are intimidated by the cost and complexity of creating them for their business. Countless sales opportunities are lost because consumers cannot locate local businesses on the Internet. Painters to plumbers, accountants to architects can build web sites in minutes to grow their businesses. MyLocalWay’s technology removes the technical challenges and addresses this basic need of millions of service providers across the country.

“Many small business owners do not have websites to promote their business because they believe they are too expensive and complicated to create and maintain. Our innovative SnapDesign technology allows busy small business owners with limited time or computer skills the ability to create a website within minutes for only a few cents per day,” said Jeff Braunstein, president and co-founder of MyLocalWay Corporation.

Small business owners creating a website at MyLocalWay start by selecting a pre-designed website template that reflects their company’s image. After selecting the template, the website is created by simply adding text, pictures, or videos in a simple, yet intuitive, interface. MyLocalWay takes care of all the technical details including hosting the web site, creating a unique domain name, and optimizing for search with the likes of Yahoo! and Google.

“MyLocalWay is impressive. It was really easy for me to get a great looking site quickly. I can update it myself anytime I want and my business is now online. I was initially intimidated by the idea of creating my own site, but found it to be very easy and very professional. I would recommend it to anyone,” said David B. Smith, a small business owner, who created his web site at MyLocalWay.com.

MyLocalWay offers two pricing plans. For sites hosted under the MyLocalWay domain, prices start at 3.99 per month. Sites hosted under a custom domain start at $6.67 per month.

Small businesses can now establish a professional Internet presence bypassing expensive custom web development. Any small business can benefit from the millions of customers searching the Internet every day.

About MyLocalWay

MyLocalWay is a privately held startup company dedicated to providing the best tools, products and services for small businesses to leverage the Internet as an integral part of their marketing plan. We do this by enabling small businesses to directly and quickly establish a cost effective, professional, and optimized Internet presence for their business.

For more information, visit: www.MyLocalWay.com .

Go Daddy’s Shoes Were Made for Walking… to Help Cure Juvenile Diabetes

2008-11-04T01:07:00.000-08:00

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With shoes tied tight, more than 750 Go Daddy participants were among those who walked to help raise a forecasted $2.1 million for juvenile diabetes research Saturday. The “Walk to Cure Diabetes” was held by the non-profit Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF) Desert Southwest Chapter.

This is the second consecutive year Go Daddy was the title sponsor for the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes event held at Tempe Town Lake in Tempe, Arizona. The event is the largest family-friendly walk in Arizona and the largest JDRF walk in the world.

Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons donated $125,000 to help with continued juvenile diabetes research. The Go Daddy corporate team raised an additional $10,000 in donations for the cause. Go Daddy did more than donate money too, breaking the chapter’s all-time record for participants representing any one corporate team, with employees, families, friends and pets walking in the JDRF Tempe event.

“Our Go Daddy employees are passionate, enthusiastic, energetic people who want to make a difference,” said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “Helping in the fight to cure Type 1 Diabetes is important to us, especially when you consider how many people are affected by this devastating disease. This walk was a way we could raise money and awareness, plus have a good time doing it.”

Diabetes affects 246 million people worldwide. In the U.S., a new case of diabetes is diagnosed every 30 seconds and more than 1.5 million people are diagnosed each year.

“Go Daddy is committed to supporting the community they serve and also their employees,” said JDRF Desert Southwest Chapter Board of Directors President Einar Seadler. “Bringing together more than 750 walkers Saturday shows their passion and partnership in finding a cure for diabetes. JDRF depends on Bob Parsons and his entire team to make a difference.”

In 2008, Go Daddy has helped organizations dedicated to a variety of causes, including, child abuse, domestic violence victims, Parkinson’s research, flood victims, injured veterans, animal shelters and homeless teenagers. Go Daddy donated nearly $1.5 million to various charities last year and has already surpassed that amount in contributions this year.

Go Daddy is the world’s largest domain registrar and a world leader in Web hosting. Go Daddy is also the second largest provider of SSL Certificates. Go Daddy serves six million customers worldwide providing an array of products for customers to create and maintain an online presence, all backed with 24/7 industry best customer service.

For more information about JDRF, please visit www.JDRF.org.

To learn more about how you can get online quickly and affordably, visit www.GoDaddy.com.

About The Go Daddy Group, Inc.

Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and Web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce Web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 32 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world's No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. GoDaddy.com is also rated the world’s largest hostname provider according to Netcraft Ltd. During 2007, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all domain names registered in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.

The Go Daddy Group

Copyright © 2008 GoDaddy.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

CensorNet Joins the Internet Watch Foundation

2008-10-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

CensorNet, an internet security company, has become an associate member of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to help combat child sexual abuse sites and criminally obscene content, provide mechanisms for its users to report illegal content and to provide protection against this type of content in its products.

Bristol, United Kingdom (PRWEB) October 22, 2008 -- CensorNet, an internet security company, has become an associate member of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to help combat child sexual abuse sites and criminally obscene content, provide mechanisms for its users to report illegal content and to provide protection against this type of content in its products.

CensorNet offers web filtering solutions to the private, public and education sectors as well as offering bespoke filtering platforms for Internet Service Providers.

The IWF is the UK internet 'Hotline' for the public to report their inadvertent exposure to online child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world, criminally obscene content and incitement to racial hatred hosted in the UK.

Tim Lloyd, Founder and Managing Director of CensorNet Ltd said, "We are very pleased to join the IWF. This is an important partnership for us and our clients and further demonstrates our commitment to protecting our customers, many of whom are educational institutes, and their users from illegal content. It also provides us with the opportunity to assist the IWF with their efforts which in turn makes the Internet a safer place for everyone."

IWF helps internet service providers and hosting companies to combat abuse of their networks through a national 'notice and take-down' service and provides unique data to law enforcement partners in the UK and abroad to assist investigations into the distributers of potentially illegal online content. As a result of this partnership approach, less than 1% of child sexual abuse content, known to the IWF, has been hosted in the UK since 2003, down from 18% in 1997. As sexually abusive images of children are primarily hosted abroad, IWF also facilitates the industry-led initiative to protect users from inadvertent exposure to this content by blocking access to it through the provision of a dynamic list of child sexual abuse URLs.

Peter Robbins OBE, QPM, Chief Executive of the IWF, said: "We are delighted to welcome CensorNet as a member of the Internet Watch Foundation. The support of the online sector is vital for the IWF to continue its work combating child sexual abuse content online and we look forward to working in partnership with CensorNet to protect internet users and promote a safer online experience."

About CensorNet Ltd:
CensorNet Ltd is an independent vendor that provides extremely flexible, accurate and powerful Internet filtering solutions to a wide range of organisations spanning many different market sectors, from small business and education to healthcare and government. The CensorNet technology includes a comprehensive database of over 60 million web sites, real-time content classification in over 15 languages and sophisticated image filtering. Currently, CensorNet is protecting over 1 million end-users.

For further information, please visit http://www.censornet.com or telephone +44 (0) 845 230 9590.

About IWF:
IWF works in partnership with the online industry, law enforcement, government, the education sector, charities, international partners and the public to minimise the availability of potentially illegal online content, specifically, child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world and criminally obscene and incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK.

We are an independent self-regulatory body, funded by the EU and the wider online industry, including internet service providers, mobile operators and manufacturers, content service providers, filtering companies, search providers, trade associations and the financial sector as well as other organisations that support us for corporate social responsibility reasons.

We work with UK government to influence initiatives developed to combat online abuse and this dialogue goes beyond the UK and Europe to ensure greater awareness of global issues, trends and responsibilities. We work internationally with INHOPE and other relevant authorities and organisations to encourage wider adoption of good practice in combating online child sexual abuse content and to promote inclusive and united global responses to this dynamic, cross-border criminality.

We strive to create continued awareness of the role and purpose of the IWF and aim to foster trust and reassurance in the internet for current and future users. Our self-regulatory partnership approach is widely recognised as an effective model in combating the abuse of technology for the dissemination of illegal content.

Please note that "child pornography", "child porn" and "kiddie porn" are not acceptable terms. The use of such language acts to legitimise images which are not pornography, rather, they are permanent records of children being sexually abused and as such should be referred to as child sexual abuse images.

For more information about IWF, please visit http://www.iwf.org.uk/, tel: +44 (0) 1223 237700 or email media @ iwf.org.uk.

###

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/censornet/webfiltering/prweb1498994.htm

Sitemasher to reduce developers' cutting, pasting

2008-10-10T01:50:00.000-07:00

Web site development service Sitemasher went live Monday with a new service geared toward making developers' lives a little easier.

Web site development service Sitemasher went live Monday with a new service geared toward making developers' lives a little easier.

"We wanted to take the complexity out of Web sites," said Sitemasher's CEO, Ron Moravek. "Usually you have to deal with the CMS, the hosting, and the design."

Sitemasher instead offers developers a hosted solution that makes the more annoying parts of Web design less hideous. The browser-based system offers a simplified design structure, along with a completely integrated CMS. Said Moravek: "The CMS maps in real time as you go along, building in the roles and permissions as well."

The drag-and-drop feature updates the schema easily, while the software-as-a-service functionality cuts down on maintenance time, courtesy of fast updates. "We talk to a lot of companies that employ armies of people who just cut and paste all day long, but this allows you to cascade the information to all your networked sites," said Moravek. This keeps the designer and key developers in the equations, but cuts out costly and unnecessary coding staff who man the Dreamweaver or SQL, he said.

Finding a vendor to back their super-specific play was tough, however. "We went around to talk to different data centers, as we knew we'd be growing across multiple data centers. But when we wanted to bring in full virtualization and Citrix boxes, they didn't want to deal with that," said Moravek.

The Vancouver-based company paired up with a neighboring vendor to power its outsourced infrastructure, Peer 1 Network Enterprises.

"It offers start-ups that flexibility," said Peer 1's Robert Miggins, senior vice-president of business development. "We own and manage the network, and adapt the bandwidth to their needs. It benefits them as their business changes, and it scales really well." This is a growing trend in the SMB market, said Miggins, who has seen a spike in the number of smaller and start-up companies outsource their hosting.

According to a recent customer study from the San Antonio, Texas-based Rackspace Hosting, nearly 70 percent of IT managers expect over the next five years that the number of IT functions they outsource to hosting, software-as-a-service or cloud service providers will increase.

With the current economic turmoil, many feel that the pressure on IT budgets is set to remain constant, or even increase. Outsourcing has often been touted as a cost saving option (mostly, in truth, by the IT service providers themselves), so it comes as no surprise then that the survey identifies a number of IT managers assigning a significant part of their budgets to hosted services.

Indeed, 47 percent said they spend between zero and 20 percent of their IT budget on hosted services, while 30 percent of respondents said that they spend 30 to 50 percent of their IT budget on hosted services.

Meanwhile, nearly 50 percent said that they expect the percentage of IT budgets spent on hosted services to increase over the next five years. And acceptance of outsourcing applications to be hosted elsewhere seems to be rising, with 40 percent not hesitant to host any application externally.

The fledgling hostee Sitemasher has 2,000 Web sites live so far, and has plans to build an east coast data center, along with an e-commerce solution.

http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=E3AE5D42-17A4-0F78-31CDE3DBB76A9E59

Video game takes satirical aim at tasteless listeriosis jokes

2008-09-21T04:03:00.000-07:00

Linda Nguyen , Canwest News Service
Published: Saturday, September 20, 2008
OTTAWA - A new website that allows people to shoot down pictures of Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz with a cannon firing cold cuts has surfaced on the Internet, as calls for his resignation continue to grow over jokes he made during the deadly listeriosis outbreak.

Set against a backdrop of Parliament Hill, the satirical website - www.deathby1000coldcuts.info - invites participants to "fire salami slices from your cold cut cannon over the skies of Parliament to defend the honour of Canada and the sensibilities of your fellow citizens!"

The site was created Thursday by a group of employees at Guru Dynamics, a Toronto-based web design and hosting company.

"Gerry Ritz made his comments and we were outraged," co-creator Roger Grant told Canwest News Service Saturday. "We feel that he should've been fired."

Grant said he and four other employees decided to make "collective effort" to satirize Ritz's comments.

"We believe political satire plays an important role in voter involvement. We didn't want to make it a serious game or a serious site. We made light of it," he said. "We wanted to draw attention to it and that's why we put it the way we did it so people would look at it."

The game, which urged visitors to play "Cold Cut Cannon," claims it is non-partisan.

"By the way this is a political satire. We in no way support hate, violence or terrorism of any sort. Nor do we support any particular party. In fact, we're so confused we don't know who to vote for this October 14th," the website reads.

Grant said that the company has not received any reaction from any of the political parties.

Since it was put online early Friday, there have been 100,000 visits to the site, he claimed.

Ritz has been at the centre of controversy after he made jokes about the deadly listeriosis outbreak, which has since claimed the lives of 18 people across the country.

The jokes were made during a conference call with bureaucrats held at the end of August to review progress dealing with the listeria crisis.

During the phone conversation, Ritz said that, for the government, "it was like death by a thousand cuts - or, should I say, 'cold cuts?'"

Later, when told about another listeriosis case in P.E.I., he said, "Please tell me it's (Liberal agriculture critic) Wayne Easter."

Ritz apologized for the comments when the news about the comments surfaced.

The Conservatives' political opponents and a number of groups and individuals - including family members of those who died from the outbreak - continue to call on Harper to fire the minister. Harper refused to dump Ritz, saying it was gallows humour in the heat of the crisis and did not reflect on his good work.

The web billionaires

2008-09-15T04:47:00.000-07:00

The Internet boom put these 34 innovators on our list of the world's richest. Total worth: $109.7 billion.

In 1999, Marc Benioff was a high-paid executive at Oracle and ready to move on. He explained to a reporter he would rather work for himself than another "billionaire S.O.B." Now he is one.

A billionaire, that is. He spotted an opportunity in the business of managing customer relationships. At the time, a business that wanted a computer application to manage customers faced a long and expensive ordeal. The business needed buy customized software, pay for hardware to run the programs, and then shell out even more money to the software company for installation and maintenance.
Fine for a mega-cap company that could drop a few million dollars without blinking, but it shut out small businesses. So he built Salesforce.com, which offered a new way to manage customer relationships. Its product was simpler and cheaper than tailored software. By providing the service over the Web--eschewing installation and maintenance fees--Salesforce could charge as little as $50 per month.

"Salesforce took off with largely smaller businesses," says Andrew Waldeck, a partner at the Innosight, a consulting firm specializing in innovation. "Those customers weren't attractive to the incumbent, because they couldn't service them profitably. Salesforce could."

Feeding off its bases of small businesses, Salesforce was able to continue improving its product and capabilities. Soon, the firm was grabbing the coveted mid- and large-size customers. By 2004, it boasted clients like Cisco, Staples and Advanced Micro Devices.

Forbes valued Benioff's net worth at $1.2 billion in March. He joins 33 other men and women on our list of the world's richest who owe much of their success to Web sites or online services, to the tune of $109.7 billion in total net worth. Most have products that were highly disruptive to the marketplace.

A common element among disruptive innovations is that they satisfy a group of overlooked consumers. To find one of these groups, Pierre Omidyar didn't need to look any further than his fiancée: She was an avid Pez-dispenser collector who couldn't find a place to buy or sell pieces for her collection.

Omidyar, a computer programmer, built a Web page called eBay that could do that job for her. He charged a quarter per listing to other hobbyists, and soon needed to hire somebody to open up all the checks piling up at his home.

"EBay figured out way to reduce transaction costs and create a market around low-cost collectibles that people previously didn't have the opportunity to trade," says Waldeck.

Millions of Beanie Babies and baseball-card auctions later, Omidyar is another Web billionaire. Forbes valued his net worth at $7.7 billion in March. He's joined on the list by a couple of his hired hands: The company's first full-time employee, Jeffrey Skoll, has a fortune Forbes estimated at $3.6 billion in March; former Chief Executive Meg Whitman has $1.3 billion.

Professor John Sperling spotted an underserved crowd in who was missing his classes. While teaching humanities at San José State, he concluded traditional schools of higher learning neglected non-traditional students. There were few classes that jived with the busy schedules of adults with jobs and families.

Sperling took the idea of his school for these non-traditional students to his employer. They weren't interested, so in 1976, Sperling founded the University of Phoenix, which is now a subsidiary of Apollo Group.

The first class had eight students. During its latest quarter this year, Apollo announced it had 345,000 students seeking degrees at its institutions. Much of the growth has come through the Web, where Apollo has been hosting classes online since 1999. Jeff Silber, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, estimates that around 75% of Apollo's University of Phoenix students are enrolled in online courses.

We estimated John Sperling's net worth at $1.7 billion in March. Like father, like son: John's son Peter also works at Apollo, and is on our list of Web billionaires with an estimated net worth equal to his father's.

Seed Salon: Jill Tarter + Will Wright

2008-09-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

Will Wright's lifelong interest in astrobiology deepened during his numerous visits to the SETI Institute over the evolution of the computer game Spore, released September 7. There he became familiar with the work of Jill Tarter and her colleagues whose mission to explore the universe for signs of life inspired Wright's development of the game. Their recent conversation in Manhattan was characteristically ambitious, raising such questions as, Can we model reality? How do we quantify scientific revolutions? And is the singularity inevitable?

Advanstar Extends MAGIC International Contract with GES(R)

2008-08-25T04:35:00.000-07:00

LAS VEGAS - (Business Wire) Advanstar Communications, Inc., a leading worldwide media company, has signed a five-year extension with GES Exposition Services to produce MAGIC International in Las Vegas. MAGIC International, which includes MAGIC, MAGIC kids, WWDMAGIC, and Sourcing at MAGIC, is the preeminent exhibition event in the international fashion industry, hosting global buyers and sellers of men’s, women’s and children’s apparel, footwear, accessories and sourcing resources. Each of the biannual shows is ranked in the top 10 annual North American exhibitions according to Tradeshow Week.

“GES is very proud to continue our partnership with Advanstar,” said Kevin Rabbitt, president and chief executive officer of GES. “For more than 15 years GES has produced MAGIC International, and our dedicated account team is passionate about continuing to provide great service. The GES team knows MAGIC’s exhibitors. We are able to anticipate and plan for their needs, resulting in an easier exhibiting experience at the show.”

MAGIC International, one of the largest exhibition events for the fashion industry, represents 4,000 companies, 5,000 brands, 20,000 product lines and attracts 120,000 attendees from 80 countries around the globe.

“MAGIC International is pleased to extend our relationship with GES through 2013,” said Tony Calanca, Advanstar’s executive vice president of exhibitions. “The size and scope of MAGIC International requires a level of commitment to operations and customer service excellence that only GES offers, and we value our partnership with the talented GES team,” said Calanca.

Summer MAGIC is being held August 25 through 27 at the Las Vegas Hilton and Las Vegas Convention Center.

About GES

Las Vegas-based GES Exposition Services, a subsidiary of Viad Corp (NYSE: VVI), services every major exhibition and event market across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and in Abu Dhabi through the GES Worldwide Network. GES provides a wide range of services, including exhibition planning and design, turnkey and custom exhibit rentals, material handling, staging, overhead sign rigging, temporary electrical equipment, signs and graphics manufacturing, installation and dismantling labor, carpet and furnishings, and transportation services. GES produces many well-known shows, including the International Consumer Electronics Show, Spring Fair Birmingham, International Council of Shopping Centers, National Restaurant Association, MAGIC, and CONEXPO-CON/AGG and IFPE. For more information, visit www.ges.com.

About Advanstar Communications

Advanstar Communications Inc. (www.advanstar.com) is a leading worldwide media company providing integrated marketing solutions for the Fashion, Life Sciences and Powersports industries. Advanstar serves business professionals and consumers in these industries with its portfolio of 91 events, 67 publications and directories, 150 electronic publications and Web sites, as well as educational and direct marketing products and services. Market-leading brands and a commitment to delivering innovative, quality products and services enables Advanstar to “Connect Our Customers With Theirs.” Advanstar has approximately 1,000 employees and currently operates from multiple offices in North America and Europe.

About MAGIC International

Every August and February, the fashion industry converges on Las Vegas for the most influential event in the business – the MAGIC Marketplace. The next event takes place August 25-27, 2008 in the Las Vegas Convention Center and Hilton (Sourcing at MAGIC runs August 24-27, 2008). For more information, log onto www.MAGIConline.com.

MAGIC International is a subsidiary of Advanstar Communications, the world’s largest and most widely recognized organizer of trade shows for the apparel industry producing the MAGIC Marketplace in Las Vegas featuring MAGIC, WWDMAGIC, MAGIC kids and Sourcing at MAGIC as well as sister shows PROJECT and POOL.

GoDaddy Files Patents for "Hosting Connection"

2008-08-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

A series of four related patent applications filed by GoDaddy and published by the USPTO yesterday appear to cover GoDaddy’s “Hosting Connection” service that lets customers purchase add-on applications for their web hosting accounts. The patents were filed in February 2007.

The patent applications, including “Web hosting community”, “Community web site for creating and maintaining a web hosting community”, “Partner web site to assist in offering applications to a web hosting community”, and “Certification process for applications entering a Web Hosting Community”, describe a system that lets web hosting application companies offer their software through a community web site. These applications are certified by the web hosting provider (such as GoDaddy) to work with its hosting services (think Salesforce Apps). Customers can read about the applications, including through community forums and reviews, and then purchase and immediately install them into their web hosting accounts.

GoDaddy’s Hosting Connection appears to offer many of these features, including reviews and ratings on popular web applications.

Think of this system as Fantastico on steroids. Fantastico is a system offered by many web hosts that includes open source applications, such as WordPress, than can be installed on your web hosting service with one click. Fantastico automatically creates databases, installs software, and adjusts permissions as necessary without user interaction.

GoDaddy is well positioned to make a community like this work since it is the largest shared web hosting provider in the United States.

I ported an application from physical machines to the cloud

2008-08-19T06:31:00.000-07:00

There are a variety of notions to how cloud computing is defined. I tend to think that what this really boils down to is the ability to procure hardware or services that you wouldn’t normally have access to in a physical sense. Rather than buying 20 new servers, you can spin them up on-demand, and also dump them whenever you want. It’s the “utility” or “pay-as-you-go” model.

I don’t see any difference between spinning up one server to run some prototypes, or spinning up 100 to crunch through a huge data set. People seem to be getting caught up in the notion that unless you are doing some sort of parallel processing with lots of nodes, you aren’t doing “cloud computing”. I disagree.
I also don’t believe that virtualization is necessarily the same as cloud computing. To me, virtualization means that you’re essentially splitting up fixed resources you already have into smaller chunks for other people to use. This is your accounting and human resources departments sharing space on the same machine, but keeping them logically partitioned. Providers are now selling virtualization under the cloud label. But if I have to buy (or rent) 20 physical machines to virtualize into slices, then I’m still committed to 20 machines. If I need more or fewer resources, I may need to work through a contract or serve out a lease term. It’s no longer pay-as-you-go, it’s a major expenditure.

Software as a Service

I love the software as a service model. I like having someone else running a database or mail service so that I don’t have to hire a team or own the plant to support it. With the service being off-site, I don’t have to worry about local disasters (though be sure to watch out for providers without their own SLA or disaster recovery plans). Our clients are again becoming thin. Laptops will have fewer and fewer local applications installed, and simply access various online applications and databases.

Again, pay as you go.

Additionally, fewer staff to manage services in-house. This means you won’t/can’t strangle your sysadmin when hosted email goes down for six hours. That can be a good or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it.

The best part about this model, though, is that you focus your own resources on what you’re best at. Does an online marketing agency need to know how to administer an Exchange server? Or should that be outsourced to a company that has the expertise to run mail for over a hundred other companies?

Cloud != Scale

This seems like a typical misconception: If I build my application on a cloud computing platform, then it will automatically scale. Environments like EC2 provide the ability to scale your application horizontally. Your application, however, still needs to be able to benefit from horizontal scaling. If you can only handle 5 concurrent users per node, then adding more boxes isn’t going to get you to 10,000 users very quickly. This seems obvious, but many people are still missing this point.

I don’t think there are many case studies yet of companies with applications “in the cloud” who also have suffered large amounts of traffic. And when we do see more of these applications, they will tend to have been built by early adopters who are probably experts in their fields. These cloud services are not yet open and approachable enough so that you have your average developer poking around and building applications that have the DNA for failure. Google has done a good job with promoting AppEngine using videos and hack-a-thons.

Decent architecture is always going to be foundational for scale. Your application has to benefit from the availability of additional nodes.

Redundancy and Planning for Failure

Amazon gets a lot of heat when S3 goes down, or when Gmail is unavailable. This is all a lot of finger pointing, especially by people have not started using cloud services — The “I told you so” crowd. Truth be told, the day after the recent S3 outage, my company had an application that was offline for nearly the same amount of time as S3’s outage. Are we any better? No.

It’s incredibly important to have a failover option for your own application. Before I left Heavy, we designed our storage on S3 so that it could be replicated to physical disks that we have at RackSpace. When S3 went out, we just flipped over to the physical disks. Eventually there will be a time when we don’t have enough disk to store what we keep at S3. That doesn’t mean that it can’t be replicated to another cloud storage service.

Consider having a backup hosting service in place, either physical or using another cloud provider. Your physical service could be provided by a managed hosting provider, or on some other dedicated hardware outside of your own office. You don’t need to own your own servers for a backup solution.

If you don’t have much money to spend on physical machines to host your fully operating site or application, think about how you can reduce the site to a version that can be hosted on a minimal number of servers. Can you maintain a read-only backup? Can you host a backup of your most popular content (i.e. the top 5%), and temporarily turn off access to the rest of the site?

Abstraction Layers

Something that I have talked a lot about, but haven’t had enough time to spend building, is a good abstraction layer on top of cloud storage. Everyone seems to have slightly different APIs. On the other hand, about 85% of the features overlap from provider to provider. Why not write an abstraction layer to handle the 85% and use multiple services? This could probably work pretty well for flipping back and forth between (or replicating amongst) various cloud storage services like S3, CloudFS, Nirvanix, and also physical disks.

I don’t know many details about SimpleDB and AppEngine’s datastore, but it seems to me that you may be able to apply this 85% rule to those as well. You could probably even treat MySQL and PostgreSQL the same way. You couldn’t use all of the joins and transactions you normally would want to use, but then again, writing an application specifically for cloud computing platforms seems to be a different sort of animal. We’ve basically been doing the same thing for years with the so-called database abstraction layers. You can say that you’ve got a layer that allows you to flip from one database engine to another, but chances are, you have some engine-specific code that you’ve been using that doesn’t translate well.

Porting an Application to EC2

I ported an application at Heavy that ran on physical machines we had available at RackSpace onto EC2. How much effort did it take for the application developers? Almost none. We didn’t buy into using SimpleDB — we just ran MySQL on EC2 instances. We split our team so that we had a couple of us building a few tools for managing our EC2 instances, and the other developers went about their business building a web application that could run on a standard LAMP stack. Additionally, if EC2 ever goes out of commission, we have the code and databases backed. They can easily be deployed to physical machines.

It’s worth saying this again… I ported an application from physical machines to the cloud. This application was not written for a specific cloud service. We were very concerned about lock-in from the beginning.

Conclusions

What did we gain by hosting our application on EC2? Initially nothing. We had the physical machines to run the application. But as our traffic increases, we can fire up new instances on demand. If traffic drops off, so does out monthly bill. It’s variable cost web hosting.

Does hosting your application on EC2 solve scaling problems? No. If you can’t improve performance of your application by adding additional servers, then there are bottlenecks to solve. Running your service on the cloud doesn’t mean it scales.

Furthermore, the cloud is not self-healing. In other words, it doesn’t automatically monitor your application and grow your infrastructure. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t build your application to do this. Read Don MacAskill’s SkyNet posting (http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2008/06/03/skynet-lives-aka-ec2-smugmug/) to get some idea of how that can work.

'Anne of Green Gables' Fest Welcomes Web Video

2008-08-11T17:35:00.000-07:00

Sullivan Entertainment, the Toronto-based producer of “Anne of Green Gables” and “Road to Avonlea,” is hosting an “Anne of Green Gables” online short film festival. The winning clip will be included on Sullivan’s next “Anne of Green Gables” DVD release.

Contestants can submit a two- to five-minute video related to “Anne of Green Gables” at www.sullivanmovies.com. Submissions can include re-shooting a scene from one of the books from which the series is inspired, creating an original story for Anne, creating a spoof, or resetting the character in a new genre such as musical or science-fiction.

A prize pack also will be awarded to the winner. The contest closes Sept. 19.

Featured Freeware: PicLens

2008-08-09T04:15:00.000-07:00

Cross-platform, cross-browser, and proud of it, browser plug-in PicLens is to Web surfing as an IMAX screen is to a 13-inch laptop monitor. In theory, it takes the images it finds on a Web site, expands them to super-extra-large size, and then lets you surf through them in a classy scaling interface that we think we last saw in Iron Man. Or maybe it was The Dark Knight.

Installing it places a button on the Toolbar. When you're on a PicLens-enabled Web site, click the PicLens button to activate the PicLens interface. Your screen will go black, and all the images on the site will zoom past you as if on a roller-coaster. They stop soon after, and from there you can surf the site using the subtly-placed search bar at the top of your monitor. Click on an image to enlarge it. If it's a still image, it simply enlarges. If it's a video, it enlarges and starts playing.

No doubt, PicLens puts the "graphic" back in "graphic user interface." However, it doesn't work on every Web site. It requires back-end code to be installed on the server hosting the site in question, and so the plug-in only supports a handful of the most popular graphics-intensive sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr, and a few others. A WordPress plug-in allows users of that blogging system to create PicLens functionality, and there's a Webmaster's guide on the PicLens site for users who host their own sites.

There are minor but noticeable stability issues in the Internet Explorer version, and Safari support is extant but not extensive. Even though PicLens is best used with Firefox, installing the add-on is worth it just for the sweeping, futuristic way that images stream by when you browse.

GamePro Strikes Ad, Content Deal With Wikia

2008-07-28T05:40:00.000-07:00

by Mark Walsh, Monday, Jul 28, 2008 7:00 AM ET
GamePro Media will exclusively handle ad sales for the gaming section of Wikia, the for-profit Web hosting service started by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, under a new marketing partnership announced today.

GamePro will serve display ads across the approximately 500,000 pages of game-related content on Wikia covering a wide range of enthusiast topics from the complex fantasy game "World of Warcraft" to Club Penguin. Wikia's game-related inventory accounts for more than 300 million ad impressions a month.

"GamePro has good relationships with advertisers and a lot of credibility built up through the many years they've been doing this," said Gil Penchina, CEO of Wikia, which spans some 8,000 niche content sites created by users. "Our goal is not to be a gaming company. Our goal is to be a library of everything."

In addition to Wikia Gaming, GamePro's online media network includes the flagship GamePro.com, Games.net, MegaGames.com, The GameReviews.com and BlogFaction.com. Traffic across the network in June totaled 14.8 million visitors worldwide, with 4 million coming from the U.S., according to comScore. Not surprisingly, GamePro attracts a mostly young, male, tech-savvy audience.

As such, its advertisers include major game publishers, auto companies including Toyota and Nissan, makers of male grooming products such as Gillette, and the service branches of the U.S military.

Penchina said Wikia Gaming offers a demographic cross-section ranging from older-skewing fans of massively-multiplayer online games like "Warcraft" and "Halo" to casual games that draw more women to those favored by tweens such as "Zoo Tycoon" "This allows (GamePro) to reach a broad audience," he said.

But with communities built around more than 800 different games on Wikia, GamePro will also be able to offer advertisers highly targeted audience segments. "Wikia offers a very targeted way to broaden ad buys," said Bob Huseby, senior vice president and publisher of GamePro Media.

He said the home pages of individual game wikis would lend themselves to sponsorships involving roadblock ads or tandem ads, in which a leaderboard and skyscraper or other display unit are synchronized to boost the impact of a brand message.

With the upcoming relaunch of GamePro.com on Aug. 12, the company also plans to feature Wikia Gaming content on the revamped home page. Huseby said the redesign is aimed at making the site more accessible to a mainstream gaming audience and more in line with the company's 20-year-old GamePro magazine.

At the same time, GamePro will also allow Wikia authors to grab content from the site including game screenshots, expert reviews and video available to use within their own wikis, Huseby said. Mark Walsh can be reached at walsh@mediapost.com

Understanding the Concept of Web Hosting

2008-07-22T06:03:00.000-07:00

Web host services allow individuals and organizations to create their websites via the World Wide Web. The hosting companies connect their web servers to the internet. They are kept in a physical center called ‘data center’, which has a 24/7 secure environment complete with HVAC temperature control, virus detection software, excellent backup, as well, as disaster recovery capabilities.

Organizations that prefer web host services independently have to incur huge expenses and require the latest technology. Choosing a professional web hosting service is more viable than hosting a site independently.

Web host services generally come with two options - a free web host service and a paid web host service. While free web host services are good option, but there are chances of unnecessary advertisements popping up and distracting visitors. A paid web host service, on the other hand, is more popular with recommended features, such as, a 24 hour technical support, POP3 email accounts, CGI-Bin access and a minimum of 20MB disk space.

Web host services are classified in three main categories:

a.Shared web hosting
b.Dedicated web hosting
c.Reseller web hosting

a.Shared hosting:

Shared web hosting is used by many businesses as well as hobbyists all around the world. Shared hosting is relatively inexpensive, as several websites share the same server. In other words, websites reside on a same server with the costs shared between the individuals on the server. Most website owners create their own script using PHP JavaScript and HTML.

b.Dedicated hosting:

In dedicated hosting, an individual has his own server and does not share space with any other website. The best advantage of a dedicated hosting service is the option to host multiple websites on the same server. The individual also has this option to handle site traffic, configure software and even scale the bandwidth.

c.Reseller hosting:

Reseller hosting involves individuals selling their hosting space further. Reseller hosting is for those who want to start a business and offer shared hosting to their customers. Resellers include web consultants, such as, web designers, and web developers. Most reseller hosting companies require a dedicated server for this service.

Further, there are two platforms for hosting a website - Windows and Linux. Among these two, Linux hosting is becoming a popular choice among organizations. Since Linux is a free operating system, Linux hosting is quite economical and much more secured.

Smit Mathur is an expert for writting Articles and is currently working for Linux Webhost.For more information related to web host services, business web hosting, web hosting provider australia, web hosting services, small business web hosting, web hosting provider please visit http://www.linuxwebhost.com.au/

Drum Corps International Brings Its Celebrated World Championship Quarterfinals to Movie Theatres for a Fifth Year in "Big, Loud & Live 5"

2008-07-18T05:10:00.000-07:00

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - (Business Wire) Precision marching, resounding percussion and the ability to rock the stadium1 are once again featured in the Drum Corps International (DCI) World Championship Quarterfinals in its exclusive, annual in-theatre event, Big, Loud & Live 5, on Thursday, Aug. 7th. Celebrating its fifth anniversary in bringing the best-of-the-best marching music ensembles to the big screen, the 2008 DCI World Championship Quarterfinals will be seen in more than 340 movie theatres this year – nearly triple the number of venues from last year.

Tickets for Big, Loud & Live 5, presented by NCM Fathom in High Definition with 5.1 audio, are available at presenting theatre box offices and online at www.FathomEvents.com. For a complete list of presenting theatre locations and prices please visit the website (theatres are subject to change).

Fans can experience these powerful corps performances from Indiana University’s Memorial Stadium LIVE on the big screen on Thursday, Aug. 7th at 6:00 p.m. Eastern / 5:00 p.m. Central / 4:00 p.m. Mountain / 3:00 p.m. Pacific exclusively at more than 340 select AMC Entertainment Inc., Celebration! Cinema, Cinemark USA Inc., Goodrich Quality Theaters, Georgia Theatre Co., Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres, Marcus Theatres, Malco Theaters, National Amusements and Regal Entertainment Group movie theatres, as well as the Penn Cinema (Lititz, PA) through NCM’s exclusive Digital Broadcast Network – North America’s largest cinema broadcast network.

Hosting more than 35 World Championships in 16 North American cities since its founding in 1972, DCI continues the in-theatre tradition again this year with the 2008 World Championship Quarterfinals featuring the top 15 World Class drum corps performing their competitive programs in their entirety. The event will also include highlight clips of the first five corps that performed earlier in the day preceding the live simulcast. Drum corps competing in the 2008 DCI World Championship Quarterfinals include:

-- The Academy - Tempe, AZ -- Glassmen - Toledo, OH-- Blue Devils - Concord, CA-- Madison Scouts - Madison, WI-- Blue Knights - Denver, CO-- Mandarins - Sacramento, CA-- Blue Stars - La Crosse, WI -- Pacific Crest - Diamond Bar, CA-- Bluecoats - Canton, OH -- Phantom Regiment - Rockford, IL-- Boston Crusaders - Boston, MA -- Pioneer - Milwaukee, WI-- The Cadets - Allentown, PA -- Santa Clara Vanguard --- Carolina Crown - Ft. Mill, SC Santa Clara, CA-- The Cavaliers - Rosemont, IL -- Spirit - Jacksonville, AL-- Colts - Dubuque, IA -- Troopers - Casper, WY-- Crossmen - San Antonio, TX
“Our fans asked for it, and we’re thrilled to have tripled the number of theaters that will showcase the world’s most elite and exclusive marching music ensembles,” said Dan Acheson, executive director and CEO of Drum Corps International. “There are now more opportunities than ever for fans across the United States to experience Marching Music’s Major League on the big screen.”

“DCI fans have continued to come out to theatres to see and support their favorite drum corps live in this electrifying annual competition,” said Dan Diamond, vice president of NCM Fathom. “DCI continues to attract fans of all interests from across the country who can’t travel to the event in Indiana the opportunity to experience spellbinding performances, all from the comfort of their local air conditioned movie theatre. We are proud to once again bring this family event to local communities and give them a front-row view of the exciting competition on the field.”

About National CineMedia

National CineMedia (NCM) LLC operates the largest digital in-theatre network in North America through long-term agreements with its founding members, AMC Entertainment Inc., Cinemark USA Inc. (NYSE: CNK) and Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE: RGC), the three largest theatre operators in the U.S., and through multi-year agreements with several other theatre operators. NCM LLC produces and distributes its FirstLook pre feature program; cinema and lobby advertising products; comprehensive meeting and event services and other entertainment programming content. NCM LLC's national network includes over 17,000 screens of which over 14,500 are part of the company's Digital Content Network (DCN). NCM LLC's network covers 170 Designated Market Areas® (49 of the top 50). During 2007, approximately 685 million patrons attended movies shown in theatres currently included in our network. National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCMI) owns a 42.3% interest in and is the managing member of NCM LLC. For additional information, visit www.ncm.com or www.FathomEvents.com.

About Drum Corps International

Drum Corps International (DCI) is the world leader in producing events for the world’s most elite and exclusive marching ensembles for student musicians and performers. Founded in 1972, Drum Corps International has developed into a powerful, nonprofit, global youth organization with far-reaching artistic, educational and organizational influence. Drum Corps International is Marching Music’s Major League™. Learn more about the exciting world of Drum Corps International and its member corps on the Web at DCI.org, or call 317-275-1212. Drum Corps International is located in Indianapolis, Ind.

1DCI b-roll is available to media for free download at: www.thenewsmarket.com/nationalcinemedia

Chinese lawyers blocked from meeting US reps

2008-07-01T16:10:00.000-07:00

Police blocked Chinese dissident lawyers from attending a meeting with two visiting U.S. lawmakers, the lawmakers and a human rights group said Tuesday.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, a senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, had planned to dine with the group on Sunday night. Police either took the lawyers away or placed them under house arrest before the meeting took place, they said.

In remarks to reporters Tuesday, the congressmen said such moves underscore what many activists and monitoring groups say is a deterioration of human rights ahead of next month's Olympic Games, despite pledges by Chinese officials that holding the games would give a boost to China's rights situation.

"The reality has been numbingly disappointing," Smith said, referring to conditions for political dissidents, human rights activists, and campaigners for religious freedom.

He called on President Bush to stay away from the Aug. 8 Olympic opening ceremony unless substantial improvements are made over the next month.

"Tragically, the Olympics has triggered a massive crackdown designed to silence and put beyond reach all those whose views differ from the official 'harmonious' government line," Smith said.

When asked about the allegations, a spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, who refused to give his name, said, "That is top secret internal information that we cannot divulge. We have no comment on this."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said authorities believed the pair's visit was geared toward consultations with U.S. Embassy officials.

"We hope the U.S. congressmen, while making a visit to China, while conducting relevant activities, to respect and Chinese laws and regulations and respect their commitments," Liu said at a regularly scheduled news conference.

Asked repeatedly what rules had been violated, Liu merely repeated his earlier remarks.

Smith and Wolf said they presented a list of 734 political prisoners to Li Zhaoxing, chairman of the national legislature's Foreign Affairs Committee and a former foreign minister. They asked Li to work for the prisoners' release, Smith said.

The lawmakers and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a network of activists and rights monitoring groups, identified those barred from attending Sunday's dinner as lawyer Li Baiguang, who the network said was detained in a Beijing suburb for three days; lawyer Jiang Tianyong, who was confined to his apartment until after the meal ended; and Teng Biao, a lecturer at the China University of Political Science and Law, who was placed under house arrest.

Fan Yafeng, a legal scholar and researcher at the official Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said he had also been invited to the dinner, but decided not to attend after receiving a phone call from police warning him against going.

"This type of situation is not uncommon, we often experience similar restraints on our freedoms," Fan said.

"We are worried that human rights violations may even worsen after the Olympics are over because the world won't be watching as closely anymore," Fan said. "It's a scary thought."

While it isn't known if China made any specific commitments on human rights _ its formal contract with the International Olympic Committee was never made public _ officials on several occasions ahead of the vote on host cities in 2001 said hosting the Games would give a lift to human rights.

Also Tuesday, a reporter for an overseas news Web site was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted on charges of illegal weapons possession and public disorder.

Sun Lin was arrested May 30, 2007, after authorities in the eastern city of Nanjing reportedly warned him to stop reporting on sensitive social and political issues for the U.S.-based Boxun Web site.

Sun's lawyer, Mo Shaoping, said his client denied the charges and would likely appeal.

The Web site Boxun, to which Sun was a regular contributor, claimed the arrest was orchestrated by officials seeking to silence their reporting. Sun's wife, He Fang, was also charged but released with a suspended sentence.

New IT packages to help SMEs stay competitive

2008-06-26T05:15:00.000-07:00

By Oh Boon Ping

DP Bureau has launched seven new tailor-made packages to help SMEs use technology to stay competitive.

The one-stop business advisory centre said the offers are part of the SME Infocomm Package (SIP) introduced by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), and they help SMEs reap substantial savings as well as subsidies from IDA.

The SIP initiative seeks to provide companies that have yet to embrace technology with affordable, entry-level IT packages that come complete with one-stop helpdesk and advisory services.

DP Bureau said in a statement the subsidy is available if the SME is investing in a web presence for the first time and is open to the first 5,000 SMEs on a first-come, first- served basis.

Said DP Bureau general manager Ong Siew Kim: 'In today's fiercely competitive world, every SME should be making full use of technology to stay competitive. The SME Infocomm Packages are an efficient and affordable way for SMEs to get the technology to stay ahead in the game.'

Of the seven packages, four are focused on providing the essential infrastructure required for using technology in a business - website development and hosting, domain names and broadband Internet access.

The other three are designed to meet the technological needs of companies in the retail, trading and services sectors.

For example, the retail sector package offers sophisticated point-of-sale equipment, while the service sector package includes accounting software.

The trading sector package comes with accounting and inventory management software.

These latest offerings came as the 2008 Start-Up Enterprise Survey - conducted by DP Information Group - identified a clear link between the use of technology and higher net profit.

The study found 50 per cent of those generating net income of $200,000 to $500,000 were highly dependent on technology.

Of the firms with net profit in excess of $500,000, some 35 per cent were also dependent on technology.

Conversely, 37 per cent of firms with low levels of technology reliance reported losses.

One of the first SMEs to sign up for an SME Infocomm Package is Hai Yang Cultural Arts & Development Centre.

Said its director Yu Shu Huai: 'This package and the government grant enables IT-illiterate people like me to establish a company website with ease. It allows me to create brand awareness and raise my competitiveness.'

To qualify for a subsidy, an SME must have at least 30 per cent local shareholding and less than $15 million in assets.

In addition, non-manufacturing firms must have fewer than 200 employees.

The SIP initiative follows the call by IDA last November for tech vendors to come up with product bundles for local SMEs, a group that is perceived to be lagging behind in using technology to improve their daily operations.

The so-called CFC (call for collaboration) closed in January this year with proposals from 31 consortiums.

This article was first published in The Business Times on 24 June 2008.

“Future Trends in Egypt ”

2008-06-22T06:33:00.000-07:00

Beltone Financial, the fastest growing investment bank in the Middle East and North Africa region with assets-under-management of USD$5 billion, will be hosting the “Future Trends in Egypt” forum with the participation of Egyptian corporate and governmental leaders.

They will provide UK investors with unique insights on the Egyptian market, recent economic reforms and the factors that they expect will continue to drive growth and ensure Egypt ’s position as a prime investment destination for international investors.

Since 2003, the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange (CASE) has consistently registered year-after-year top performance on a worldwide basis, with stocks up 2000%, and an increase in foreign investment into Egypt from US$400 million in 2002 to more than $11.1 billion in 2007/2008, year-to-date.

Taking part in the forum will also be 10 of the leading CASE-listed companies. These companies hail from across key industry sectors, have an aggregate market capitalization of USD 32 billion and account for nearly 20% of the Egyptian stock market by market capitalization. A number of these companies’ shares are also traded as GDRs on the London Stock Exchange.

Key government ministers and business leaders will be presenting to international investors and the media on prospects for the Egyptian economy, factors underlying continued strong investor confidence and expected robust growth and ongoing expansion by Egyptian and other regional companies. Among these leading figures are:

-His Excellency Dr. Mahmoud Moheildin, Minister of Investment, Egypt ;
-Aladdin Saba, Chairman and co-founder, Beltone Financial;
-Ali El Tahry, Managing Director and co-founder, Beltone Financial;
-Angus Blair, Head of Research, Beltone Financial;
-Nassef Sawiris, CEO, Orascom Construction Industries;
-Samih Sawiris, Chairman and CEO, Orascom Hotels and Development;
-Hisham Ezz Al Arab, Chairman, Commercial International Bank (CIB);
-Raouf Ghabbour, Chairman, Ghabbour Auto;
-Ahmed El Sewedy, Chief Executive Officer, El Sewedy Cables;
-Hassan Nouh, General Manager, Al Ezz Steel Rebars;
-Mohamed Kamel, Board Member & Vice President - Corporate Development, Egyptian Resorts Company;
-Hossam El Mestikawi, Chief Financial Officer, Olympic Group;
-Yehia Kotb, Chairman, Egyptian Financial Industrial.

Bakersfield, Gwinnett Named

2008-06-13T05:30:00.001-07:00

PRINCETON, N.J. – The ECHL announced that the web sites of the Bakersfield Condors (BakersfieldCondors.com) and the Gwinnett Gladiators (GwinnettGladiators.com) have been named as the ECHL Web Sites of the Year for 2007-08.

Bakersfield, which becomes the first two-time winner having won the inaugural award in 2004-05, finished ahead of the Victoria Salmon Kings (SalmonKings.com) in the National Conference while Gwinnett finished ahead of the Reading Royals (RoyalsHockey.com) in the American Conference.

The web sites were reviewed by Rich Libero and the staff of NHL.com, the official web site of the National Hockey League.

“This season presented the biggest challenge yet,” said Libero, who is in his ninth year as Vice President of Editorial & Production for NHL.com. “Across the board ECHL club sites took a big step in the right direction, particularly in the video space.”

Bakersfield’s web site is designed and hosted by iSportsMedia, an IWS/D Company and is updated by vice president of communications Kevin Bartl and media relations manager Andrew Buchbinder.

“Bakersfield’s design is simply professional and well organized,” said Libero. “Content modules are nicely balanced with marketing and advertising.”

Gwinnett’s web site is designed and supported by Andrew Cortez and Gary Nichols of Interdev with hosting provided by GoDaddy.com. The site is updated by director of broadcasting and media relations Dustin Bixby and director of merchandise Christi Johnson.

“Gwinnett represented another cleanly-packaged site with simple navigation, easy-to-track scheduling and easy e-commerce,” said Libero.

ECHL Web Site Award Winners
Year Team
2007-08 Bakersfield Condors and Gwinnett Gladiators
2006-07 Idaho Steelheads and Wheeling Nailers
2005-06 Phoenix RoadRunners
2004-05 Bakersfield Condors

ECHL
Celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2007-08, the ECHL is the Premier ‘AA’ Hockey League and the third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League.

ECHL began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states and has grown to be a coast-to-coast league that will play with 24 teams in 16 states and British Columbia in 2008-09.

The league officially changed its name to ECHL on May 19, 2003.

The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 30 teams in the NHL in 2007-08, marking the 11th consecutive season that the league has had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL.

There have been 355 former ECHL players who have gone on to play in the NHL after playing in the ECHL, including 99 in the last three seasons. There have been 210 former ECHL players who have played their first game in the NHL in the past seven seasons.

There are 15 coaches in the NHL who have ECHL experience including former Wheeling coach Peter Laviolette, who is head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes, and former Mississippi coach Bruce Boudreau, who is head coach of the Washington Capitals.

The ECHL is represented for the eighth consecutive year on the National Hockey League championship team in 2008 with Detroit Red Wings forward Aaron Downey.

The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 29 teams in the American Hockey League in 2007-08 and for the past 18 years there has been an ECHL player on the Calder Cup champion.

In each of the last two seasons there have been more than 225 players who have played in both the ECHL and the AHL and there were over 800 call-ups involving more than 500 players. In the last five seasons the ECHL has had more call-ups to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined with over 2,000 call-ups involving more than 1,000 players since 2002-03.

Further information on the ECHL is available from its website at ECHL.com.

Editor's Note

2008-06-03T16:42:00.000-07:00

by Tim Whitaker

People who work at publications like this one are convening here this week for the annual alternative newspaper convention.

There’ll be seminars, speakers, awards and lots of shoptalk. By the final night of the convention some sales dog from Phoenix or Vegas or one of those faux cities will end up with his picture on Flickr wearing a lampshade.

It beats ending up at the Roundhouse.

Our crosstown City Paper friends are the hosts for the convention, which runs through Saturday.

Nice guys, the CP folks. Nicer than we are, for sure, since they’re the ones hosting this shing-a-ling.

Renowned Rock/Heavy Metal Radio and TV Personality Eddie Trunk Engages Paid, Inc. for Promotions and Web Site Management

2008-05-20T05:49:00.000-07:00

BOSTON & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Popular national syndicated FM and satellite radio personality EDDIE TRUNK has contracted Paid, Inc. (OTCBB:PAYD) to design, build and manage a new web site, as well as to develop and handle merchandising, mobile promotions and fan community relations.

This partnership will allow fans to purchase merchandise related to Eddie himself or to the rock and heavy metal music he plays on his weekly radio shows, “EDDIE TRUNK LIVE” on XM satellite radio and “EDDIE TRUNK ROCKS,” which airs live on Q104.3 in his local listening area (New York City, New Jersey, Long Island and Connecticut), via the internet on various outlets, and in syndication through New York-based Radio KG Broadcasting in markets as far reaching as Texas, North Dakota and Washington state. A 25-year radio veteran with a vast weekly radio audience, EDDIE TRUNK also appears frequently on television on VH1, VH1 Classic (where he served as a host and interviewer for five years), and in New York City for MSG Network where he currently serves as host and interviewer for music artists of all genres. Simply put, Eddie is THE respected voice in rock and heavy metal in radio and television. Trunk and his radio network continually sponsor and host local concert events, and he is now enlisting Paid celebrity services to add mobile promotions, merchandise sales and other V.I.P. related offerings for the events.

Trunk has a phenomenal reputation as a lifelong expert on all forms of rock -- its music, history and the larger than life personalities involved. He also has an extensive history in the music business working in artist management and as VP of Megaforce Records in the late ‘80s. He is a crusader for keeping radio fresh, unique and exciting while playing the music he loves, which includes doing all of his own programming and producing in addition to hosting his shows, which dominate ratings and draws raves from his numerous celebrity guests and fans in the nation’s number one radio market and beyond. Trunk has a tremendous impact on his audience that stretches far across and outside the United States, to an international fan base who listen to his local show’s rebroadcast at www.knac.com. Trunk connects to his audience with a knowledge and passion for what he does. His shows are appointment listening and mix music, talk, interview, calls and opinion.

Eddie Trunk is very well known as a national figure, and there is significant potential for promotions, activities and events both on and offline nationwide as he broadens his audience.

Trunk stated, “My fans are accustomed to accessing my show on the Web, and I’m excited to leverage an incredible opportunity with Paid to offer them a richer fan experience right then and there, by linking in exclusive member-only merchandise, V.I.P. ticketing, online and mobile content and other fresh approaches that mix very well with my passion for metal and my loyal listeners who share that passion.”

“To fans, EDDIE TRUNK is as legendary as the music and musicians themselves. And to the celebrities, he is not just an expert, but someone they want to hang out with, hence the constant stream of big names that appear on his shows for hours at a time,” said Keith Garde, Paid celebrity services president. “Eddie accomplishes things that become a part of heavy metal history, like getting the first real interview with Axl Rose in 15 years and talking Twisted Sister into a reunion performance after a 14-year split. The list goes on and on. We are thrilled that by bringing in Paid’s web site management and other promotional services, we can really leverage and build on Eddie’s fan base and his exceptional body of work.”

Paid’s management of the web site www.eddietrunk.com will create a registered fan base to which it will deliver members-only access to special communications and events, exclusive archived materials and an array of merchandise for heavy metal lovers and fans of Eddie’s radio broadcasts. Especially in the Northeastern U.S., mobile promotions are expected to add to this fan base and further build Eddie’s following as an already super-popular connection to not only the music, but to a long line of rock celebrities such as Guns N Roses, Ace Frehley, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Aerosmith and Kiss to name just a few.

About Paid, Inc.:

Paid, Inc. operates a diversified set of businesses, including its celebrity services and AuctionInc ecommerce technology businesses. Paid, Inc.’s celebrity services provides celebrities and organizations with official Web sites and fan club services that include e-commerce storefronts, ticketing and fan experience packages and web site content to attract tens of thousands of visitors daily. Using proprietary patented technology, Paid's innovative AuctionInc brand shipping calculation and auction management software and services are utilized to streamline online auctions, ecommerce and web site development and hosting. The Company also sponsors autograph signing events and other sports marketing services for sports clientele. The Company's common stock is traded on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol PAYD. For further information, visit http://www.paid.com.

Forward Looking Statements:

This Press Release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are based upon current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events, including matters related to the Company's operations, profitability, business development efforts, and expectations about celebrity programs and fan club activities, technologies, and services. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions upon which they are based are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations and assumptions will prove to have been correct. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous factors and uncertainties. In addition, other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are discussed in the Company's most recent filings, including Form 10-QSB with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Star Tribune takes personalized approach to Web

2008-05-05T04:17:00.000-07:00

The (Minneapolis) Star Tribune is the very model of a modern major metro.

It’s already the city’s dominant mass medium through its printed product. But now it’s exploiting its online presence to give its readers and advertisers a more personal experience, said Jason Erdahl, the Star Tribune’s executive director of interactive media operations.

Case in point: The Home Page Experience ad program, launched in 2006. The program gives marketers an opportunity to reach Web visitors through a variety of ad formats based on the number of times a visitor accesses the paper’s home page.

“What’s worked for us is that the user sees the message in different ways as they come back to the front page,” Erdahl said. This minimizes the chance a consumer might ignore the ad because of repeated viewings of the same message, he said.

The paper (Monday-Friday, 335,443; Saturday, 372,657; Sunday, 570,443) listed the ad packages at $19,000 each and booked 50 last year.

Home Page Experience reflects the paper’s embrace of the Web, a commitment that netted the daily three NAA Digital Edge awards this year for most innovative storytelling, best local guide/entertainment site (see box, below) and best digital ad program.

That’s on top of the four regional Emmys the paper garnered from the local chapter of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, citing the Star Tribune’s animation, still photography and videography efforts.

Yet even as the paper built its award-winning programs, its staff had to contend with rebuilding its Web infrastructure from scratch following the 2006 sale of the Star Tribune from McClatchy Co. to private venture firm Avista Capital Partners.

“McClatchy had the Web operations set up so that everything was centralized through the parent company,” Erdahl said. “McClatchy did a fine job, but this gave us an opportunity to look at things again and we decided to go with the best-of-breed option.”

The answer was a mixture of shrink-wrapped and custom apps, Erdahl said.

To that end, the Star Tribune tapped Clickability Inc. for its content management software and Silverpop Systems Inc. for its e-mail and newsletter alert functionality. The newspaper also maintained and expanded relationships with vendors such as Planet Discover, which was selected to provide search engine and shopping portal support.

Finally, the paper renewed its contract with Omniture Inc. for Web analytics and installed an ad management app from Google Inc. unit DoubleClick.

“The site may not look entirely different but nearly everything has been dramatically changed,” Erdahl said about the new infrastructure.

The Star Tribune used its own resources, meantime, to create its popular story commenting feature.

“I would argue that we have the best story commenting system on the Web right now,” he said. “We do require registration, but that doesn’t stop (readers) from participating because our users are open to sharing information with us in exchange for posting on the Web.”

Users can rate comments similar to the way Amazon users rate reviews, Erdahl said.

Whatever Happened to Red Swoosh?

2008-05-03T05:44:00.000-07:00

Remember Red Swoosh, the P2P company that was bought by Akamai for $18.7 million in April 2007? Red Swoosh used to be a competitor to Akamai, albeit on a much smaller scale, offering P2P-powered content delivery services to corporate customers. Shortly before the Akamai acquisition, the company reinvented itself, rolling out products for amateur videographers and file-swapping consumers.

This new direction opened up a lot of possibilities for Akamai. In particular, it offered a way for Akamai to extend its business model to blogs and other platforms for user-generated content. Call it the CDN solution for the long tail, if you will, complete with options to enter the advertising market. But none of that materialized. Instead, it looks like most Red Swoosh products have been discontinued or taken down.

Take FoxTorrent for example. That’s Red Swoosh’s own Firefox BitTorrent extension. The service made a lot of noise when it first got released back in March of 2007, with one developer even predicting that one year down the road, FoxTorrent would be “…the most popular torrent client on the planet. The fastest. The easiest. Hands down.”

Red Swoosh later stated on its blog that these were the words of a “part-time employee…who got a wee bit too excited,” but the company continued to release updates and hint at big plans for FoxTorrent’s future. Until September, that is. FoxTorrent’s blog hasn’t been updated since, the long-promised client version 2.0 hasn’t been released and the forum — and Wiki — of the project are essentially dead.

Then there is Red Swoosh’s Edge Delivery Network (EDN), also dubbed Red Swoosh 2.0. The idea was to supplement the company’s existing corporate customer base with folks who can’t pay for professional CDN services, like bloggers and video podcasters. Users could deliver any content hosted on their web sites through Red Swoosh’s P2P technology. It was free and dead-simple: All you had to do was add a string to your links, and content would automatically be delivered via P2P, provided your users would install the Red Swoosh client.

Red Swoosh in return got a chance to grow its client install base as well as a chance to place ads on download splash pages. The service was launched in the summer of 2006, and while it’s still up and running, is almost impossible to find. Red Swoosh’s EDN home page now redirects to an Akamai.com page that makes no mention of the service. Red Swoosh’s forum as well as its developer site are also down.

And finally, there was Red Swoosh’s brief foray into the area of one-click hosting. The company quietly launched an anonymous, P2P-powered file hosting service at Upload.redswoosh.net some time last year that promised “unlimited uploads, unlimited downloads, no waiting, no ads, no spyware ” and even came with streaming video support.

One-click hosting is a highly popular, but also very controversial market. Market leader Rapidshare.com is listed as the 12th most popular web site by Alexa.com, and by its own account offers a total of 4.5 petabyte of storage to its millions of users, but has also been also the target of entertainment industry lawsuits — a risk that Akamai apparently wasn’t willing to take.

NewTeeVee discovered the Red Swoosh hosting service earlier this week and asked Akamai for a statement, only to watch the site get taken down just minutes later. Red Swoosh founder Travis Kalanick explained to us that the service was “an experimental site that the Red Swoosh team created prior to the acquisition,” and that the company decided to shut it down “to avoid any confusion on the matter.”

All of this obviously doesn’t mean that Akamai is ignoring P2P. For all we know, the company could be offering a P2P-powered CDN solution any day now. A company spokesperson told us he couldn’t get into specifics at this time, but that Akamai regards “client-side distribution as a natural evolution of our strategy and edge architecture.” He continued: “Our focus is always on enabling our customers to do more.”

The problem is that P2P isn’t just about corporate customers, but about end users. The key to gain traction in the P2P CDN market is to have a huge client install base, and for that you need consumer-related offerings, especially since it’s getting harder and harder to get consumers to install a plug-in just to access a certain site in the age of Flash-based platforms like YouTube and Hulu.

BitTorrent Inc. knows this and plans to leverage the huge and still growing popularity of uTorrent to power its BitTorrent DNA CDN. Pando became the most popular personal file-sharing service before it started to enter the CDN world. Akamai, on the other hand, has completely ignored the consumer side of P2P ever since it acquired Red Swoosh. As a result, they might just have missed the boat on P2P content delivery.

Microsoft Open With Live Mesh?

2008-04-27T05:48:00.001-07:00

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced the availability of Live Mesh, at first for a limited number of users, an idea that Ray Ozzie had mentioned at last month’s MIX Conference. The mesh concept suggests a new point of interest for Microsoft, rather than the “old” PC: the World Wide Web.

Mike Zintel, Product Unit Manager, Mesh and Storage Platform, unveiled on a blog that the project they have been working on is going to take competition by surprise, by allowing users to easily manage their information by combining their computing experiences (PCs, applications, web sites, phones, video games, music and video devices) in the context of different communities (i.e. myself, family, work, organizations).

”The PC era has given way to an era in which the Web is at the center of our experiences,” say Ray Ozzie in a memo to Microsoft employees, Information World reports. “It is our mission in this new era to create compelling, seamless experiences that combine the power of the Internet with the magic of software, across a world of devices.”

Live Mesh enables devices to work together and is in fact a software-plus-service platform that connects devices (PCs, and soon Mac and mobile phones) through the internet, making file sharing and folder synchronization a lot easier.

In addition to being able to access information from anywhere, Microsoft also introduced a “stay informed” feature which keeps track of all the activities on the mesh and keeps the user informed of all updates: online status of friends, who updated files or folders, check the status of his devices etc.

At first, the service will be available to a limited number of users, in order to get the necessary feedback and to make sure the system is reliable and responsive. At the same time, the interface will be in English only, as the data center hosting service is in United States (broader availability is expected within a few months). Although only supported on Windows XP and Vista machines, support for the Mac and mobile devices will be added.

Despite all the openness Microsoft wants to embrace with Live Mesh however, some are still raising eyebrows on exactly how open Mesh really is: an interesting concept, but needs a lot of testing and work to prove a point.

Yahoo plans makeover with elements of social network

2008-04-25T06:42:00.000-07:00

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Yahoo Inc. plans to make its Web site a social hub by hosting applications from other online services, part of the Internet pioneer's effort to spawn more advertising opportunities.

"We are going to rewire the entire experience at Yahoo to make it social in every dimension," Ari Balogh, Yahoo's chief technology officer, said Thursday at a "Web 2.0" conference that drew a crowd of more than 1,000.

The more open platform copies a concept that already has been embraced by Internet search leader Google Inc. and a variety of online social hangouts, including Facebook Inc. and News Corp.'s MySpace.com.

Yahoo's new look will give its roughly 500 million users greater flexibility to customize Web pages. They will be able to pick from a variety of mini-applications, known as "widgets," and plant them just about anywhere on the site, including their personal version of the front page.

Hoping to capitalize on the social networking craze, Yahoo also is making it easier to connect with friends and family through its Web site. For example, it will highlight messages from e-mail users' most frequent connections let them track the activities and opinions of online buddies.

The makeover's timing hasn't been determined, but it will happen before the end of the year, Balogh said. It could still be derailed if Yahoo is taken over by Microsoft Corp., which has offered to buy its rival for more than $44 billion in cash and stock.

Maintaining that Microsoft's bid is insufficient, Yahoo has been implementing a long-promised turnaround strategy designed to boost revenue growth after more than two years of financial lethargy. Management has promised the Sunnyvale-based company's revenue will climb more than 20 percent in 2009 and 2010.

Yahoo also announced on Thursday a three-year advertising and content-sharing partnership with CNet Networks Inc., an online entertainment and technology news service.

Like Yahoo, CNet is trying to snap out of a prolonged funk and fend off an unwelcome advance. A group of dissident shareholders led by New York investment fund Jana Partners LLC wants to overthrow CNet's current board because of the company's struggles.

Empowering friends and family to track each other has raised privacy concerns at Facebook, but Balogh said Yahoo will take steps to ensure users retain control over their personal information.

This isn't Yahoo's first attempt to become a bigger player in the Internet's social scene. The company launched a social network called "360" in 2005, but recently closed the service down because it never caught on. Yahoo also offered to buy Facebook for $1 billion in 2006 only to be rebuffed.

Privately held Facebook last year sold a 1.6 percent stake to Microsoft for $240 million.

Now Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo in an effort to chip away at Google's huge lead in Internet search and advertising. If Yahoo's board doesn't agree to a sale by Saturday, Microsoft has threatened to try to replace the 10 directors in an attempt to complete the deal.

Web Reeling Under Mass Malicious Code Attack

2008-04-24T05:42:00.000-07:00

Websense Security Labs has found similarities between a current epidemic of malicious JavaScript injection and one that occurred at the start of the month. The previous attack had compromised thousands of domains.

Websense says the attackers have now switched over to a new domain as their hub for hosting the malicious payload in this attack with the number of compromised sites having increase by a factor of ten in a few hours.

When a user browses to a compromised site, the injected JavaScript loads a file named '1.js', which is hosted on 'http://www.nihao[removed].com'

The JavaScript code then redirects the user to '1.htm' (also hosted on the same server). Once loaded, the file attempts 8 different exploits (the attack last April utilized 12). The exploits target Microsoft applications, specifically browsers not patched against the VML exploit MS07-004 as well as other applications. Files named 'McAfee.htm' and 'Yahoo.php' are also called by '1.htm' but are no longer active at the time of writing.

There are further similarities between the two mass attacks. Resident on the latest malicious domain is a tool used in the execution of the attack. It appears that same tool was used to orchestrate this attack too.

According to Websense, when it first started tracking the use of this domain, the malicious JavaScript was still making use of 'http://www.nmida[removed].com/:'

Now the attackers are referring to a file hosted on the new domain of 'http://www.nihao[removed].com:'

Sites of varying content have been infected including UK government sites, and a United Nations website. The number of sites affected is in the hundreds of thousands, says Websense.

Related links:

The SOC Exchange Makes U.S. Debut Just in Time for End of Academic Year

2008-04-23T05:12:00.000-07:00

ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The SOC Exchange, a new Internet trading platform created by innovative Australian entrepreneur Franco Lagudi, launched in the United States today, just in time for the end of the academic year and, more importantly, for college students, just before costly moving and storage fees begin to kick in for the millions of young people who will be on the go in May and June.

Offering a low-priced and user-controlled experience, The SOC Exchange enables a seller of apartment items, books, computer equipment or anything else, to place those items for sale on his or her own website, using a newly established personal URL. The cost is just $1 a Month or $10 a year Flat Rate at www.thesocexchange.com.

In as little as 10 minutes, the URL can be established and used as a fully operational e-commerce site for the term of the paid subscription. Among its easy-to-use features are:

an e-mail alert capability, which allows the seller of goods to push e-mails to subscribers, and buyers to subscribe to receive e-mail alerts from sellers;
a customer tracking system, which, among many other attributes, can constantly inform the seller of the number of visitors to his or her Web site; and
built-in technical safeguards such as SSL encryption and anti-virus protection, reliable and secure hosting and unlimited disk space and data transfer.
“Graduating college seniors and rising upperclassmen in the U.S. are among the most mobile and most technologically savvy group of people on the planet,” said Lagudi, founder of The SOC Exchange. “That’s why we have moved so quickly to get our latest e-commerce site in working order for them before the end of this academic year.”

According to Lagudi, college students can turn anything they own into cash by setting up a personalized URL on The SOC Exchange, an example of which can be seen at www.thesocexchange.com/samplestudentsite. The student’s physical location, including name of school, address and phone numbers, can be hidden or visible, whatever the student wishes.

“Figures from the National Retail Federation show that the average college student spends approximately $3000 on back-to-school items, which include everything from the clothes on his or her back, to textbooks, to room furnishings and to the plethora of electronic devices that young people are so quick to adopt,” said Lagudi. “For only $10, and in less than 10 minutes, a college student who is moving on to a new apartment across town, a summer internship across the country or a semester abroad on the other side of the world, can utilize The SOC Exchange to immediately recoup some of that investment and to get cash in hand to help pay for transportation, or the next set of living expenses.”

While Lagudi believes that The SOC Exchange will catch fire generally, and begin to be utilized by Americans from all walks of life, he pressed his web developers to get this new e-commerce Web site up in time to serve students at the conclusion of the 2007 – 2008 Academic Year.

“As one who studied and played on the gridiron in the U.S. myself, I know firsthand the spirit of American college students and their ability to embrace speedy and efficient ways to address some of life’s more mundane tasks,” explained Lagudi. “The SOC Exchange meets a pressing and straightforward need – the buying and selling of day-to-day stuff – in a manner that is much more efficient than their racing around town pinning “for sale” or “in search of” notices on bulletin boards in residence hall foyers or fast-food store entrances.”

Lagudi’s philosophy is extremely simple. “At The SOC Exchange, we firmly believe in our Flat Rate concept” he said. “We do not feel it is fair to take any slice of sellers’ profits and my message to them is: If your hard work and good fortune yields you a profit, then yours it shall be!”

A college student, or any seller user of www.thesocexchange.com, can customize a creative site design from more than 150 different styles and load up to nine items on the front page of his or her Web site, with an unlimited number of items to be listed within the site. Up to four photos may be loaded of any individual item, allowing potential buyers a chance to check out a potential purchase from any angle.

Buyers can find a selling Web site by name, product or category, and they can then bookmark that site for instant access. Buyers can also sign up to receive e-mail alerts from sites of their choosing.

The SOC Exchange is the latest business launch for the Australian Lagudi, whose ancestors emigrated down under from Italy early in the 20th century, and where they subsequently established one of the most successful and varied retail grocery businesses in the country. Lagudi also operates www.buyblitz.com, a three-month-old U.S. Web site that serves as a catalyst for specialty food retailers to be able to successfully reach their customers.

To arrange to speak to Mr. Lagudi, please contact Jim Boyle at 703-797-7103 or via e-mail at jim.boyle@lmo.com.

Mergers & Acquisitions - A Weekly Recap [KCI]

2008-04-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

Continuing the tempo of the previous week, and perhaps signaling a shift of focus to the first quarter financial reporting season, the week ended April 11 unfolded only a few major deals, and majority of them involved drug or medical devices makers.

Japanese drug maker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. revealed one of the biggest acquisitions, announcing a $8.8 billion agreement to buy blood cancer drug maker Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. With its eyes fixed on the biosurgery market, Kinetic Concepts, Inc. disclosed that it agreed to acquire LifeCell Corp. for $1.7 billion in cash. Swiss drug maker Novartis AG also said it agreed to buy a 24.85% stake in Alcon Inc., by paying $11 billion.

Some of the other related announcements came from Devon Energy Corp., Nuance Communications, Inc., EMC Corp., St. Jude Medical, Inc., Danka Business Systems PLC and TriZetto Group.

Kinetic Concepts To Buy LifeCell For $1.7 Bln

With the objective of entering the fast-growing biosurgery market, medical technology company Kinetic Concepts, Inc. (KCI) said on Monday that it agreed to acquire LifeCell Corp. (LIFC) for $1.7 billion in cash.

In the pre-market hours, LifeCell stock surged over 16% on the buyout news. The stock that closed Friday at $43.15, opened Monday's regular trade at $50.50, reached a high of $50.55, before closing at $50.41 on 20.24 million shares. KCI closed Monday's trade at $49.57, up from the previous close of $47.02, on 3.61 million shares.

As per the agreement, Kinetic Concepts will pay $51 per LifeCell share. This marks an 18% premium to LifeCell's closing price on April 4 and a 26% premium over the 90-day volume weighted average trading price. Boards of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction.

Once the deal is completed, LifeCell will operate as a new global biosurgery division within Kinetic Concepts. The transaction is expected to be initially dilutive to cash earnings per share. It is estimated to become accretive to cash earnings per share during 2009 and significantly accretive in 2010 and thereafter. On a GAAP basis, the deal is expected to become accretive to earnings per share in 2010.

The merger is also expected to diversify Kinetic Concepts' future revenue. The acquisition would bring LifeCell's best-seller AlloDerm, made from recovered human tissue and used in breast reconstruction, in to the fold of Kinetic Concepts. AlloDerm generated $167 million in revenue for LifeCell last year.

Kinetic Concepts, the maker of wound-care devices, would be additionally benefited by LifeCell's new product Strattice, which is believed to have the potential to transform the tissue regeneration industry.

On Tuesday, Wachovia Securities upgraded Kinetic stock to “Outperform” from “Marketperform”, while reducing their estimates for the company, reported newratings.com. Reflecting the expected dilution from the LifeCell acquisition, the analysts reduced their earnings per share estimates for the company from $3.88 to $3.44 and from $4.41 to $3.85, for 2008 and 2009 respectively, yet said that the market share losses and pricing pressure at the company's VAC business are likely to be less severe than what the current valuation of the company's stock reflects. As for LifeCell, a Piper Jaffray analyst on Tuesday downgraded the stock to "Neutral" from "Buy."

Novartis to buy 25% stake in Alcon for $11 bln

Swiss drug maker Novartis AG (NVS) on Monday said it agreed to buy a 24.85% stake in Alcon Inc. (ACL), the world's largest and most profitable eye care company, from Nestlé S.A. (NSTR.L, NSRGF.PK, NSRGY.PK) for $143.18 per share or $11 billion in cash. Novartis will also have the right to acquire Nestlé's remaining 52% stake in Alcon for a fixed price of US$ 181 per share, amounting to about US$ 28 billion.

Novartis, which so far in the year lost 17%, fell 75 centimes or 1.4%, to 51.65 Swiss francs at the close of Zurich trading. Nestle rose 5 francs or 1%, to 516.5 francs. Alcon shares closed Monday's regular trade on NYSE at $150.63 on 1.45 million shares. The stock opened the trade at $154.89, higher from the previous close of $148.44.

A two-step transaction will make Novartis the majority shareholder of Alcon with 77% stake or 298.1 million shares as of April 4, 2008. Following the deal, Alcon will become a majority-owned subsidiary of Novartis. Novartis intends to use cash reserves and loans of $5.5 billion to finance the purchase.

The deal will help Novartis reduce reliance on pharmaceutical products. The company is already faced with product delays and generic competition. Acquiring all the Alcon shares from Nestle, will make Novartis the world's biggest maker of eye-care products, including contact lenses and treatments for glaucoma.

Karl Heinz Koch, an analyst at Bank Vontobel AG in Zurich, thinks this is an attractive deal at attractive conditions, reported Bloomberg. He feels the agreement fits into the strategy of further diversification. Novartis will be able to count on cash flow long term, and that makes it attractive, Koch added.

Standard & Poor's on Monday reduced Novartis' long-term corporate credit rating to AA- from AAA, basing the decision on the unexpected change in the company's financial policy. Moody's Investors Service also cut Novartis to Aa2 from Aaa.

Nielsen to acquire IAG Research for $225 mln

Privately-held ratings and research firm Nielsen Co. on Monday said it has agreed to acquire IAG Research, Inc., which measures consumer engagement with television programs, national commercials and product placements, for $225 million. The deal is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2008.

The acquisition will be effected through a merger of privately-held IAG with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nielsen, in which IAG stockholders will receive cash for their IAG shares. Nielsen currently intends to finance the transaction through issuance of notes, existing facilities and cash on hand. After the merger, the executive team of IAG will join Nielsen.

Devon Energy to sell oil, gas business in Equatorial Guinea to GEPetrol

Devon Energy Corp. (DVN) on Tuesday said it agreed to sell its oil and gas business in Equatorial Guinea to GEPetrol, the national oil company of Equatorial Guinea, for $2.2 billion, effective January 1, 2008. DVN closed the day's regular trade at $110.84, up from the previous close of $108.44, on 4.01 million shares.

The deal is expected to be completed by May 30, 2008. The company targets its after-tax proceeds to be about $1.7 billion. Devon has been selling off its assets in West Africa, and had said it hoped to complete the divestitures by mid-year.

Devon's principal asset in Equatorial Guinea is its 23.75% participating interest in the Zafiro offshore oil field, which has estimated proved reserves of 55 million barrels. The company's share of production from that field is currently about 20,000 barrels per day. Other assets that are part of the deal include stakes in two undeveloped offshore blocks.

Nuance Communications to buy eScription for $400 mln

Digital imaging software products developer Nuance Communications, Inc. (NUAN) revealed on Tuesday that it agreed to buy eScription for about $400 million in cash and stock. eScription provides computer aided medical transcription technology. The transaction is expected to close in Nuance's fiscal third quarter 2008.

The purchase cost includes $340 million in cash and $23 million in Nuance stock. Nuance will also assume $37 million in eScription employee stock options.

Nuance, also a speech recognition software maker, expects the deal to enhance its ability to provide advanced transcription solutions. The company expects to streamline clinical documentation with the acquisition and hopes to save the health care industry over $1 billion by 2011.

It is estimated to add between $16.0 million and $18.0 million in non-GAAP revenue in fiscal 2008 and between $63.0 million and $68.0 million in fiscal 2009.

Excluding amortization, stock-based compensation and non-cash taxes, the acquisition is expected to be accretive to earnings by nearly $0.00-$0.01 per share in fiscal 2008 and $0.06-$0.08 per share in fiscal 2009.

EMC to buy Iomega for about $213 mln

EMC Corp. (EMC), a provider of information infrastructure solutions, on Tuesday said it agreed to buy storage and network security solutions provider Iomega Corp. (IOM) for $3.85 per share or about $213 million to expand in the consumer and small business markets. After the acquisition, Iomega will serve as the core of EMC's new Consumer/Small Business Products Division. EMC closed Tuesday's regular trade at $14.84, down from the previous close of $14.90, on 26.88 million shares.

EMC expects Iomega's products, brand name, route to market and industry expertise to enhance its reach in the consumer and small business markets. Iomega, creator of the Zip drive, now focuses on storage devices like portable hard drives and DVD burners. EMC does not expect the deal to have a material impact on its financial results for the full 2008 fiscal year.

Iomega was earlier in a takeover agreement with a consortium led by ExcelStor Great Wall Technology Ltd., which would have led to the Chinese government taking a substantial control of the company. EMC last month made a $3.25 per share offer, which Iomega turned down stating that the offer was too low to overturn its agreement with the consortium. EMC sweetened the bid two times, and Iomega terminated its previous takeover agreement.

St. Jude Medical to acquire EP MedSystems for $92.1 mln

Medical devices maker St. Jude Medical, Inc. (STJ) on Wednesday said it was acquiring EP MedSystems (EPMD), a maker of products for the cardiac electrophysiology market, for about $92.1 million. The companies expect the transaction to close in the third quarter of 2008. As per the agreement, shareholders of EP MedSystems will get $3.00 for each share they own.

The offer price is more than double the closing price of EP MedSystems' stock on Tuesday, which closed at $1.41 on Nasdaq. The shares jumped to $2.86 in trading before the regular trade began on Wednesday. Opening at $2.82, the stock reached a high of $2.90 before closing the regular session at $2.86 on 8.31 million shares. St. Jude shares closed the regular trade on Wednesday at $44.11, down from the previous day's $44.73, on 1.75 million shares.

The shareholders will have the choice of accepting the amount in cash or St Jude Medical common stock. If they opt for a cash-stock combination, it is subject to a 40:60 pro-ration, where STJ would issue 40% of the total consideration in STJ common stock and 60% in cash.

St. Jude does not expect the acquisition to impact its current earnings outlook for 2008, exclusive of a special charge for in-process research and development. The company has approved an additional stock buyback authorization of $50 million to make up for the shares issued in the deal.

For St. Jude, which makes medical devices for heart-related and neurological conditions, the acquisition will help its presence in the irregular heartbeat devices market. EP MedSystems will become a part of the atrial fibrillation division of St. Jude.

Konica Minolta to buy Danka Office Imaging for $240 mln

British office imaging equipment supplier Danka Business Systems Plc (DANKY.OB, DNK.L) on Tuesday said it signed a definitive agreement to sell its U.S. unit, Danka Office Imaging Co. or DOIC, to copier and printer maker Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. for about $240 million.

Danka Business Systems opened the regular trade at 0.50 p, much below the previous day's closing price of 3.30 p, trended in a range of 1.00 p-1.50 p before finishing up at 1.13 p on 925,300 shares. Konica Minolta shares closed up 0.5% at 1,510 yen.

The deal is expected to close by June 30, 2008, subject to regulatory and other closing conditions, in both the U.S. and the U.K. Once the deal is completed, DOIC will become a wholly-owned unit of Konica Minolta.

According to the agreement, Danka Business Systems will sell its stock in DOIC to Konica Minolta, and will distribute the sale proceeds to debt and shareholders through a British process of voluntary liquidation that needs the approval of Danka shareholders.

DOIC is one of the largest independent suppliers of office imaging equipment, software, support, and related services in the U.S. From mid-2008, Konica Minolta will supplement the product mix including network-ready multi-function peripherals and network printers in DOIC distribution network markets.

The deal will help Konica Minolta expand its customer base in the U.S. and thus take on larger rivals like Xerox Corp. (XRX), Canon Inc. and Ricoh Co Ltd. The company can also widen the range of services and support capabilities it offers. It already has a strong sales network in the U.S. for office gear and production printing.

Takeda to buy Millennium Pharma for $8.8 bln

Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (MLNM) on Thursday revealed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Japan's largest drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (TKPHY.PK, TKPHF.PK) for about $8.8 billion through a cash tender offer of $25 per share.

The offer price marks 52.9% premium on Millennium's closing share price on Wednesday. Millennium rose the most in six years, climbing to $7.99 or 49% to close at $24.34.

The transaction is anticipated to close in the second-quarter of 2008. Upon the completion of the transaction, Millennium will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takeda, but will continue operations as a standalone business unit.

Les Funtleyder, an analyst with Miller Tabak & Co. in New York, in an interview to Bloomberg said the weak dollar against the yen is making U.S. biotech very attractive to potential Japanese buyers.

The deal is expected to help Takeda's strategy to strengthen its oncology business. Millennium's blood-cancer medicine Velcade, its only approved product, generated more than $800 million last year. Takeda is facing generic competition to its best-selling Actos diabetes pill. Actos had sales of $3.4 billion last year, and its patent is scheduled to expire in three years. Velcade is expected to soothe the situation for the Japanese drug maker.

Millennium also has other promising experimental drugs for cancer, heart disease, gastro-intestinal problems and rheumatoid arthritis, but they are not expected to get regulatory approval before 2011.

Mitsuo Ohmi, a drug analyst at Japan Advisory LLC, told Bloomberg that though Millennium is a leader in genome-based drug discovery with promising drugs in early development, Takeda still needs to do a little more to fully cover the loss of sales once Actos's patent expires.

Kumi Miyauchi, a drug analyst with Daiwa Institute of Research in Tokyo, feels that since Takeda faces the expiration of the Actos patent, it needs to make effective use of its financial resources to make up for it. Competition is severe, especially in the cancer drug business, so Takeda has had to speed things up, Miyauchi added, reported Bloomberg.

Masatake Miyoshi, a Tokyo-based equities analyst at Merrill Lynch Japan Securities on Thursday lowered his recommendation on Takeda to ``Sell'' from ``Buy''. Takeda is being reviewed for possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service.

On Thursday, brokerage Friedman, Billings, Ramsey downgraded Millennium shares to “Market Perform” from “Outperform” with a new price target of $25. Based on analyst Jim Reddoch's estimates, the offer represents about 6x peak revenues for Millennium's two main revenue drivers - Velcade and MLN-0002, which is a minimal premium over the 5x peak commonly seen with quality biotechs. Reddoch feels there is a 25% chance that a higher bidder will surface.

TriZetto to be taken private for $1.4 bln

TriZetto Group, Inc. (TZIX), a provider of Internet hosting and Web-based software for health-care clients, on Friday said it agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Apax Partners for about $1.4 billion. TriZetto's Board approved the transaction, which is expected to take between four and six months for completion.

TriZetto shareholders will receive $22.00 per share in cash, which marks a 29% premium over the 30 calendar-day average closing price of the company's stock. The offer price also represents a premium of 24.5% over TriZetto' closing share price on Thursday.

Following the announcement, TriZetto shares surged 19% to $21 before the regular trade began. The stock moved in the range of $19.86-$20.77 for the day, before finishing up at $20.39 on 11.06 million shares. The stock dropped six cents in the extended session.

The Misanthrope

2008-03-09T17:30:00.001-07:00

Virginia Developer is USA’s Loudest Neo-Nazi
By Brentin Mock and Mark Potok

Roanoke, Va. — Last Sept. 20, the eyes of America turned to Jena, La., where more than 20,000 people had gathered to protest what they saw as racism in the disparate criminal treatment accorded black and white students at a local high school. For many, it was an uplifting moment, signaling what they hoped would grow into a renewed striving for racial justice, a reborn civil rights movement for a generation that didn't remember the first one. For one real estate developer in this city in the Blue Ridge Mountains, however, it was an occasion to vent feelings about six black teens in Jena facing harsh criminal penalties for a schoolyard fight.

"Lynch the Jena 6!" Bill White wrote in a screaming headline on his website even before the demonstrators had left tiny Jena. Then he got down to business.

"If these niggers are released or acquitted, we will find out where they live and make sure that white activists and white citizens in Louisiana know it, we'll mail directions to their homes to every white man in Louisiana if we have to in order to find someone willing to deliver justice," White wrote. Next, after some research, he appended home addresses and phone numbers for five of the teenagers.

Within hours, White's amazing statements were all over the Internet and the news. Officials expressed shock such comments could be legal, and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco ordered police protection at some of the boys' homes. Called by a reporter, the FBI said it was investigating White's threats for criminal content.

It was a classic Bill White moment.

William Alexander White may be the loudest and most obnoxious neo-Nazi leader in America. Currently the chief of the American National Socialist Workers Party, White is a former left-wing anarchist who is best known for his name-calling, threats and incessant gossip — not to mention embarrassing pleas of love for women who then publicly spurn him. He is a man who often seems incapable of separating truth from fiction, but also a skilled computer programmer who has built some of the radical right's more important websites. By his own account, White has a juvenile record that includes 22 arrests as a teenager, but he is also a businessman who in the last four years has bought 24 inner-city properties valued at $1,063,000 — most of them apartments he acquired as part of his "ghetto beautification project." Above all, White, now 30, is an angry, resentful and narcissistic loner — a misanthrope.

A Bully is Born
Bill White describes himself as a bright child who got interested in politics in junior high school, where he became what he called a "utopian anarchist" and began reading Freud and Marx at 13. The next year, he put out his first issue of the Utopian Anarchist Party newsletter. In it, he railed against juvenile psychiatrists, among other things, who had diagnosed him as particularly paranoid and aggressive.
That was reflected in his high school career, which included bouncing between three high schools due to an extensive record of disruptive and threatening behavior toward students, teachers and a principal, according to a psychological evaluation administered by the Montgomery County, Md., public schools.

That same evaluation may be the most sympathetic rendering of White, then 16, known. "Let us not forget that the world needs William White," it said. "And William White needs the world." But, in language that describes well White's career over the coming years, the report added this: "What he hasn't learned is tolerance, patience, foresight, wisdom, cooperation, respect and compassion. He has learned how to be rude, to challenge authority, to denigrate and despise others."

White has written that he was arrested 22 times between the ages of 15 and 19 on charges of "assault, weapons, explosives, property destruction, graffiti and use of false identification." He says he served a short sentence for attacking police at the age of 19. Although some of these arrests were noted in newspapers, they could not be independently verified because they are part of a sealed juvenile record.

Ebix 2007 Net Income Rises 112% to a Record $12.7 Million, or $ 3.61 Per Diluted Share, on a 46% Revenue Increase

2008-03-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

Conference call:
Friday, March 7, 2008 at 11:00 A.M. EST

Webcast / Replay URL:
http://www.ebix.com, Click on Investor Home Page

Dial-in numbers:
1-888-687-3295 Dial pass code 38568430

Ebix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBIX), a leading international provider of software services and IT solutions for the insurance industry, today reported its financial results for the fourth quarter (Q4 '07) and year ended December 31, 2007.

Ebix's 2007 fourth quarter revenue rose 31% to $12.20 million, compared to $9.28 million during the fourth quarter of 2006. Q4 ‘07 net income rose 169% to $4.50 million, or $1.20 per diluted share, versus Q4 ’06 net income of $1.67 million, or $0.53 per diluted share. Results for Q4 2007 and Q4 2006 were based on 3.8 and 3.2 million weighted average diluted shares outstanding respectively.

Ebix’s total revenue rose 46% to $42.84 million in 2007, compared to $29.25 million in 2006. Ebix's operating income rose 91% to $12.80 million in fiscal 2007, compared to operating income of $6.71 million in 2006. In 2007, the Company's net income rose 112% to $12.67 million, or $3.61 per diluted share, compared to net income of $5.97 million, or $1.90 per diluted share, in 2006.

In 2007, the Company's basic earnings per common share rose to $4.08 as compared to basic earning per common share of $2.15 in 2006. Results for 2007 and 2006 were based on 3.1 million and 2.8 million weighted average basic shares outstanding respectively.

Ebix President and Chief Executive Officer Robin Raina commented, “We are pleased with these results and see them as another step forward in our vision plan to be the largest insurance services player in the world-wide insurance markets. While there is reason to feel encouraged with our continued and consistent success, we realize that we are still far from the destination of being the most dominant player globally.”

Raina said, “The Q4 2007 results are in line with our expectations and include only two months of revenues from our acquisition of IDS in November 2007. Our Q4 2007 performance is a record result for the company in terms of net income and diluted EPS both. The 37% operating margins for Q4 of 2007 is a result that we are especially pleased with.”

“During 2007, we experienced top line growth in every division of the company both domestically and internationally. We made many strategic decisions like combining our life and annuity exchanges under the EbixExchange name or making a solid entry into the Insurance BPO markets by our November 2007 acquisition of Jenquest, Inc. (“IDS”) – one of the largest insurance certificates tracking players in the United States.” Raina added, “While 2007 has established a new benchmark as a record year both in terms of income and earnings we believe our best is yet to come.”

Raina concluded, “We are encouraged by our recent acquisition of Telstra EBusiness in Australia for A$50 Million. The impact of that acquisition is likely to show in 2008 since that acquisition was completed on January 2nd, 2008.”

Ebix Chief Financial Officer Robert Kerris commented, “The 4th quarter net income of $4.50 million is a 22% improvement over the 3rd quarter and represents the eighth consecutive quarter of significant net income growth. Our operating margins continue to improve, increasing to 30% for 2007 from 23% in 2006. This positive trend in net income and operating margins are good measures of our continuous efforts to improve the profitability of our business. In addition, the Company generated $14.4 million in net cash from operating activities representing an increase of $10.2 million or 242% from the $4.2 million of operating cash flows from just a year earlier. We will continue to invest the cash generated from our operations into the strengthening of our balance sheet and the expansion of our business, both organically and through accretive acquisitions.”

About Ebix

A CMMI 5 Company, Ebix, Inc. is a leading international supplier of software and e-commerce solutions to the insurance industry. Ebix provides a series of application software products for the insurance industry ranging from carrier systems, agency systems and exchanges to custom software development for all entities involved in the insurance and financial industries.

Ebix strives to work collaboratively with clients to develop innovative technology strategies and solutions that address specific business challenges. Ebix combines the newest technologies with its capabilities in consulting, systems design and integration, IT and business process outsourcing, applications software, and Web and application hosting to meet the individual needs of organizations.

With bases in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, UK and India, Ebix employs insurance and technology professionals who provide products, support and consultancy to more than 3,000 customers on six continents. Ebix’s focus on quality has enabled its development unit in India to be awarded Level 5 status of the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI). Ebix has also earned ISO 9001:2000 certification for both its development and call center units in India. For more information, visit the Company’s Web site at www.ebix.com.

Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 — This press release contains various forward-looking statements and information that are based on Ebix management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. Ebix has tried to identify such forward looking statements by use of such words as "will," "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "plans," "believes" and similar expressions, but these words are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. Such statements are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors include the extent to which the Ebix.com website and other new products and services can be successfully developed and marketed, the risks associated with any future acquisitions, and integrating recently completed acquisitions, the willingness of independent insurance agencies to outsource their computer and other processing needs to third parties, possible governmental regulation and/or other adverse consequences resulting from negative perception of the outsourcing of business processes to foreign countries, Ebix's ability to continue to develop new products to effectively address market needs in an industry characterized by rapid technological change, Ebix's ability to raise additional capital to finance future acquisitions and meet other funding needs, , Ebix's dependence on the insurance industry, the highly competitive and rapidly changing automation systems market, Ebix's ability to effectively protect its applications software and other proprietary information, Ebix's ability to attract and retain quality management, software developers, technical sales and other critical personnel, the risks of disruption of Ebix's Internet connections or internal service problems, the possible adverse effects of a substantial increase in volume of traffic on Ebix's website, mainframe and other servers, possible security breaches on the Ebix website, the possible effects of insurance regulation on Ebix, the possible effects of the Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation of Ebix's financial reporting, and possible future terrorist attacks or acts of war. Certain of these, as well as other risks, uncertainties and other factors, are described in more detail in Ebix's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Ebix's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007. Except as expressly required by the federal securities laws, Ebix undertakes no obligation to update any such factors or any of the forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect changed circumstances or future events or developments or for any other reason.

TechFest: Microsoft Unveils Prototype OS, Singularity

2008-03-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

Microsoft is circulating a prototype operating system for computer science researchers. But executives making the rounds at the software giant's annual TechFest conference have stressed that the offering, dubbed Singularity, is not a next-generation Windows.

"Singularity is not the next Windows," said Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research. "Think of it like a concept car. It is a prototype operating system designed from the ground up to test-drive a new paradigm for how operating systems and applications interact with one another. We are making it available to the community in the hope that it will enable researchers to try out new ideas quickly."

Singularity is now available as a download from CodePlex, Microsoft's open source project hosting Web site. It's intended to improve software dependability and foster inventive research for systems, programming language and tools, according to Microsoft.

"Our goal was to make Singularity small enough, simple enough, and well-designed enough that you can try out radical new ideas quickly," according to Galen Hunt, one of the original researchers on Singularity. "Our thinking is that a researcher with a great new idea for improving operating systems could get from idea to published paper in under a year using Singularity."

Hunt and other researchers have been working on Singularity since 2003. Specifically, they were looking to build an operating system that was not based on Multics, a system that originated in the mid-1960s, but is still the basis for current OSes such as Windows, MacOS X, Linux, and Unix.

Singularity differs from other OSes because it is based almost entirely on a C# extension, which makes it more secure by preventing buffer overruns, and eliminating a vulnerability typically exploited by worms and viruses, according to Microsoft.

NaviSite Appoints Peter Castello Vice President of Client Management

2008-02-14T17:03:00.000-08:00

ANDOVER, MA -- 02/14/08 -- NaviSite, Inc. (NASDAQ: NAVI), a leading provider of managed applications and hosting services, announced today that Peter Castello has been appointed the Company's Vice President of Client Management. Castello comes to NaviSite with more than 12 years of customer experience at AT&T, where he served as Vice President of Enterprise Accounts in New England, representing more than $250 million in annual revenue.
In his new role at NaviSite, Castello will be responsible for the nurture, retention and expansion of client accounts by enhancing service-levels and strengthening relationships. With NaviSite's broad portfolio of application management and managed hosting services, Castello will work to ensure that each customer is matched with the best combination of products and services NaviSite has to offer. Castello's appointment reflects NaviSite's commitment to superior customer service as well the goal of responding to each customer's changing needs and requirements.

"We are excited to have Pete join us to lead this key focus area of our business," said Mark Clayman, Senior Vice President of Hosting Services, NaviSite. "His demonstrated ability, industry knowledge and deep expertise in strengthening customer relationships will play an important role as he and his team focus on building and strengthening customer service and relations."

Prior to AT&T, Castello served as an Account Manager and Analyst for the Beneficial Insurance Group of the Beneficial Finance Corp. He holds an M.B.A. degree from Lehigh University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Actuarial Science from Pennyslvania State University. In addition, Castello has served as a board member of the AT&T Global Business Forum and the Leadership Development Program.

About NaviSite

NaviSite is a leading provider of managed applications and hosting services. Customers depend on NaviSite for application development, implementation and management on its web infrastructure platforms in 16 state-of-the art data centers supported by more than 700 professionals. NaviSite provides customized and scalable solutions leveraging its broad range of application development capabilities, packaged software implementation expertise, deep portfolio of best in class technologies and a full suite of web-hosting and internet infrastructure options. For more information, please visit www.navisite.com.

All logos, company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Contacts:
Dennis Garrigan
NaviSite, Inc.
978.946.8727
dgarrigan@navisite.com

Gretchen Bender
Greenough Communications
617.275.6526
gbender@greenoughcom.com

Webplus, Inc. to Offer Free Online Store Trial to Those Looking For Web Store Hosting

2008-02-13T16:31:00.000-08:00

Webplus, Inc., the leader in hosted ebusiness solutions, announced today that it has begun offering a free 30 day trial of its award-winning Webplus Shop online store creation software and web hosting. Prospective emerchants may go to Webplus Shop to begin setting up their very own web store instantly and pay nothing for the first 30 days. There is no obligation to continue beyond the first 30 days and the store is completely functional and able to sell products and accept orders during that period.

Aberdeen, SD (PRWEB) February 13, 2008 -- Webplus, Inc., the leader in hosted ebusiness solutions, announced today that it has begun offering a free 30 day trial of its award-winning Webplus Shop online store creation software and web hosting. Prospective emerchants may go to Webplus Shop to begin setting up their very own web store instantly and pay nothing for the first 30 days. There is no obligation to continue beyond the first 30 days and the store is completely functional and able to sell products and accept orders during that period.

Webplus Shop is the easy, affordable way to sell online. The proprietary software has been in development since 1996 and is able to sell anything from homemade socks to truck shocks online to a worldwide audience 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through your very own online store. Ecommerce hosting packages start at just $14.95 per month with no "percent of sale" fees. With Webplus Shop, small businesses can set up an online store in under an hour and begin selling online instantly with a professional looking website that sells product.

"The response that we've received to our latest release of Webplus Shop has been very encouraging in this time of economic uncertainty," said Bryan Kreich, COO Webplus, Inc. "Our 30 day free trial is perfect for those who are looking for other avenues to sell their products online without paying high listing fees and percentages of their online sales. We charge a flat rate based on the number of products that merchants wish to list for sale in their online store meaning that merchants keep 100% of their profits. Our customer support specialists are standing by for those who feel overwhelmed by taking their business and products online. Feel free to give us a call at 1-866-338-8883 and one of our representatives will be happy to walk you through the Webplus Shop Merchant Interface. With Webplus, we handle the technical side of things so that our merchants can focus on one thing, selling their products."

For more information on Webplus Shop or to begin setting up a free trial store, please go to Webplus Shop, email us at hosting(at)webplus.com or give us a call at 1-866-338-8883.

About Webplus, Inc.
Established in 1994, Webplus, Inc. is a leading provider of web based business solutions. Webplus, Inc. develops, markets, and supports the talentsoft line of development tools, middleware, and ecommerce solutions. Webplus's flagship products include Webplus a robust web application server and development language, Webplus Shop an ecommerce solution for small businesses, and Shipping Sidekick a shipping rate and transit time comparison software. Millions of copies of Webplus's software have been distributed to over 100 countries via online and traditional channels. Webplus's mission is to deliver affordable, simple, robust, and localized software solutions for Small-to-Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) through partnering with local solution providers and value-added resellers around the world.

Contact Information
Bryan Kriech
1-866-338-8883
bryank(at)webplusshop.com

Memo Pad: VF Supports The Writers By Not Partying...

2008-02-06T03:39:00.000-08:00

VF SUPPORTS THE WRITERS BY NOT PARTYING: The Hollywood writers' strike may be close to ending, but Vanity Fair has canceled its famed Academy Awards party. "After much consideration, and in support of the writers and everyone else affected by this strike, we have decided that this is not the appropriate year to hold our annual Oscar party," the magazine said in a statement on its Web site. "We want to congratulate all of this year's nominees and we look forward to hosting our 15th Oscar party next year."

The timing surprised some, as close watchers of the Writers Guild of America strike — enacted more than 90 days ago — have been more optimistic this week about a resolution, though doubts remain.

In mid-December, editor in chief Graydon Carter told WWD of the party, "We're going ahead as planned, although we have made provisions for a shorter-than-usual ceremony. Since it's all hypothetical at the moment, it's difficult to comment further."

Sources close to the magazine said many staff members had urged Carter to cancel the event, but that he had still hoped the strike would be settled in time. Said a spokeswoman for Vanity Fair, "I think Graydon talked to a lot of people in L.A., and the feeling was that even if the strike is over, life won't go back to normal in Hollywood, and we didn't feel it was appropriate to throw a big party given that fact." Were the strike to be resolved in time for the Oscars to go on, the party would still be off.

One thing is clear about the timing of the announcement: it's just in time for the newsstand date of Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue today. In that issue, the strike topic is tackled by columnist Michael Wolff. — Irin Carmon

EARLY VOTER: Earlier this week, WWD grilled editors on how they planned to juggle civic, sartorial and sporting responsibilities on Tuesday, but Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour's plans were an unanswered question until the day of. "I voted at seven this morning, after my tennis game," said Wintour from the front row of the Badgley Mischka show. She voted for a Democrat, she said, but declined to specify which one — perhaps in light of Wintour's stern rebuke of Sen. Hillary Clinton in her editor's letter this month after the candidate backed out of appearing on Vogue's cover. (Overheard a few rows back at the show: "I want to be Hillary Clinton's stylist!")

Blackboard Q4 Profit Surges; Revenues Up 23%; Sees Q1, FY08 EPS Below Wall Street View [BBBB]

2008-02-05T17:04:00.000-08:00

2/5/2008 7:34:21 PM Tuesday after the bell, Blackboard Inc. (BBBB), a developer of online learning resources and Web-based academic forums announced that its fourth quarter profit surged from the year-ago period and handily topped Wall Street's profit target helped by a revenue growth of 23%. The company forecast its first quarter and full year 2008 earnings below analysts' estimates. Following the tepid outlook, the shares sank over 9% in after-hours.

The company's net income for the quarter climbed to $4.2 million or $0.14 per share from $201 thousand or $0.01 per share in the same period last year.

On a non GAAP basis, the education software provider's adjusted net income for the latest reporting period, excluding the amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets was $7.67 million or $0.25 per share, in comparison with $3.41 million or $0.12 per share in the same period a year before. On average, eight analysts polled by Thomson FirstCall expected the company to earn $0.24 per share for the quarter.

Total revenues for the quarter, comprising of Product revenues and Professional services revenues, rose to $63.2 million from $51.42 million in the year-ago period and surpassed analysts' consensus revenue estimate of $62.61 million. The company attributed the increase in revenue to the growth in its annual licensing of enterprise level products to global academic institutions as well as continued strong growth in its global ASP hosting business.

Product revenues, which form a major part of total revenues, were $57.36 million in the latest fourth quarter, compared to $46.79 million in the year earlier period. Professional services revenues for the quarter increased to $5.84 million from $4.62 million in the same period a year before.

For the year ended Dec.31, 2007, BlackBoard recorded a profit of $12.86 million or $0.43 per share, compared to a loss of $10.74 million or $0.39 per share in 2006.

On a non-GAAP basis, the company's adjusted net income rose to $26.25 million or $0.87 per share from $1.60 million or $0.06 per share in 2006.

The company's total revenues for the year surged to $239.45 million from $183.06 million in 2006. Wall Street analysts expected the company to earn $0.87 per share, on revenues of $238.79 million.

Seeking to move into the fast-growing alert and notification market, in January, Blackboard agreed to acquire privately-held NTI Group, Inc., for $182 million. NTI Group is a provider of mass messaging and notifications solutions for educational and government organizations via voice, email, SMS, and other text-receiving devices. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008 upon regulatory approval.

According to Blackboard, for fiscal year 2008, the effect of acquisition on its non-GAAP adjusted earnings, excluding the impact of purchase accounting adjustments on deferred revenues and non-recurring merger-related costs is expected to be slightly accretive and is anticipated to be dilutive on a GAAP basis.

Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2008, the company expects non GAAP adjusted bottom line, excluding the amortization of acquired intangibles and the associated tax impact, to range between a net loss of $500 thousand or $0.02 per share to net income of $300 thousand or $0.01 per share. Wall Street analysts have consensus earnings estimate of $0.20 per share for the quarter.

On a GAAP basis, for the first quarter of 2008, the company sees a net loss in the range of $5.7 - $4.9 million, resulting in a GAAP net loss per share of $0.18 - $0.16.

Blackboard forecast its revenue for the quarter to range between $64 and $66 million. On average, 9 analysts polled by Thomson FirstCall have a revenue consensus estimate of $64.61 million.

For the full year 2008, excluding the amortization of acquired intangibles and the associated tax impact, the company expects non GAAP adjusted net income of $18.8 - $22 million, resulting in non-GAAP adjusted net income per share of $0.58 - $0.68. The company's full year 2008 earnings forecast is well below Wall Street's expectation of $0.96 per share.

On a GAAP basis, the company sees a net loss for the full year 2008 in the range of $4.0 million or $0.12 per share to $800 thousand or $0.02 per share.

Blackboard anticipates revenues for the year to range between $306 and $314 million, well above the analysts' revenue consensus estimate of $281.41 million.

Blackboard's financial guidance for the first quarter and full year 2008 reflects the inclusion of the NTI Group Inc. starting January 31, 2008, the effective date of the acquisition. The company said that its 2008 revenue related to NTI deferred revenue will be about $12 million lower than what NTI would have recognized as an independent company. NTI's revenue for 2007 is expected to be approximately $30 million, which would represent an annual growth rate of more than 50% over 2006.

When former NTI clients pay annually on their license agreements, Blackboard will recognize revenue for the fair value of these agreements over the term of the renewal, which is generally one year. Blackboard said it's 2008 results will also be negatively impacted by approximately $5 million in merger and integration related expenses from the NTI acquisition.

The stock is in Bearish phase and has gained 10.7% from its recent low of $30.90, which was reported on Jan.22. BBBB currently trades below its 50-day moving average of $38.16 and 20-day moving average of $35.

BBBB closed Tuesday's regular trade down 2.03% or $0.71 at $34.21 on a volume of 295,531 shares. In after-hours, the stock shed another 9.24% or $3.16 and was at $31.05.

Q&A: IP Version 6

2008-02-04T16:37:00.000-08:00

On 4 February a milestone was reached in the net's move to a new addressing system based on a technology known as IP Version 6 (IPv6). Here we attempt to explain what it is and why it is important.

What is IPv6?

The IP in IPv6 stands for Internet Protocol and this is one of the foundational technologies that helps keep the global network running.

Every computer connected to the net has a unique IP address which ensures that it can be found if it is requesting data or sending it out.

Servers that host websites may have many IP addresses for the different sites they hold.

For instance, the IP address for news.bbc.co.uk is 212.58.226.75. Typing the numbers into a browser address bar will get you to the same place as typing the words.

Similarly, when you switch your home computer on and connect to the net it gets allocated an IP address so data you request, such as a video stream, reaches the right machine.

IPv6 is the sixth version of the internet protocol. The current version, IPv4, was dreamed up long before the modern boom in web use which has meant that the pool of unique addresses that it provides for is running out.

How does IPv6 help?

It helps simply because it has a vastly larger pool of unique addresses available.

The upper limit of addresses possible with IPv4 is 4,294,967,296. This seems a lot but, for a variety of reasons, only about 14% of this total is currently unallocated.

Estimates vary about when the pool will run out but most experts believe we only have three or four years left before the pool runs dry.

Just as phone numbers regularly need to expand to cope with growing numbers of users so the net has to expand to cope with its growth. IPv6 is the way that addresses get expanded.

How many addresses can IPv6 support?

The short answer is: lots. The long answer is: an unimaginably huge amount.

It has been calculated that the IPv6 address space can handle about 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses. That's enough for every person on the planet to have trillions of IP addresses without any fear of that pool being exhausted.

What happens when IPv4 addresses run out?

The average user will not notice much difference. However, it could put a brake on expansion of the web but already many technical work-arounds are being used to overcome the shortage.

It could be possible to develop even more ad hoc fixes but IPv6 is preferable because it removes the need for these short-term fixes and makes administration of large networks more straightforward.

Can I get an IPv6 address?

If you run your own website you can ask your hosting company about them to see if you can get one for your site. Many net hosting and domain firms are starting to offer them alongside IPv4 addresses.

If you own a PC running Vista or a Mac with OS/X installed then you could already be using IPv6. Both operating systems can handle IPv6 addresses and will use them if they are presented to them.

However, at the moment few sites have got an IPv6 address so that ability of those operating systems may never have been called upon.

What happened to IPv5?

Work was started on the protocol but it was going to be put to very different uses to its forerunner. It was developed as a better way to handle video, voice and distributed simulation over the net and was known as the Internet Stream protocol.

Sadly, by the time it had proved its usefulness and won a formal designation of IPv5 work was long advanced on what would become IPv6 and a decision was taken to pursue that.

Do Super Bowl ads get you to spend money?

2008-02-03T02:46:00.000-08:00

Super Bowl advertising since the first big game in 1967. Although the average numbers watching at any one time (blue) have flattened in recent year, the price of buying TV air time for advertising has continued to increase drastically even when the prices are adjusted for inflation (yellow). Will the jacked up prices pay off for advertisers?

The Super Bowl is no longer just an annual Sunday affair of guttural cheers and gorging of snack food. It's a "veritable selling season," as one researcher called it, for mega advertisements.

Thirty-five advertisers this year will shell out about $3 million per 30-second television ad — that's $100,000 per second, nearly double the price a decade ago.

Myspace, Facebook Active-X control vulnerable to attack

2008-02-02T15:55:00.000-08:00

A recent flaw in the "Image Upload Tool" by Aurigma allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code on victim’s computer. The tool is currently repackaged and used by Facebook and Myspace.
The Active-X control, written by imaging software company Aurigma, allows users to upload images to the hosting site from Internet Explorer. From the security site Securnia:
The vulnerability is caused due to a boundary error in the Aurigma.ImageUploader.4.1 ActiveX control (ImageUploader4.ocx) when handling strings assigned to the "Action" property. This can be exploited to cause a stack-based buffer overflow by assigning an overly long string to the affected property.
The flaw was originally discovered by Elazar Broad. In his release to the Full Disclosure mailing list, Elazar says that he found the vulnerability in MySpaceUploader.ocx version 1.0.0.4. Experts expect that this may exist in earlier versions as well. Based on my research and testing, a malicious site could install or initiate the vulnerable Active-X control in a victim’s browser. During this, a parameter would be set to a long "payload" containing specific instructions on code to execute. The execution of this code could cause anything from deleting files, to giving the attacker command line access.
Code invoking the vulnerability is now being circulated publicly, and researchers say that it is only a matter of time until attacks are put into place. The risk is described as "Highly Critical". Developers have been notified, and users are suggested to enable the "kill-bit" for the affected CLSIDs. This would disallow these Active-X controls from installing or operating.
It is unknown at this time exactly how many sites are affected, and what versions of the Aurigma software are vulnerable.
var sc_project=3378986; var sc_invisible=0; var sc_partition=37; var sc_security="747efe5b";

A 1-2-3 on starting your Web site or new job

2008-02-01T16:45:00.000-08:00

Here's to your amazing new wine collection and your newfound ability to talk to anyone, anytime, about anything -- pandas, cigars or mashed potatoes! From starting a Web site to starting a new job, our experts tell you how to reignite your life, your passion and your mojo.
So, why don't we, uh, start. Learn the finer points of starting ...
A wine cellar
Every well-prepared hostess should have a well-stocked wine cellar -- but the seemingly infinite options can be paralyzing. So ...start sipping! Lyle Fass, wine director for Crush Wine & Spirits, makes suggestions on how to get your cellar off the ground.
Become a regular. Find a shop where you feel comfortable, and start buying by the case so you can try a variety of wines. Most retailers will put together mixed cases, and many even offer discounts on them. Ask for the salespeople's guidance. Once you form a relationship with the staff, they'll be full of suggestions every time you come in.
Age wisely. If you plan on aging some wines, ask the salesperson which ones will actually improve over time -- most bottles are best opened within a year of their release (not necessarily the year in which the grapes were harvested). One exception is champagne -- almost all vintage champagnes age beautifully.
Pick some sure things. There's no need to get obsessed with buying only the "right" years -- while some are certainly better than others overall, good winemakers will turn out a good product in any year. A few guidelines can get you started, though: Consider vintages of 1995 and 2000 in Bordeaux; 1997 in Piedmont and Tuscany; 2001 and 2002 in California.
Maintain a little variety. The goal is to stock your cellar with wines you love. If your tastes are rather narrow, however, include a few other options for the benefit of guests. For example, even if you drink only reds, keep a few whites in your collection. And always have a couple of bottles of champagne on hand for impromptu celebrations.
Provide a stable home. Ideally, wine is stored at 54 degrees and 70 percent humidity. Realistically, as long as you avoid wide fluctuations in temperature, your collection will be fine in any kitchen cabinet. Most basements are also a good bet -- as long as the wines aren't stored near the dryer or water heater. Always store bottles you plan to keep for more than six months on their sides so their corks don't dry out.

TETRA Announces Date of Fourth Quarter Earnings

2008-01-31T16:39:00.000-08:00

By (Marketwire)
TETRA Technologies, Inc. Announces Date of Fourth Quarter 2007 Earnings Press Release and Conference Call
The Woodlands, TX -- TETRA Technologies, Inc. (TETRA or the Company) (NYSE: TTI) will be releasing fourth quarter 2007 results on Tuesday, February 26, 2008, following the completion of the annual independent audit, and will be hosting a conference call at 10:30 a.m. ET on that day to discuss the results.
The phone number for the call is 877/407-8033. The call will also be available by live audio webcast and may be accessed through the Company Web site, or through InvestorCalendar.com. Geoffrey M. Hertel, Chief Executive Officer, Stuart M. Brightman, Chief Operating Officer, and Joseph M. Abell, Chief Financial Officer, will host the call. The press release and its accompanying financial exhibits will be available on the Company website prior to the conference call. A replay of the call will be available at 877/660-6853 replay passcode account no. 286, conference ID 272936, for one week following the call. The archived webcast will be available through the Company website for thirty days following the event.
TETRA is an oil and gas services company, including an integrated calcium chloride and brominated products manufacturing operation that supplies feedstocks to energy markets, as well as other markets.

Al-Jazeera and the politics of truth

2008-01-30T14:59:00.001-08:00

Man, South Carolina has been great. The people here have been nice, the weather’s nice…” I wait for the “but” to come from David, the Al-Jazeera film editor, though it never arrives. We’d all been camped out at the bar at Mac’s on Main in Columbia on the night of the S.C. Democratic primaries, tallying the precinct numbers as they came in. Up on stage, the Electric Voodoo Blues Revue was winding down a cover of “Black Magic Woman,” the guitarist searing through a final solo, despite the fact that he’s missing his right hand.

“Plus,” David says putting his drink down to clap for the band, “you’ve got a lot of interesting characters here. You ought to see the lady who plays piano in the lounge at our hotel.”
Out on the sidewalk, camera lights flood an Al-Jazeera reporter while he interviews Michael Berg of the Carolina Peace Resource Center. After a moment, the producer, a Maryland-born MSNBC ex-pat in a blue hooded sweatshirt, signals the all clear and Berg races back down to the TV in Mac’s basement to look in on the poll numbers while the crew check their watches and file inside to stay warm between video feeds.

When we first learned these guys were from Al-Jazeera we were confused. They certainly didn’t appear to be Arab extremists bent on filling our airwaves with anti-American propaganda. These were American journalists from Washington, D.C. And they were no slouches; many, we learned, had decades of experience with news networks like CNN and NBC. But, Al-Jazeera English offers them more freedom to cover stories that are often ignored by the American mainstream media, they say. Plus, due to the global nature of the network, they reach a broader audience: the entire English-speaking world, some 100 million viewers, including Africa and Asia.

“We’ve had a lot of success in the U.S. market,” producer, Jeremy Young, says. “People are hungry for other sources of news. So it’s a very important market, but it’s far from the only focus of our network.”

Across the Atlantic, the network won a 2007 “Editor’s Award” at the Association of International Broadcasting Media Awards ceremony in London for their show, “Every Woman,” which covers women’s rights issues around the world.

Yet, despite their success and growing prestige, reporters are still fighting the stigma attached to the network in the United States. On Jan. 23, the crew here at Mac’s covered an Obama event alongside other major networks at J.V. Martin Junior High, a “corridor of shame” school in Dillon, S.C. When a school administrator learned they were from Al-Jazeera they were asked to leave the premises.One of the Al-Jazeera cameramen, a journalist with 30 years of experience at NBC News, couldn’t believe it.

“They’ve totally stereotyped us. They see Al-Jazeera and they think, ‘You’re the enemy.’
And this is an educator. That’s what ticked me off. She should have gone online, checked out this reporter’s specific work and then said ‘I don’t like you, personally.’ But she just looked at the name of the network.”

City Paper attempted to talk with the principle of the school by phone on Jan. 28 and 29 but she was out of her office and still unavailable for comment at press time.

Before Al-Jazeera Arabic broadcast videotaped statements from Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders in 2001, the West largely praised the network for bringing investigative journalism and a free press to the Middle East. A bloodless coup in Qatar in 1995 led to a broad liberalization of the country and the following year, the Qatari government issued a decree establishing Al-Jazeera as an independent television station. Bolstered by the growing availability of satellite TV in the Persian Gulf region, the network began to deliver unbiased news coverage and commentary to viewers that had previously only known heavily censored, state-run programming. Virtually every government in the Middle East has since lodged official complaints with Qatar over Al-Jazeera’s coverage of human rights violations and political dissent in their countries.

The fledgling network ran news talk shows that regularly pitted supporters of the peace process in Israel against pro-Palestinian radicals or secular liberals against Islamic militants. In 2000, Libya went so far as to withdraw their ambassador to Qatar after the network ran an interview with an opposition figure to the regime and the Algerian government once cut the electricity to large swaths of the country when the station broadcast an expose on the Algerian civil war.
The network ran afoul of the U.S. after Sept. 11 when Al-Qaida began to leak videotaped threats to the United States and Europe through Al-Jazeera. Many in the West began to view the network as a mouthpiece for terror groups and resented that the network aired graphic images from the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. government was quick to retaliate.
In 2001, Sudanese Al-Jazeera cameraman, Sami Al Hajj, was detained at the Pakistan border while on assignment to cover the U.S. war in Afghanistan and is being held indefinitely and without trial at Guantanamo as an enemy combatant of the United States. According to a 2004 BBC News report, Hajj claims to have been beaten and repeatedly interrogated. In other reports, he claims to have been sexually assaulted by U.S. military personnel. In 2005, his attorney claimed that U.S. officials have repeatedly asked Hajj if Al-Jazeera is linked to Al-Qaida. Despite earlier letters expressing a determination to return to his wife and son, Al Hajj has lately been refusing to eat. In October 2007, his attorney reported to the Committee to Protect Journalists that the U.S. military is now force-feeding him intravenously and stated that his health and mental state have drastically deteriorated.

Later, U.S. tactics against the news organization became more extreme as the war in Iraq dragged on. Rolling Stone reported in 2005 that early in the war, the Pentagon charged public relations firm, the Rendon Group, to police Al-Jazeera’s Iraq War coverage and to, according to the report, “punish” those journalists who conveyed the “wrong message.”

In April, 2003 reporter Tareq Ayoub was killed when a U.S. missile hit the Al-Jazeera offices in Baghdad. Two months earlier, according to documents obtained by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the network had sent a letter to Victoria Clarke, then U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs in Washington, to alert the U.S. military of the office’s address and map coordinates and to inform them that citizen journalists would be working there. On April 8, according to the report, a single U.S. missile was fired on those exact coordinates, killing Ayoub. That missile strike occurred mere hours before an American tank shell penetrated the Reuters office in the Palestine Hotel, another site designated for journalists, killing a Ukranian cameraman and severely injuring another reporter. Al-Jazeera offices were also bombed in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2001.

Here at home, Al-Jazeera reporters were banned from covering the New York Stock Exchange in 2003. That same year, John Racine, an American computer hacker, crashed the Al-Jazeera English Web site and redirected visitors to a site he created featuring an American flag and, ironically, the slogan, “Let Freedom Ring.” Racine was later found guilty of wire fraud and other charges and was sentenced to community service and a $1,500 fine. Another group of hackers, still at large, regularly disrupted Internet service to the site and a number of stateside Web hosts backed out of hosting the site once it launched.
While the physical attacks on Al-Jazeera reporters and property have declined, the network is still virtually shut out from the American public sphere and the bulk of their human rights and human interest stories go largely unseen. Their station ID usually only pops up on American TV when CNN attributes graphic war zone footage to the network.
Killing the Stigma with Kindness
Back at Mac’s, word comes in that John Edwards and Hillary Clinton have delivered their concession speeches. Al-Jazeera completes their final transmission of the night and well after 10 p.m. the crew grabs a table for a late dinner and to catch the last blues set. Jeremy Young eases down into a chair, orders a Glenlivet on the rocks and asks for a dinner menu.
“I get to go home and see my wife for a couple of days and then we’re off to Alabama to cover Super Tuesday,” he says.

Though the network will have live feeds from all over the country for Super Tuesday, they particularly want a sense of what’s going on in the South. “We’ll get together with local residents, average Joes, teachers, factory workers, just regular people to get a sense about how they feel about the election. At this point it’s so interesting because everything is up in the air, both for Democrats and Republicans. That intrigue carries overseas, as well.”
“We look at the U.S. election very much as the world’s election,” he says, stirring his drink.
“It’s not only going to effect Americans, but will also have an effect on the global community.”
Sure, he admits, there are always challenges they face being Al-Jazeera. But for every person who is negative about the network, there are many more who are positive. And, at the end of the day, the stigma attached to the name hasn’t hindered their ability to get the story.
“Part of the mantra at Al-Jazeera is to tell the stories that aren’t being told,” he says. “So, while American networks spend their time covering Britney Spears’ sister having a baby or other stories that aren’t really important in the context of peoples’ lives in the world, we’re more than happy to focus on stories about education and the economy.”
Young thinks one of the bigger stories out of South Carolina that will affect the global economy is the closing of the textile plants and factories throughout the state. “We were in Kingstree and we went to the unemployment center and we met some guys who had spent 30 years working at textile plants that were closed down and moved overseas. So it was interesting to talk to them to see how they were adapting their lives in the context of globalization. And that’s interesting to our audience, as well.”

Concerts, exhibits, plays among spring events

2008-01-28T15:32:00.000-08:00

There’s no end in sight for the strike at the Writers Guild of America, but that doesn’t mean you need to sit around boo-hooing, watching reruns or mind-numbing reality TV. Much finer entertainments are in the works on campus for the spring semester. See a play, visit a gallery, take in a film and attend a concert, or two or seven. Campus arts groups will present the works of the world-renowned as well as our student artists-in-the-making.
The following are just a few highlights of the spring semester. Check back in future issues of Wisconsin Week for more information, or visit the Web site of each sponsoring organization for details.

Chazen Museum of Art
The Chazen will host the 2008 Art Department Faculty Exhibition, which runs from Saturday, Jan. 26–Sunday, March 30. Visitors can expect a healthy representation of styles and media, including paintings, sculpture, graphics, ceramics, textiles, woodwork, metalwork, glass, prints, and photographs, as well as performance, video and computer art.
Art department faculty will present gallery talks throughout the run of the show and an opening reception will be held from 6–8 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 25.
From Saturday, April 19–Sunday, June 29, the Chazen turns its sight to the circus, with two exhibits that explore and celebrate the art of the circus. “Judy Onofrio and the Art of the Circus” includes life-sized sculptures of performers, animals and circus acts. Onofrio’s work will be shown alongside banners, posters and carvings from the collection at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wis.
“Harry A. Atwell, Circus Photographer” will give viewers a real-life view of life under the big top. Atwell documented circus performers, crowds, stars and behind-the-scenes events for the Ringling Bros. Circus for 40 years.

In addition to the bounty of performances by faculty, student ensembles, bands, orchestras, opera, choirs and guest artists, the School of Music has a special treat planned. Christopher Taylor, associate professor of piano, will perform the complete piano sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven in a series of 10 concerts. The first concert will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 13; the final concert is Friday, April 18. All performances are in Mills Concert Hall in the Mosse Humanities Building.
To get your semester started on a musical and theatrical note, attend “Vienna, City of Contradictions” at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 2. The concert includes the musical works of Gustav Mahler and Johann Strauss, with readings of Viennese authors by colleagues from the Department of Theatre and Drama.
At 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 7, guest artist Robert McDonald, piano, will be joined by the Pro Arte Quartet in a free performance of “Piano Quintet” by Frank Bridge.

University Theatre
University Theatre will present three productions this semester. An adaptation of Toni Morrison’s novel “The Bluest Eye” kicks off the season on Friday, Feb. 29, and runs through Saturday, March 15.
Next up is “Dragonwings,” which tells the story of a Chinese boy in 1928 San Francisco and his father, who is building a flying machine. This Theatre for Youth production is appropriate for ages 8 and up. “Dragonwings” runs Saturday, March 29–Saturday, April 12.
“Stella!” Many have seen the film version of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” but stage productions are not common. The timeless play by Tennessee Williams earned him a Pulitzer Prize and will captivate audiences. Streetcar runs Thursday, April 17–Saturday, May 3.

Dance Program
In addition to a robust schedule of student, faculty and guest artist performances, the big event of the semester is the American College Dance Festival–North Central Region, Thursday–Sunday, March 13–16. The Dance Program is hosting the festival, which will bring approximately 500 students from more than 30 colleges and universities from the Midwest and beyond to the Madison campus. The Dance Program will offer special public concerts and performances throughout the festival.
And not to be missed is the popular Spring Dance Program Concert, scheduled for Thursday–Saturday, April 24–26.

School of Human Ecology
The Design Gallery presents “Design 2008: Annual Student Juried Exhibition,” Wednesday, Feb. 13–Sunday, April 6. This annual event showcases the best work by current students in the areas of textile and apparel design and interior design.

Wisconsin Union
With films, music, plays, gallery exhibits and the Distinguished Lecture Series, there is always something going on at the Union. In April, the 80th Annual Student Art Show will be held. New this year, the show will be complemented with walking tour podcasts of the exhibitions. Also watch for the Marcia Legere Student Play Festival in March. The festival features the winning one-act plays of the annual student playwriting competition, which are produced, directed and performed by UW–Madison students.

Wisconsin Film Festival
Film fiends will want to block out Thursday–Sunday, April 3–6, for the 10th year of the Wisconsin Film Festival. More than 150 films and an attendance of nearly 30,000 make the festival a major part of the cultural calendar for the state and the campus.
Organizers are still sifting and winnowing through potential films to present, but attendees can be certain the selections will thrill, amaze, entertain, enlighten and educate.

Union Theater
Spring semester programming at the Union Theater includes the hot and lively and cool and measured, but always passionate. Here are some highlights from the many offerings at the theater. Check the Web site for more information and ticket prices and details.
— Tango Fire, Tuesday, Jan. 29. This 10-person dance troupe will heat up the winter night with its presentation of the powerful and sexy dance from Argentina.
— Hugh Masekela’s Chissa All-Stars, Thursday, Jan. 31. Sure to take the chill off, South African trumpeter Masekela’s music spans jazz, pop and funk. His 1987 hit “Bring Him Back Home” became the anthem for Nelson Mandela’s world tour following his release from prison.
— Olympia Dukakis: “Rose,” Saturday, Feb. 2. Academy Award-winner Olympia Dukakis brings her Broadway hit to Madison. “Rose” is a story of survival. We journey with her through her life in war-torn Poland, the borscht-belts of postwar Atlantic City and modern Miami Beach.
— The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) with Richard Egarr, Friday, Feb. 8. AAM is one of the world’s first and foremost period-instrument orchestras, known for its pioneering and prize-winning recordings.
— Gretchen Parlato and Esperanza Spalding, Friday, Feb. 15. This program features two of today’s hottest new names in jazz. Parlato is the first-place winner of the 2004 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition. Spalding is a bass player and singer.
— Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Sunday, March 2. Complexions is a multiracial troupe of high-energy dancers that was founded by two former stars of the Alvin Ailey company.
— Frederica von Stade, Sunday, March 30. This mezzo-soprano has garnered six Grammy nominations, two Grand Prix du Disc awards and many more honors. She has appeared in opera, concerts and recitals around the world and on television, including several PBS and “Live from Lincoln Center” telecasts.
— Anonymous Four with Darol Anger and Scott Nygaard, Thursday, April 10. This female vocal quartet rocked the vocal-ensemble world with its stunning renditions of medieval and contemporary works. The group is back with a program drawn from the American music legacy of shape-note books, spirituals and gospel hymns. They are joined by progressive fiddler Anger and bluegrass-newgrass guitarist Nygaard.

Liverpool Hosts Holocaust Memorial Day

2008-01-27T15:44:00.000-08:00

More than 1,600 people, including genocide survivors, are attending a special service at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

The event, in the new European Capital of Culture, falls on the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
Earlier, Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks told Sky News why it was important the next generation understood the horrors of the holocaust.
"There is still ethnic and religious violence throughout the world and they understand you can not merely be a bystander wherever you can make a difference, you must.

"So we're really enlisting this young generation to continue to fight prejudice ... against whoever, any religion, any colour, just for who we are or what we believe, or the colour of our skin," he said.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said cruelty was the result of a "failure in imagination".

Speaking on Sky News he said: "It's the same digging of a great ditch between different kinds of people ... wherever you have the world divided into two groups that can't communicate, can't imagine what it's like to be the other then you have the potential for disaster and horror."
Dr Williams and Sir Jonathan will sign the Pledge Against Genocide in the form of a large mural artwork outside the Philharmonic Hall following the service.
Also present at the memorial are the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears, former BBC war correspondent and independent MP Martin Bell and Liverpudlian actor Jason Isaacs, who plays Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.
The programme includes personal testimony from survivors and relatives, as well as poetry, music and speeches.
Some 11 million people, six million of them Jews, were systematically murdered in Europe by Nazi Germany during the 1940s.

Town planner made Internet presence a priority when he arrived

2008-01-26T04:03:00.000-08:00

Town Planner Brian Henshaw made developing a Web site a priority when he came to Stephens City in December 2006.
"We wanted people to be able to find us online," he said. "We wanted [the site] to be very user-friendly. We also wanted to create a new identity for the town."
In July, council approved a contract with Virginia.gov, an agency designing government Web sites, for $10,000.
The contract allows the town’s Web site to have a maximum of 50 pages, including links to the town’s history, calendar, and online bill pay.
The site now has about 20 pages.
"I think it went well," said Sheri S. Wood, project manager with Virginia.gov. "We went by what [Henshaw] wanted. Our priority was to go by his suggestion."
Virginia.gov has worked with 40 municipalities statewide in designing Web sites. Stephens City is the first in the Northern Shenandoah Valley.
The City of Winchester has used Visual Link for its hosting services since the Web site was created in 1997. The site’s address is www.winchesterva.gov.
"We design our own content. We do our own Web programming; we have a Web master," said Tom Lloyd, interactive technologies director for Winchester. "Visual Link hosts the site for free as a public service."
Lloyd was unable to provide a specific cost for the city to maintain the Web site. The Web master position had been vacant for some time and hardware and other materials were donated by Visual Link.
Because Stephens City has a full-time staff of four in its town office, Henshaw will be doing the bulk of the site’s design outline and maintenance.
Henshaw gave Wood a flow chart showing what information he wanted on the Web site and how it should be grouped.

The chart emphasized giving each element on the town its own place on the Web site and presenting it in an accessible format.
"We came up with the content and [Virginia.gov] did the design," Henshaw said. "We wanted to create a Web site that would fit in with today’s standards."
Besides basic information, the site is set up to allow viewers to e-mail council and Planning Commission members and pay their bills online.
Both features are expected to be up and running by the end of the month.
"We wanted Stephens City to be up-to-date," Wood said. "It just makes sense for people to use the Web site to pay their utility bills."
Wood added that she was waiting on Bank of America to establish an account before the system could be put into place.
The city’s Web site has gradually added interactive features in the past decade.
"When it first started out, it was just the basic information," said Lloyd. "Starting in 2000, we started getting all the different departments on it. We just added online bill pay a few months ago."
Lloyd has noted some pages on the site are more popular than others. He estimated that the Winchester Parks and Recreation Department page is frequently visited.
Stephens City administrators are hopeful a partnership with Frederick County’s Web site, www.co.frederick.va.us, will create a surge of visitors to the new site.
The county’s site will offer Geographic Information Systems specifically for Stephens City and link to the town’s Web site.
All the GIS additions are scheduled to be in place by March.
With its place on the Internet being established, Henshaw hopes the site reflects the town’s values.
"We want people to know this is a town that values its heritage, and is a town that gets it, and is developing on its own terms."

MashMeet LA Recap and Thank You

2008-01-25T16:36:00.000-08:00

The first west coast MashMeet: MashMeet LA is over. All the feedback I received (and I wasn’t even there) was extremely positive. Seems the Tweets floating around were all positive, with some minor complaints of there being too many people. All in all we estimated it was about 200 people in attendance (on a very rainy night). Thank you all for coming out!

Bash Boy Who Trashed Parent's Home May Make $90,000 As Party Host

2008-01-24T17:03:00.000-08:00

He held a party that wound up trashing his parent's home. And now he's emerged in a position beyond his wildest dreams. We recently told you about 16-year-old Corey Delaney, who put up a MySpace notice about a bash he was throwing at his parents' Melbourne, Australia home while his mother and father were on vacation.
More than 500 teens showed up, followed soon after by a large number of police officers. The event turned into a riot, with kids throwing bottles at the cops and doing major damage to Delaney's and his neighbours' homes. Authorities arrested the boy and were contemplating making him pay up to $18,000 for all the carnage.
The unrepentant teen left home to avoid his folk's wrath but refused to apologize for his actions. And in these days when no bad deed seems to go unpunished, the kid may actually be rewarded for his actions. His story became so famous worldwide that he's actually left school, abandoned plans to become a carpenter and hired an agent for his new job: party planner.
He'll be 'hosting' two more blow-outs in Sydney and Brisbane over the next two months, as well as another in his hometown on March 21st - the day he turns 17. Delaney remains as arrogant as ever about his new endeavour. "I've got a manager, life's good," he told an Aussie TV station.
Just how good? Consider this: his agent, Max Markson, suggests his client could make nearly Cdn$90,000 from his party efforts and become a rich man - er -boy, within a few short years, although Markson would take 20 per cent of that haul.
"He did a great party in the wrong place," the veteran agent explains. "We're going to put on a great party in the right place."
Still, not everyone's happy about the teen titan. Web sites condemning his actions and attitude have sprung up all over the country, with one (pictured, top left) allowing Corey-haters to "slap him down the street." So far, more than 700,000 have responded. (You can get your licks in here.)
But Markson insists the boy is actually contributing to society with his latest move, because he'll have to pay taxes on the money he makes from this venture. "His family has taken him back," he points out. "He's 16 and left school. He's got to work."
And at such a tender age, he's managed to figure out how to combine all work and all play. Which, despite what some see as his bad attitude, maybe doesn't make him quite so obnoxious after all.

Best indie software

2008-01-22T17:59:00.000-08:00

Part of the draw of the Macworld Expo is getting hands-on with all the shiny new gadgets and accessories you often can't find anywhere else. However, some of the coolest stuff on the floor only shines now if Leopard's Core Animation says so. We are, of course, talking about the software announced at Macworld, and it's time to highlight some of the coolest apps and utilities to get updated or announced at Macworld '08. We aren't going to include any of the big flashy apps like Office for Mac 2008 or Adobe Creative Suite—those companies are doing just fine with getting eyeballs on their own. This roundup is all about the indies—the smaller developers who often bring the biggest new stuff. Let's get started.

Tooble is a straightforward app that allows you to browse and search YouTube videos, then download, convert, and add them to iTunes for your iPod or iPhone. Unsurprisingly designed by a few high school seniors, tooble in its current form is a free download, with a paid Pro version on its way that will include support for many other video sites.

YouTube Banned Again; by Turkey

2008-01-21T05:15:00.000-08:00

Once again, YouTube is in the news for all the wrong reasons. A Turkish court has banned the Web site for hosting video clips that allegedly insult Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Founder and First President of the Republic of Turkey.

All said, this is the second time that YouTube has been banned in Turkey. Earlier in March 2007, it was banned for the same reasons. However, the ban was lifted two days later when the offending videos were removed from the Web site. This time, though it isn't clear exactly which videos are found disrespectful of Ataturk, there's a general consensus that the video comparing Ataturk with a monkey is the one to blame for the ban. Under Turkish law, it is illegal to insult honorable Ataturk, whose picture still hangs faithfully in most government offices, nearly 70 years after his death. Those now trying to access YouTube in Turkey will be served a notice saying "Access to this Web site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2008/55 of T R Ankara 12th Criminal Court of Peace." Meanwhile, Turkey isn't the first country to ban YouTube. Last year the popular video sharing Web site was banned by the Thai government for hosting defaced images of their revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The ban was lifted not before four months later, when Google-owned YouTube agreed to block all videos deemed offensive to the Thai people. In a similar vein, Youtube was also banned in Morocco (North Africa) for posting videos showing the kind of treatment meted out by Morocco to the people of Western Sahara, a territory that was taken over by Morocco in 1975.

Promethean Announces Winners of K12 Video Contest

2008-01-20T05:12:00.000-08:00

Promethean today announced the winners of its "Enter My Activworld" video contest. The competition, which ended December 15, 2007, welcomed K-12 teachers throughout the United States to submit entries in the form of 2-5 minute videos documenting their use of Activclassroom technology for a chance to win prizes. First Prize Winner Awarded Activclassroom Makeover and Trip to NECC 2008

Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) January 18, 2008 -- Promethean, a global leader in interactive learning technology, today announced the winners of its "Enter My Activworld" video contest. The competition, which ended December 15, 2007, welcomed K-12 teachers throughout the United States to submit entries in the form of 2-5 minute videos documenting their use of Activclassroom technology for a chance to win prizes.

"The Promethean video contest brought forward many of the most innovative Activclassrooms in America," said Pat Henry, Vice President of Marketing for Promethean Americas. "Every single video entry was completely different. All of them were heartfelt and inspiring. It took us several full days to watch them all and we loved every minute of it."
Winning videos include:
First Prize - Cindy Wallace and students from Evangel Christian Academy in Louisiana for their video titled: "Making Math Accessible" (will receive a full Activclassroom Makeover and All-inclusive trip to San Antonio, Texas to be recognized at NECC 2008)
Watch 1st Place Activclassroom Video
Second Prize - Debbie Dawson and students from Glen Cove Elementary in Virginia for their video titled: "A Brief History of Educational Technology" (will receive $3,000 in Promethean Activmoney to be used on any items sold through Promethean and its partners)
Watch 2nd Place Activclassroom Video
Third Prize - Lynn Winn and students from Lee Middle School in Georgia for their video titled: "Enter MY Activworld" (will receive $2,000 in Promethean Activmoney to be used on any items sold through Promethean)
Watch 3rd Place Activclassroom Video
Honorable Mentions include submissions from Kelly Gilchrist and students, McCurdy Elementary School in Georgia; Nicholas Pearce and students, Westfield Intermediate School in Indiana; Havena Marks and students, Adobe Bluffs Elementary in California; Laurie Maccri and students, Hillside School in New Jersey; and Susan Lloyd and students, Baxterville School in Mississippi.
About Promethean
Promethean is a global leader in interactive learning technology that empowers teachers to engage, educate, assess and motivate learners. Developed by and for educators, its award-winning products help teachers to prepare digital lessons quickly and with greater ease. The technology enables them to create, customize and integrate text, web, video and audio content, so they can more easily capture students' attention and accommodate different learning styles.
Promethean Activclassroom solutions are helping educators teach and students learn worldwide with Activboard, the world's most durable interactive whiteboard technology; Activstudio, a software platform for secondary teaching; and Activprimary, the only product designed specifically for use in primary schools and kindergarten. It also offers wireless hand-held Learner Response Systems that permit instantaneous assessment of pupils' comprehension of lessons. Beyond the classroom, Promethean offers training and support to ensure maximum results and return on investment, while also hosting the world's largest online interactive whiteboard community, http://www.prometheanplanet.com/.Promethean is headquartered in Blackburn in the United Kingdom. Its products are distributed through a network of partners and inspire millions of learners in more than 70 countries.

Storm Worm returns as a Mushy Valentine’s Day Greeting

2008-01-19T03:38:00.000-08:00

Not matter what the season or occasion, the Storm Worm somehow rears its ugly head! The New Year 2008 saw the return of the Storm Worm posing as a fake greeting and more recently, the botnet was targeting Barclay’s customers. Now, a new wave of attack has begun and this time in keeping with the upcoming celebration of love more commonly known as Valentine’s Day, the Storm Worm has popped up once again.
AntiVirus, AntiSpam and Content Security firm MicroWorld Technologies has said that emails with links to a bait web site hosting the Storm Worm malware are being sent out in bulk over the last three days.
The subject lines of this email containing the Storm Worm are very mushy, making you feel that the sender is totally in love with you. So beware, because the virus writers are indeed faking that they have a heart! Subject lines of these emails include ‘Eternity of your Love’, ‘I Love You So Much’, ‘Falling in Love with You’, ‘For You My Love’, ‘Our Journey’, ‘Our Love Nest’, ‘Memories of You’ and ‘A Kiss So Gentle.’
The virus writers are very smart as the mail shows a pink heart and a message that read, “Your download should begin shortly. If your download does not start in 10-20 seconds, you can click here to launch the download and then press run. Enjoy!”
A file named withlove.exe or with_love.exe is then downloaded on clicking the message. This file carries a not so lovable malware named ‘Zhelatin.sg’.
According to Govind Rammurthy, CEO of MicroWorld Technologies, “This is a new rollout from the ill famed storm factory with some changes in code and a new spreading theme. And if one has to go by the initial volumes, the attack seems fairly large. The two important factors that enable this malware to give a hard time for many security solutions are the speed at which new variants are dished out and countless places where they can host these threats”.
The activities of Zhelatin.sg once inside the compromised computer are similar to the worm’s predecessors. The Storm Worm drops a file names ‘burito.ini’, stops Antivirus running on the computer and activates a range of ports to connect to peer-to-peer networks before making the computer a part of the botnet. From this point beyond, the computer will send out spam or do many other things that the remote attackers would want it to do.
“So far the primary duty of a computer in this network is only to relay spam. However one would shudder to think what happens when the controllers behind this network having such massive computing power move on to spread more harmful Viruses or start widespread Denial-of-Services attacks? I believe it’s high time law enforcement agencies work with security companies to initiate a global crackdown on this criminal gang,” continued Govind Rammurthy.
MicroWorld offers multilevel protection against all variants of this malware. The company’s AntiVirus and AntiSpam solution at mail server, MailScan, tackles all sorts of spam and threat laden mails by employing a range of technologies including MicroWorld’s recent invention called ‘Non Intrusive Learning Patterns’. Also, eScan, the Enterprise security solution, combines fast updating signature based detection with proactive technologies to keep the Worm at bay all time.

Xbox 360 in Crysis as PlayStation 3 hosts Crytek’s powerhouse?

2008-01-18T16:34:00.000-08:00

Is Crysis about to make its way to the PlayStation 3? Credit: Crytek. With recent rumours suggesting that PC-based first-person shooter epic Crysis will be echoing the form of Crytek stable mate Far Cry in making its way to home videogame consoles, current speculation indicates that only Sony’s PlayStation 3 will be capable of hosting the sci-fi spectacular.
Specifically, gaming Web site GamesRadar is reporting that "insiders" at Germany-based Crytek have this week let slip that certain home console whisperings will soon come to fruition, with a port of Crysis reportedly on the way for PlayStation 3 owners.
While none of this chatter has been in any way substantiated (or denied) at this juncture, the PS3 port is expected to arrive with extra modes and game features not readily available through the original PC game.
There is currently no available information regarding the need for aesthetic scale back on the PlayStation 3, which, while an impressive piece of gaming kit, might not be able to ‘fully’ embrace a heavily muscled title that has already seen many ‘hardcore’ PC gamers unable to run Crysis without altering its far-reaching performance attributes.
Even the GameTrailers.com team struggled to run the game for review, despite upgrading their PC rig specially.
Sadly, disappointment apparently lies in wait for Xbox 360 owners hoping for Crysis to perform the Microsoft side-shuffle that usually accompanies Games for Windows releases. According to GamesRadar, Crytek will be focusing its efforts on the PlayStation 3, with technical difficulties preventing a port to Microsoft’s latest home console.
Salt? Pinch of? Until this rumour is either confirmed or denied, we’d recommend keeping your glee-fuelled somersaults on hold for the moment - just to avoid any resultant fanboy backlash.

Top tips for VoIP security highlighted

2008-01-17T15:55:00.000-08:00

IP telephony security may be a significant concern for any businesses looking to increase its use of the cheaper web-based calls, meaning clearly understandable advice is likely to be welcomed.Some such nuggets of wisdom were uncovered by ZDNet blogger Russell Shaw, who had been scouring Techtarget's SearchSecurity.net website.He discovered clearly written tips for good VoIP practice by SearchSecurity's Mike Chapple.Noting that the advice was "succinct" even though it did not break new ground, Mr Shaw suggested that it "most certainly does not hurt to repeat these tips from time to time".True to his word he posted Mr Chapple's advice in full, which focused on VoIP security possibilities through virtual servers, careful security monitoring and the ability to deal with new developments quickly.According to Mr Chapple, firms would do well if they "lock down" their VoIP communication systems by keeping security software up to date, tightening firewalls and eliminating unnecessary services.Explaining the last point, he said: "If you reduce your footprint and deny the bad guys an entry point onto your systems, you'll lower the likelihood of an attack."

UPDATED: UK sites involved in massive website hack

2008-01-16T15:50:00.000-08:00

Many specialist UK websites have been used to spread a particularly difficult track form of malware that is capable of dynamically changing its code.
The only thing to link the several hundred compromised sites, other than the fact that many of them are small UK-based retail outfits like a bicycle shop and speciality travel firm, is the fact that all their affected domains have, or had, a relationship with the UK's biggest web hosting company Fasthosts, according to the security researcher at ScanSafe who first spotted the attack.
Fasthosts' systems called in the police to investigate a security breach in October last year that forced the provider to ask users to change their passwords.
Mary Landesman, senior ScanSafe security researcher wrote yesterday in her blog: "The attacks are not compromised sites, but rather what we suspect to be the result of a Loadable Kernel Module (LKM) backdoor, i.e. a rootkit-enabled backdoor planted on the host server. What we don't know, but hope to discover, is how the backdoor was planted on the host servers."
She added that the attack is characterised by its generation of random files names and dynamic code changes that make it difficult to track.
"When a site is compromised and retrofitted to deliver malware it's in the form of a static iframe which references a remote website," she said. "But this current attack is substantially different."
The referenced JavaScript file only exists when the user accesses the page and does not persist on the site. "In other words, an admin perusing the site looking for these rogue JavaScript files would not find any visible signs," said Landesman.
These randomly named and dynamically created JavaScript references and files are also randomly delivered to the same internet protocol [IP] multiple times.
Landesman speculated that the malware causing the attacks, which is similar to the recent static SQL injection attacks that compromised hundreds of Fortune 500 companies and companies and redirected users to the 'uc8010.com' domain to steal passwords, could have been recently activated in a compromised server.
ScanSafe advised that JavaScript malware file includes multiple exploits, including an 18-month-old Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) vulnerability and a recently spotted flaw in Apple's QuickTime media player real time streaming protocol (RTSP).
Successful attacks infect the user's computer with a Trojan, which can allow a hacker to install further spyware or keylogging software.
Fasthosts told IT PRO it was aware of press coverage and comments made on blogs discussing both a network intrusion on a Fasthosts server last year and recently reported instances of malware attack on the internet. Richard Stevenson, Fasthosts spokesman said: "As a result, Fasthosts is conducting an investigation into the issues raised and the technical comments made within the articles." But he said that at this initial stage there were technical discrepancies that would suggest that Fasthosts was not connected with these malware issues.
"For example, Fasthosts does not deploy cPanel in its shared or dedicated platform," said Stevenson, referring to website administration control panel mentioned by ScanSafe as a 'near constant presence' and possible factor in the spread of the attacks.He continued: "While it is not possible to comment on a list of domains that Fasthosts has not been privy to, the full details of these domain names will be requested in order for Fasthosts to carry out this investigation. "Fasthosts can confirm that it has to date received no evidence on such an issue, nor has it been approached by any customer with this concern," he said."The security of customers' website data remains of paramount importance to Fasthosts."

New Crimeware Aims Trusted Sites

2008-01-15T17:28:00.000-08:00

A significant new Web attack, the latest in the genre of crimeware that threatens to turn highly trusted Web sites into insidious traps for unwary visitors, has been identified by Finjan's Malicious Code Research Center (MCRC). The attack designated "random js toolkit" by Finjan, is an extremely elusive crimeware Trojan that infects users' machines and sends data via the Internet to the Trojan's master.

Data stolen by the Trojan could include documents, passwords, surfing habitats, or any other sensitive information. Basically, the "random js" attack is done by dynamic embedding of JavaScript code into a Web page. It provides a random filename that can only be accessed once. This dynamic embedding is done in such a way that when a user has received a page with the embedded malicious script once, it will not be referenced again on further requests. As a result, it is almost impossible for the Trojan to be detected by traditional signature-based anti-malware products. According to Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer of Finjan, this exploit can be countered using dynamic code inspection technology that can detect and block an attack in real time. Dynamic code inspection technology doesn't depend on the origin URL or signature, or the site's reputation, but inspects Web content in real time, as it is served. The technology analyzes the code's intentions before enabling it be executed on the end-user browser. The "random js toolkit" is an example of the recent trend among cyber criminals to undermine user confidence in trusted Web sites. More than 10,000 Web sites in the US were infected in December 2007 by this latest malware. Around the middle of 2007, studies showed there were nearly 30,000 new infected Web pages being created every day. And about 80 percent of the pages hosting malicious software or containing drive-by downloads with damaging content were located on hacked legitimate Web sites.

County announces Information Technology contest for teens

2008-01-14T05:50:00.000-08:00

County Executive John Leopold doesn't own a personal computer. He reluctantly invested in a cell phone recently, so he can be reached in emergencies. But he doesn't listen to his voicemail.
"I'm not a techie," he said, noting that he still "recognizes the value of all the technology we use today."
So to stimulate creativity in the information technology field, he has developed the first annual Community and Information Technology Competition, and it's for students in 10th through 12th grades.
The teenage contestants will identify an informational technology need that would better deliver existing county services or information to a segment of county residents.
The winner of the contest earns a paid internship with the county government.
They will present their project through a proposal, not as a finished product. The proposal will identify the need, its solution, additional resources required, and the anticipated end result.
The finalist or finalist team will make a full presentation to IT professionals from the departments where they might spend their internship.
Contestants must be county residents who are students in public, private or home-school programs for 10th, 11th or 12th grades. It is open to individuals or two-person teams.
The winner must provide his or her own transportation to county offices.
Naturally, the project proposals require an electronic solution. The contest deadline for preliminary proposals is 5 p.m. March 3.
The internship will take place during the upcoming summer school break. If there is one winner, that person can work up to 40 hours a week.
If a team wins, the two members may work a total of 20 hours apiece each week.
The salary is the minimum wage - $6.15 per hour.
County officials are hosting a competition kick-off and information session at 7 p.m., Tuesday at the Carver Development Center, 2671 Carver Road in Gambrills, just off Route 3.
Officials plan to describe the details of the competition, answer questions, provide proposal templates and offer light refreshments.
To reserve a spot at the session or for more information, contact county spokesman Marina Cooper at 410-222-1821 or at mhcooper@aacounty.org.
If you cannot attend the session, call Ms. Cooper for details and a copy of the proposal template.
A flyer describing the competition is available on the county Web site, http://www.aacounty.org/.
On the home page, under the News Flash heading in the right-hand column, click on "Community and Information Technology Competition."
"Identify a need, based on what you see on county Web pages and other sources," suggested Karla Hamner, special assistant for communication and media.
"We'll identify and guide contestants through resources we have available that will help them in preparing their proposal," she said Tuesday. "Say they want to create a lost and found Web site for pets in the county. They might need information from county resources, including Animal Control."
"The proposals will be judged upon the feasibility of the project," added Ms. Cooper. "What a student proposes needs to provide a service and be an accomplishable goal, but not necessarily done by the student-intern alone."
During the internship, the county will provide resources and information to "get the project going."
The judges for the competition are: Mr. Leopold; Bill Ryan, director of the Office of IT; Betsey Kirkpatrick-Howat, county Web master; Val Emrich, instructional technology coordinator for county public schools; Erik Robey, assistant chief administrative officer; Ms. Hamner and Ms. Cooper.
A contest announcement has gone out to high school principals at all county public and private high schools, CAT North and CAT South, the International Baccalaureate Programme coordinators, Advanced Placement Resource teachers, AVID coordinators and the Chesapeake Region Association of Student Council advisors.
"This is the opportunity of a lifetime for someone considering a career in this area," said Ms. Hamner. "These kids will offer a fresh perspective on web services offered by the county."

Digital Photography Tutorial: Create Your Own Website

2008-01-13T16:40:00.000-08:00

In last week's tutorial I described some of the many ways of sharing your photos online, including image hosting sites, web galleries and social networking sites. All of these are fine, but they can be a bit impersonal. By far the most satisfying way to share your photos online is by creating your very own website. It's a lot easier than you probably think.
While creating and managing a large professionally-run website, such as TrustedReviews for example, requires a huge amount of time and expertise and a staff of dedicated programmers, creating a simple personal website such as an online photo album is something that almost anyone can do, without the need for specialist knowledge or expensive software. In fact, you can get everything you need for free.
If you have an Internet service account - and if you're reading this at home then you almost certainly do - then that account will normally include a small amount of free web space in which to make your own website. This is storage space on a remote server (a special hard drive at your Internet Service Provider that is permanently connected to the Internet) which you can use to store the files and code that make a website work. If you're not sure if you have this or not, look in the welcome pack that you received when your Internet connection was installed, or check on your Internet Service Provider's website. You may need to fill in a short sign-up form on the website, but it should be simple enough.

For this tutorial I'm using the free webspace from my own broadband account with Virgin Media, although this should in no way be taken as an endorsement or promotion of Virgin; I only use them because they're the only cable broadband provider in my area. Almost any ISP would have been equally as good for this purpose. My account is a fairly typical consumer package and comes with 55MB of free website space, which isn't very much but should be more than enough for a simple photo gallery.
To actually create the gallery I'm going to use a program that I mentioned last week, Picasa from Google. Picasa is a very good photo organising and editing program which you can download for free. It also includes a function which enables it to export your photo albums in a format that can be uploaded to a website, providing a quick and easy way to create an online gallery without having to learn how to write HTML code.

Smithsonian food exhibit a first for city museums

2008-01-12T01:32:00.000-08:00

‘‘Key Ingredients: America by Food,” a Smithsonian traveling exhibit, opened in Bowie museums Nov. 16 and finished its run Sunday.
Coordinated by Museums on Main Street, a partnership between the Smithsonian Institution and state humanities councils, the exhibit was housed at Belair Mansion with smaller exhibits at the Railroad Museum, Radio and Television Museum and Belair Stable Museum.
‘‘It’s been wonderful to have it here, every minute of it. I will be so sorry to see it leave,” Williams said.
Williams said the city museums ‘‘grew institutionally” from hosting the exhibit.
Among the lessons learned was the monumental task of unpacking and setting up the exhibit – which was delivered to Belair Mansion in 17 refrigerator-sized crates.
In addition to adapting to putting ‘‘big things in small spaces,” the museums forged a partnership with the Bowie Library, which had never before been done. The museums and the library co-sponsored a food-oriented lecture series, and Williams said she hopes to have other partnerships with the library for future programs.
Bowie officials brought the project to the attention of the Maryland Humanities Council, who ultimately decided to fund the exhibit for Bowie and five other community museums in Maryland.
The council was unable to provide details on how much it cost to bring the exhibit to Bowie.
Bowie was chosen because its proposal involved working with other organizations in the community, such as the schools and the library, Jean Wortman, program officer for the Maryland Humanities Council, said in October.
The community was very responsive to the exhibit, and the number of visitors increased during the exhibit’s stay there, Williams said.
‘‘There is tremendous pride in place here, and it’s something people should be proud of,” she said.
Not only did the museums see more local attendance, visitors from as far away as Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania traveled to Bowie to see ‘‘Key Ingredients,” Williams said.
The exhibit was featured on a variety of food-related Web sites and list-servers, as well as the Smithsonian’s Web site.
‘‘It’s really about putting Bowie on the map, other than on the Maryland map,” Williams said.
During weekends of the ‘‘Key Ingredients” run, the museum averaged about 40 visitors, up from a typical crowd of 15 to 20 visitors on Saturdays.
On Friday, a group from the Bowie Senior Center visited Belair Mansion and toured ‘‘Key Ingredients.”
Frank Evans of Bowie said the exhibit showed a ‘‘basic human experience” and demonstrated the diversity of food across many cultures.
‘‘I think they did a nice job of showing the variety of national cuisine through the photos,” he said.
Although the exhibit has just left, Williams said the museums’ staff is already thinking ahead to future projects.
‘‘We’re already thinking about what we’re going to do next. We have a couple of ideas for the future,” she said.
Williams said she is not sure when the city museums would be eligible for funding for another exhibit, but if an opportunity becomes available, ‘‘we’ll jump in a heartbeat to get it.”

Pulse Web Hosting Announces Competition Winner

2008-01-11T03:30:00.000-08:00

The lucky winner receives the hosting provider's top package, Power Plus, free for 12 months.
Sam Benson, product Marketing Manager for Supanet said: "We're were pleased with the response to the offer and we are delighted to be giving a belated Christmas gift of 12 months top quality hosting to the lucky winner."
The Power Plus package includes a free fully configured e-commerce platform and a free blog.
The competition ran on the Pulse homepage throughout December 2007 and was open to anybody who visited the company's site.
Pulse will be running a plethora of offers and competitions during the next 12 months as part of its plan to revolutionise the web host industry.
"This competition is only the first of many offers and prizes that we will be offering in 2007. We feel the gift of quality hosting is best that anyone can receive," Benson added.
The fast hosting providerwill shortly be announcing its latest promotion which will offer anyone buying a hosting package a free one-to-one consultation with an online marketing expert.
Pulse web Hosting was launched on November 22, 2007, replacing Supanet Hosting, and has promised to provide the best quality service for the lowest price.
As well as web hosting Pulse also offers dedicated servers, domains, email and corporate services.
All of the company's web hosting packages include a free web builder that Pulse guarantee will make building a website easy for even the most novice of users.
About Pulse Web HostingPulse's mission statement is to offer the highest-quality web hosting services for the best possible price and to make it as simple and as easy for everyone from the novice user to the biggest business. Pulse web hosting has one of the best-connected hosting facilities in the world, and has invested a great deal in both network equipment and backbone connections so customers get the fastest access possible to their content. This efficient infrastructure means that Pulse can offer its customers a great-value, high-quality service.

Moxi DVR Will Make Retail Debut This Year

2008-01-10T05:04:00.001-08:00

LAS VEGAS -- Digeo's Moxi set-top boxes have been sold for years through cable providers, but later this year you'll be able to buy one through your local consumer tech outlet.
The Moxi Multi-room DVR system consists of a large-ish set-top box that sits near your TV set and stores your content (shown below), and some smaller extender boxes that store no content but bring the video (as well as music and photos) to other TVs in the house over your existing cable wiring. You plug your cable card directly into the back of the main set-top box, which also contains a large hard drive for storage, supports HD and plays DVDs.

Digeo is especially proud of Moxi's user interface (which the booth rep here said "kicks ass and takes names"). The system lets you quickly scroll horizontally through the various functions of the system. After selecting one (Recorded TV, for example), a list of selections displays vertically, and you just scroll through them and pick what you want. I found the Moxi channel guide to be nice looking and fairly easy to use.
Here at CES Digeo is announcing several new web-based content partnerships. Speaking of photos, Moxi just announced an agreement with the photo hosting site Flickr that lets Moxi users pull their photos into the Moxi system for viewing on TVs.
Like many set-top box makers here, Moxi has its own way of getting internet video content onto the TV: the Moxi doesn't give its couch-sitting users complete access to the web, but rather is establishing a sort of walled garden of especially TV-ready content. For instance, the video it pulls from the Associated press works especially well on the TV. And there are several other video aggregators to choose from.

Leading Affiliate Program JoeBucks.com is Now Market Health Affiliate Network

2008-01-07T05:36:00.000-08:00

According to McNelley, Market Health provides an opportunity for affiliates to market and promote chief health and beauty offers on the Internet.
McNelley highlighted advanced Webmaster features, in line with the launch of the new brand. Webmaster enhancements for Market Health include custom pixel tracking, free hosting, Web site templates, hidden affiliate link technology and Google, MSN and Yahoo conversion tracking. "We offer the highest paying affiliate network and best tracking software in our industry," he said.
McNelley also noted that the name change from Joe Bucks to Market Health illustrates the company's overall development. "Now that we are opening up the program to other offers in the health and beauty industry, we needed a name that signifies what we do -- Market Health."
While the new brand indicates company growth, McNelley stressed the same commitment to client satisfaction, as with the original business concept. "Our affiliates can still take advantage of great in-house offers, but will also be able to market other brand names and unique health and beauty offers," he said.
McNelley said he expects Market Health to differentiate from the competition through numerous exclusive in-house offers and other brand name products and services.
"Most networks work solely as the middle man and are only as good as their third-party offer," he said. "As a contract manufacturer and distributor in the health and beauty industry, we have an edge on other networks through our exclusive deals and private manufacturing contracts.
JoeBucks.com was established in 1998 and became a leading affiliate program in the health and beauty industry. The new brand, Market Health, is now the world's largest integrated Internet marketing company in the Health and Beauty vertical, offering a multitude of products and services. For more information about Market Health, visit the Web site at MarketHealth.com

China limits Internet video to state-controlled companies

2008-01-05T16:04:00.000-08:00

HONG KONG, China (AP) -- China has moved to restrict videos online, allowing only state-controlled sites to post any -- including those shared by users -- and requiring Internet providers to delete and report a variety of content.

It wasn't immediately clear how the new rules would affect YouTube and other providers that host Web sites based in other countries that are accessible from China.
A spokesman for San Bruno, California-based YouTube said the restrictions "could be a cause for concern, depending on the interpretation."
Tudou.com, which claims to be China's largest video sharing Web site, didn't immediately respond to an e-mail requesting comment.
The new regulations, which take effect on January 31, were approved by both the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Information Industry and were described on their Web sites Thursday.
Under the new policy, Web sites that provide video programming or allow users to upload video must have a permit and be either state-owned or state-controlled.
The majority of Internet video providers in China are private, according to an explanation of the regulations posted on Chinafilm.com, which is run by the state-run China Film Group.
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Video that involves national secrets, hurts the reputation of China, disrupts social stability or promotes pornography will be banned. Providers must delete and report such content.
"Those who provide Internet video services should insist on serving the people, serve socialism ... and abide by the moral code of socialism," the rules say.
The permits are subject to renewal every three years and operators who commit "major" violations may be banned from providing online video programming for five years.
Adhering to the new rules could be daunting for YouTube, where about 10 hours of online video covering a wide range of topics is uploaded to the site every minute.
The video-sharing site, which is owned by Google Inc., already faces allegations that it should do more to block the distribution of clips that infringe on copyrights.
None of YouTube's video-hosting computers is in China, but the government there could still block access to the site from within China.
YouTube hopes the rules won't cut it off from the rapidly growing number of Chinese residents with Internet access, spokesman Ricardo Reyes said.
"We believe that the Chinese government fully recognizes the enormous value of online video and will not enforce the regulations in a way that could deprive the Chinese people of its benefits and potential for business and economic development, education and culture, communication, and entertainment," Reyes said.
China ranks as the world's second largest Internet market with a total audience of about 164 million, including people who surf the Web from public computers, according to the research firm comScore Inc.
Only the United States, with about 182 million Internet users, boasts a larger online audience.
YouTube says people around the world watch more than 200 million videos on its site each day. It declined to specify how much of its traffic comes from China.
Google and other major Internet companies like Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. all have set up operations in China in hopes of making more money from online advertising as the country's economy grows.
But doing business in China also has required the companies to obey laws that stifle and punish free speech, raising the ire of U.S. politicians and human rights activists around the world.
In the biggest backlash so far, Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo was attacked in Congress after providing information about the online activities of two Chinese journalists who were subsequently imprisoned. Both journalists are serving 10-year prison sentences.

Hotelier's 2008 Top Ten Internet Marketing Resolutions

2008-01-03T16:31:00.000-08:00

In 2008 approximately 40% of all hotel bookings will be generated from the Internet (one-third in 2007, 29% in 2006). At least another third of all hotel bookings will be influenced by the Internet, but done offline (call center, walk-ins, group bookings, etc). By the end of 2010, over 45% of all hotel bookings will be completed online (Merrill Lynch). Now, more than 13 years after the first online hotel booking, are hoteliers taking full advantage of this dramatic channel shift from offline to online? Has the shift increased commoditization of the hotel product? Is there such a thing as customer loyalty in this environment? How can the hotel increase its direct online market share? What are some Web 2.0/Social Media formats and initiatives to consider, develop and implement? The 2008 Top Ten New Year’s Internet Marketing Strategy Resolutions, presented by Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS) for the eighth year in a row, provide some of these answers and action steps. Whether you are a major hotel brand, hotel management company, independent or franchised hotel or resort, you can stay well ahead of your competitors and capture new market share with an effective Internet Marketing Strategy. Smart and proactive hoteliers who utilize best practices in Internet marketing, and follow latest trends to their own advantage will define the industry winners and losers in 2008 and over the long term. Here are the Top Ten Internet Marketing Resolutions your hotel company should consider adopting in 2008:

1. I will Generate Robust Internet Marketing ROIs in 2008 from my hotel’s Internet marketing efforts. I understand that just having a hotel website, running some sporadic search marketing campaigns, or even having an Internet marketing budget in place is not enough to generate the ROIs my hotel deserves. I know that often an interactive agency will want me to spend more, a web design shop will want me to redesign my site every year, or a booking engine vendor will want me to spend more marketing dollars, especially if they charge transaction fees. I also know that measuring ROI is the last priority for many vendors out there.I will become ROI-centric. I will only work with an Internet marketing vendor that provides a comprehensive Internet marketing strategy, and focuses on online marketing formats that generate the highest ROIs. I will demand full transparency in fees and marketing spend, and accountability for results. I understand that with the web technologies available today, anything and everything can be measured, making Internet marketers more accountable than ever before. I will require state-of-the-art website analytical and campaign tracking tools, utilization of industry’s best practices, and marketing spend that can be tracked and its ROI determined without a doubt.

2. I will make sure my hotel Internet marketing budget takes a Holistic View of the Hotel Online Environment and incorporates a comprehensive, long-term strategic approach. I know that to achieve my ROI goals I must focus on marketing key aspects of my hotel product to my key market segments in my feeder markets, since I know that each of my customer segments requires a differentiated approach, information and offering. I understand that in 2008 my hotel budget should include all Internet marketing “fundamental” formats (e.g. eCRM, website re-designs and optimizations, organic and paid search marketing, email marketing, strategic linking, display advertising and online sponsorships, seasonal promotions and other direct-response driven campaigns supported by special landing and private web pages, etc.), to position my hotel website at all "points of contact" with potential Internet travel bookers as well as new media formats such as Web 2.0 and social media (blogs, RSS, widgets, etc.). I will make sure to adopt a Multi-Channel Marketing Model and communicate a single brand message about my hotel across all channels, both online and offline. The shift from more expensive to less expensive distribution channels has become the norm in hospitality. I understand that lessening my hotel’s dependence on higher cost channels and driving more revenues through my hotel’s website should become the main objective of my 2008 marketing budget.

3. I will take a hard look at how Best Industry Practices are being utilized in my hotel Internet marketing strategies and by the hotel Internet marketing vendors. I know that now, after almost 13 years since the first online hotel booking, best practices have been established in practically every aspect of hotel Internet marketing. I do not want my Internet marketing vendors to “learn the business on my dime”. I know the Internet is my hotel’s most important revenue channel and I will no longer rely on biased advice from vendors, interactive agencies, web hosting and design companies, or vendors that “keep me in the dark.” I will make it my mission to acquire new core competencies and adopt best industry practices by partnering with leading hospitality experts in Internet distribution and marketing strategies.

4. I will take a hard look at my Internet assets and adopt a robust Website Re-Design and Optimization Strategy this year. I know that the hotel website has become the “first point of contact” with the overwhelming majority of hotel customers and I don’t want a visit to my hotel website to turn out to be the “last point of contact” with this potential customer. I understand that a branding interaction occurs anytime an Internet user lands on my website. I also know that this branding interaction can be: positive (brand-building), or negative (brand-eroding) and I will do everything possible to build a positive brand presence and recognition on the Web. I also know that 71.9% of my peers believe website optimization generates the highest ROI’s, and the second highest portion of the budget should be allocated to this activity (2007 HeBS Benchmark Survey).By adopting a comprehensive Website Re-Design and Optimization Strategy I will aim to enhance my hotel website’s user-friendliness, search engine-friendliness, travel booker-friendliness, and interactive relationship-friendliness. This strategy will deal with the issues important for turning lookers into bookers (conversion rates), improving search engine rankings, and boosting ROIs.

5. I will consider a robust Web 2.0/Social Media Strategy as part of my comprehensive Direct Internet marketing strategy. I understand that the new Web 2.0/Social Media environment has forever changed the way customers plan and purchase travel and access information. I also know how customers perceive credibility of information and that there is an “Ideological Clash” between official content on the hotel website vs. consumer generated content (e.g. customer reviews). I want to listen to what my customers are saying. I know that I can gain unfiltered insights into the customer experience, and by monitoring sites that contain reviews and comments about my property I can immediately address any issues and act appropriately. On the other hand I know that I can establish interactive relationships with my customers via corporate-sponsored Web 2.0/Social Media initiatives, such as blogs and consumer experience and photo sharing. I also know that as a smart hotel marketer I can utilize the various types and formats of social media to promote my hotel’s products and services, and will make Web 2.0/Social Media a line item in the Internet advertising budget.

6. I will continue making the Direct Internet Marketing and Distribution Strategy the centerpiece of my Internet strategy, because I know it provides my hotel company with long-term competitive advantages and will lessen my dependence on intermediaries, discounters and traditional channels that are expensive or about to become obsolete. I know that the leading hospitality brands already enjoy a very healthy 85:15 or even 90:10 direct vs. indirect online distribution ratio, and the Direct Online Channel sales will exceed 62% for the industry as a whole in 2008. I will maintain strict rate parity across all marketing channels and maintain a best rate guarantee, and create unique product offerings designed to provide a unique value proposition to my customers. I will employ a comprehensive Direct Online Channel strategy to encourage, entice, and convert lookers into bookers on my own website. I know that only a comprehensive Internet marketing strategy can significantly increase my direct online sales and shift bookings from more expensive distribution channels to the least expensive channel—my hotel website.

7. I will design my hotel marketing strategy to provide Unique Value Proposition to my customers. I will create unique hotel offers based on unique product attributes. I will stop competing on price only. I know that I will never be able to attract and retain more sophisticated travel shoppers and more affluent customers if I compete on price alone. I understand that the third-party online intermediaries have been responsible to a great extent for the commoditization of the hotel product and services. I will work hard against any further commoditization of my hotel product and services. I will identify unique aspects of my hotel product and destination, and develop a differentiated approach to reach my key customer segments by creating unique specials and packages, event-related getaways, and seasonal promotions. I will launch one-to-one marketing initiatives to provide unique value and personalization.

8. I will embrace Electronic Customer Relationship Management (e-CRM) as part of my hotel’s 2007 strategic objectives and develop programs and action steps to address all main e-CRM aspects: knowing your customer, customer service in this interactive age, personalization, one-to-one eMarketing, and building customer loyalty. I will continue building interactive relationships with my customers. In this new online environment I don’t just want to provide great service to my guests, I want to “own” the customer throughout the travel planning and decision making cycle and not allow the third-party online intermediaries to own my customers. I will focus on building customer loyalty via reward programs and other eCRM initiatives, via product differentiation (offering unique value proposition; de-commoditization of the hotel product), and via customer differentiation (know your customer, personalization, reward programs).I will make it my mission this year to build mutually beneficial interactive relationships with my customers in order to increase repeat business, boost revenues, and retain loyalty.

9. I will make it my mission in 2008 to implement state-of-the-art Website Analytics and Campaign Tracking Functionality on my hotel’s website. I understand how important it is to track real time ROIs from website and Internet marketing campaigns, and educate myself on what works and what does not. I will no longer accept basic or “free” analytical tools that do not provide me with the full picture of traffic-conversions-pathing behavior, or analytical tools that do not tell me how and why people find my website and book, as well as origins and demographics of visitors and bookers. I will know exactly which Internet marketing campaigns—search marketing, email marketing, display advertising, strategic linking, etc., produce bookings and revenues and at what ROI. I will demand from my Internet marketing vendor 24/7 access to such a state-of -the-art analytical tool, and it must be the leading industry tool used by the major hotel brands and industry players. I will demand my hotel website booking engine vendor supports such a website analytical tool. And if my current vendors cannot accommodate my hotel, I will replace them in a heartbeat. For my franchised hotel, I will demand 24/7 access to the analytical tool my hotel brand is using, and will seriously re-consider my future brand affiliations in case my current brand cannot provide me with access to real-time analytical data.

10. I will become a Smarter Internet Marketer in 2008. I will devote attention to professional development in Internet marketing for myself and my hotel staff. I will no longer be kept in the dark by outside vendors or misled by self-proclaimed Internet marketing gurus. I will stop working with Internet marketing vendors that do not care about my professional development or hide online marketing best practices and insights from me and my staff. I like to have a crystal-clear understanding of what are the best practices and latest trends in Internet marketing in hospitality. What works and what doesn’t and why. I recognize I don’t have all the answers and that there are thought leaders and other proven professionals who can help me and my company stay competitive in this highly dynamic online travel marketplace and generate the highest ROIs.I will work with Internet marketing experts to disseminate eKnowledge and best practices, making my team stakeholders in the corporate Internet marketing efforts. I will hire experts who can teach me and my staff best practices and keep us apprised of the latest trends. These Internet marketing practitioners will provide crucial professional development as well as guide our direct Internet marketing strategies, online brand building strategies, e-CRM, website re-design and optimization, search and email marketing, and Web 2.0 initiatives. From this day forward I will be in control. I will seek advice from an experienced Internet marketing hospitality consultancy to help me navigate the Internet and utilize the Direct Online Channel to its fullest potential. As I prepare for the year ahead, I will work with an experienced, strategy-oriented, ROI-centric and accountable hospitality Internet marketing firm, keeping in mind that my hotel website is my most cost-effective revenue channel.

Laura Stein: Leading ACC Into A Bright Future

2008-01-02T15:35:00.000-08:00

The Editor interviews Laura Stein , Chair of the Board, Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), and Senior Vice President - General Counsel, The Clorox Company.
Editor: Please describe your involvement with the Association of Corporate Counsel.
Stein: Shortly after I became an in-house lawyer at The Clorox Company in 1992, I joined ACC's San Francisco Bay Chapter. Clorox's corporate counsel have a long tradition of active involvement in ACC. Sarah Holt, ACC's first woman president, had previously been a Clorox lawyer. This history influenced my decision to join.
I joined ACC's National Board in 2001. I have done many things over the years with the board, such as interacting with the Pennsylvania Chapter when I was general counsel at the H.J. Heinz Company. I have been involved in ACC's activities relating to international legal affairs and the corporate and securities areas. In addition to being a past member of the Membership and Development committee, I've also chaired the Advocacy, Executive, Finance and Audit, and Services committees. In addition, I have previously served as Treasurer and Vice-Chair.
Editor: What is your role as ACC's 2008 Board Chair?
Stein: My primary responsibility is to lead the board as it sets the general direction of ACC. First and foremost, the board ensures that we are focused and committed to carrying out our mission "to promote the common professional business interests of the attorneys who are employed to practice law by corporations, associations, and other private sector organizations by developing and disseminating information, providing educational initiatives, facilitating networking opportunities, supporting collegiality and engaging in advocacy on behalf of the corporate counsel bar."
The Chair maintains a strong relationship with ACC generally, so I work closely with ACC President Fred Krebs and senior management on the overall direction of the Association. As we near the end of 2007, ACC can look back on a dynamic period of growth. We grew ten percent in the last year alone and we have more than 23,500 members. We anticipate having 25,000 members by year's end.
We have established ourselves as a global force with members in 48 chapters in 75 countries representing more than 10,000 organizations. In Europe alone, we have more than 950 members. We have made growth a priority in Canada, where we recently formed a chapter in Ontario - we currently have more than 400 in-house attorneys in Canada representing 144 organizations. Our growth is the result of the combined efforts and hard work of many people, including our members and sponsors, along with an intent focus on in-house issues.
Editor: What do you plan to emphasize during the coming year?
Stein: In 2008, advocacy initiatives will have high priority. We will place particular emphasis on protecting the attorney-client privilege. We are continuing our fight on the Akzo decision in Europe that denied the privilege to an in-house lawyer who was a member of the Dutch Bar. We are now working with Akzo on an appeal of that decision. Under the leadership of ACC's European Chapter President Tony Wales, the Association and its outside counsel from the Brussels office of Covington prepared and filed a brief in support of Akzo's appeal. This is part of ACC's efforts working with local and country bar associations to protect and expand the privilege as it applies to in-house lawyers throughout Europe. But our focus on the Akzo case does not mean we are letting down our guard here at home. We take on cases all the time in which we might file amicus briefs. Right now, we are working with our Pennsylvania Chapter to overturn a decision in Pennsylvania that threatens the in-house privilege.
We are really excited about the Veasey Report that provided anecdotal evidence to Congress of continuing efforts by prosecutors and regulators to curtail the privilege. We salute former Delaware Chief Justice Norman Veasey, who prepared that report. We are also excited about the House passage of H.R. 3013, the Attorney-Client Privilege Protection Act of 2007, which prohibits prosecutors from coercing a waiver of the attorney-client privilege. This is a significant victory in which ACC was very much involved.
Another privilege initiative is protecting the attorney-client privilege in connection with information provided to auditors. Tom Sabatino, the GC of Schering-Plough, has provided real leadership by chairing a blue ribbon panel of CLOs and audit company leaders who have issued their first report. In 2008, we will drill further to satisfy the concerns of auditors, while protecting privileged information
Judicial pay is an additional high-priority advocacy project. The Association has had a continuing concern that the compensation of judges, both federal and state, lags too far behind that available to lawyers with comparable talents in the private sector. While we recognize that pay parity is not realistic, we have gone on record with letters to Congress in support of compensation increases for federal judges that, at a minimum, assures they are making a wage that reflects cost of living increases. It is critical to encourage talented and experienced lawyers, including those with significant experience in corporate practice, to become judges. A strong judiciary assures the rule of law.
Another ACC advocacy initiative that really resonates is the national pro bono partnership project of ACC and the Pro Bono Institute. It has resulted in an expansion of in-house counsel work in the area of pro bono and now a new "Challenge" to departments and chapters to publicly announce their commitment. It is an effort that I am personally dedicated to continuing to develop and support.
In addition to our advocacy work, a high priority area for 2008 is our real "bread and butter" - our commitment to top-notch programming, events and legal resources for members. There has been some really innovative work done in that area. Specifically, we have launched an executive leadership institute and a mini-MBA program. We continue to provide opportunities for corporate counsel to meet with academics and other experts to consider important corporate issues in which corporate counsel play a role. ACC's CLO ThinkTanks bring together a select group of top CLOs in an intimate "deep dive" into controversial topics facing today's law departments. At a time of intense corporate budgetary pressures, we are working with key in-house leaders, including former ACC Board Chair Mike Roster, on the "law firm value proposition" and how we can support our members in addressing escalating outside counsel costs. We are also proud of our Corporate Legal Diversity Pipeline Program.
In our Legal Resources area, we are improving our Web presence with the re-launch of the ACC Web site in the first part of 2008. We will continue to emphasize our virtual Web casts, surveys and research to make sure that our membership is better equipped to fulfill their duties. There is much pressure on in-house lawyers and we want to be there to help them address challenges. Our Virtual Library is an excellent, easy to access resource that provides all types of forms, documentation and articles. Our goal is to continue to make those useful for our members. And, we continue to press the issue of multi-jurisdictional practice (MJP) and to provide resources to our members to navigate MJP issues, which is particularly important to corporate counsel. We are pushing a model rule to allow temporary MJP and to permit corporate counsel to practice full-time in any state their client wishes.
Ongoing priorities are our continued work with our chapters and committees, which is where we get our strength and vibrancy, and globalization. Not only is our membership growing in the U.S., Europe and Canada as we discussed, but we are also focusing our efforts on China and Israel.
Editor: What are your greatest challenges?
Stein: We are continually challenged to increase awareness of issues important to our members - the in-house counsel community. We believe we offer an excellent platform for our messages. The challenge is to use that platform as effectively as possible so that the voice of the in-house counsel community is heard in the broader community. We have done well, and with the resources we have, we know we can do even better.
Another challenge we face is increasing our membership, both at home and internationally. To continue building on the growth and success we have already achieved, we need to place greater emphasis on leveraging our infrastructure to spur further global growth.
Editor: What is the nature of ACC's relationship with the ABA?
Stein: There are a number of areas in which we work with the ABA's Business Law and Litigation sections, such as the privilege issue and other matters of relevance for our members. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the ABA because clearly it deals with issues that impact all lawyers.
Editor: What sets the Association of Corporate Counsel apart from other professional member organizations?
Stein: ACC is the voice of the in-house bar. We stand up for corporate counsel globally, and the issues that concern them most; whether it's before the courts, the media, government agencies, legislators or bar groups.
Editor: What does the Association have planned in the coming year?
Stein: Continuing our focus on providing resources for in-house counsel at every stage of their career. Our 2007 Annual Meeting in Chicago was a great success and a perfect example of the depth of ACC's legal resources. We had more than 3,200 attendees from 37 countries, surpassing all previous annual meetings. It was truly a wonderful way for us to celebrate our 25th anniversary! Looking ahead, we anticipate our 2008 Annual Meeting in Seattle to be even bigger and better. The meeting takes place October 19-22, 2008, and plans are well underway. There will be a stellar lineup of programs and speakers revolved around our theme, " I n-house, I nformed, I ndispensable," which describes the typical ACC member. We will have a Corporate Counsel University Program entitled "Europe 2008" in Amsterdam in March. It will focus on legal issues germane to in-house counsel practicing in Europe and further enhance our European Chapter's reputation as the leading European organization of in-house counsel. We also have the Annual Meeting for Europe in Madrid from June 1-3, 2008. If the milestones of our success in 2007 are any indication, these are sure to be wonderful events.
We will have a mini-MBA program in March 2008. This is a new program tailored to familiarize in-house counsel with management thinking and to provide training in financial and accounting concepts. We will also offer more CLO Think Tanks. I am helping to plan one that Mike Holston, the GC of Hewlett Packard, is going to be hosting on best practices related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Throughout the year, we plan similar events to bring CLOs together for in-depth discussions of other hot topics.
Editor: How has your position as Senior Vice President -General Counsel for The Clorox Company prepared you for this new role as ACC's Board Chair?
Stein: As Clorox's General Counsel and in my previous role as H.J. Heinz's General Counsel, I have worked closely with two corporate boards. I have also served on the boards of two large organizations, including one that I continue to serve on. This has given me experience and background that helps with my current role at ACC. Given the increased emphasis by ACC in serving corporate counsel throughout the world, my involvement with the corporate community globally, multiple language proficiencies and experience working in various countries lends itself to the global nature of ACC.

News for Women Entrepreneurs

2007-12-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

The Center for Women's Business Research is calling for women business owners to participate in a newly developed online survey research panel.
Center Executive Director Sharon Hadary said the new research vehicle, W-Biz Insight, will enable data to be published in days instead of months.
The center also is hosting a national symposium in May in Washington where it will release a study on business owners who are women of color and the barriers they face to business growth.
"We've learned a lot over the last two years about why owning a business is different for women of color - Asian, African American, Latino, and other ethnicities - compared to their Caucasian peers," said Hadary.
In other women's business news, the Rockville Economic Development Inc's 5th annual Start Right women's business competition is underway. The deadline for women entrepreneurs to enter the contest is Monday, Jan. 28. The contest is open to 51 percent women-owned businesses that operate in Maryland, Virginia or Washington for up to two years. The first prize is $10,000 and will be announced in March.
REDI is offering a seminar on Tuesday, Jan. 22 to help new entrepreneurs write their business plans. It will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at the Rockville Regional Library. More information can be found on the REDI Web site.

Web Host AIT Launches Last Minute Enterprise Server Sale

2007-12-24T15:32:00.000-08:00

Customers can save $100 off the monthly price of AIT’s Enterprise Hosting Solution.

December 24, 2007 (TopHosts News Brief) - Fayetteville, North Carolina-based Web hosting services provider AIT has launched a last minute sale for its Enterprise I Hosting Solution.
Customers can save $100 (USD) off the monthly price of the solution. The sale lasts until midnight on December 31. The offer applies to the 12-month prepaid plan for the Enterprise I server. The offer also includes bonus software. AIT is also cutting the price of its Business I and Reseller I hosting plans.
“For anyone that may have been thinking of moving to this solution, there’s no better time than now to act,” Bill Harrison, AIT’s Web Services Products Manager, said in a statement issued to the press. “This is such a deep discount that it cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers.”

The Utility Company releases Connected Office 3.0

2007-12-23T15:44:00.000-08:00

The Utility Company, an Ottawa-based single-source provider of technology, communications and business management solutions for small and medium-sized businesses across North America, has announced the latest enhancements to its Connected Office Technology-as-a-Service Program.
Connected Office 3.0 offers a single-source solution that is focused on the five main areas of technology for business: IT (network, desktop, security and storage), business applications, Web/Internet, copier/printer and telecommunications.
"Those are the five major categories that small and medium businesses spend money on and what we do is bring in this technology-as-a-service model for all of those things in a single source provider model through our franchisees in the markets we have across North America," said Mark Scott, president and founder of The Utility Company.
Connected Office 3.0 is available now and is priced on a per-user, per-month fixed fee. New features include the 1-866-My-Utility "Per Minute" usage-based help desk that proactively support users with secure remote access to network and desktops for on-demand service and training.
"A big challenge with engaging the SMB market is 80 to 90 per cent of them don't understand what you are talking about at the basic level or are somewhat disillusioned with technology," said Scott.
Other new features of Connected Office 3.0 include VoIP service monitoring for quality of service of on-premise systems; printer/copier (MFP) service monitoring for service automation of network availability, device print status, toner, meter reads and error codes; and comprehensive security management that is designed to protect SMB's data and infrastructure focusing on the big three exploitation points perimeter, remote access and end-users.
In terms of communications, Connected Office 3.0 added a hosted VoIP service that delivers small businesses with the benefits of VoIP at a fraction of the cost and complexity and web content management that makes it easy to update web presence including design, hosting and maintenance.
New business management features include a web-based fully integrated sales, marketing and customer relationship management solution. Additionally there is also web-based accounting and reporting that is fully integrated with the CRM system.
Connected Office 3.0 also features a virtualization service to determine the lifecycle of current on-premise infrastructure and virtual service options. As well, version 3.0 offers network and security assessment, emergency support, onsite maintenance and end-user training.
Another new feature includes Utility Meter Reading that looks at how companies spend money in what area and how good they leverage technology.
"The result of [the Utility Meter Reading] is that the average business spends $360 per user per month on technology and utilizes a very small fraction of that because of inefficiency and that's because a lot of those different channels out there are offering stove pipes or certain pieces of the pie," said Scott.
He added the new features of Connected Office 3.0 were in response to listening to input from its 40 franchises across North America and from its customers.
"What we hear time and time again from customers is they want to move towards more of a converged or consolidated supply chain and are starting to deal with a single source provider like us to reduce complexity in its customer infrastructure onsite."
In addition, the Connected Office 3.0 menu of services include Classic (à la carte), Managed and Utility service level options along with the following service bundles such as Connected Office SOHO that manages desktop for small office/home office users; Connected Office Network that manages network devices; Connected Office web for web content management; Connected Office VoIP that offers hosted a Voice-over-IP solution; and Connected Office Business, which is a hosted CRM/accounting software service.
In addition to Connected Office 3.0, The Utility Company is also launching Beyond Managed Services 3.0 in early January. Beyond Managed Services 3.0 is a business model that leverages what the company calls "channel franchising" to aggregate the MSP market into the first national single-source technology provider in North America for SMBs. There are three levels to the program: BMS Entrepreneur is for technology sales and service professionals looking for a complete business-in-a-box to enter and prosper in managed services; BMS Affiliate is for value-added resellers (VAR) in IT and vertical channels that want an alternative to do-it-yourself managed service programs; and BMS Select is for managed service providers (MSP) that are looking to become a single-source provider and someday monetize their business.
As well, launching in the end of January is The Utility Company's Powered By Utility program that provides large resellers, telcos and retailers with the ability to re-sell its Connected Office portfolio as SKU-able managed services to their SMB customer base.

ENTREPRENEURS - To Protect and Server

2007-12-22T16:06:00.000-08:00

Here’s a story Drew Kaplan tells to show the benefits of keeping a server at a separate, outside location. During his run for governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t keep the computer equipment handling his campaign website at his office because it wouldn’t have been able to handle the traffic. “He would have flooded the connection,” Kaplan said. Being a muscular former actor running for state office isn’t necessary to get the same service at ISWest, the Agoura Hills company Kaplan co-founded and now heads.Started in 1996 as an Internet service provider, the business-to-business co-location service took off for ISWest in recent years as more companies took the cost-effective route of outsourcing its information technology infrastructure. Why have internal IT departments with thousands of dollars of equipment and the accompanying thousands of dollars in electric bills when ISWest is willing to do it instead?The reasons businesses come to ISWest vary, including server and website hosting, and as backup for disaster recovery. Some publicly-traded companies are required by Sarbanes-Oxley (the federal accounting reform act of ’02) to keep their data at a neutral site. Serving its varied customer base resulted in the company being named on fastest growing private companies lists by the Business Journal, Inc. magazine and professional services firm Deloitte. Its own feedback also shows the company is on the right track.A survey done last year of customers asked if they would recommend ISWest to business associated resulted in a 93.6 percent saying they would. “We took that as satisfied customers,” Kaplan said. Toby Scott, a partner at Ventura County Computers, has recommended ISWest to a number of its clients.“We have a mutual customer we introduced to them that has three servers over there,” Scott said. Cabinets, cages, and 200 tons of A/C equipmentSleek black cabinets and cages fill the recently completed data center in Agoura Hills. That wasn’t always the case. The early years of the co-location service was putting hard drives side by side on a shelf bought at a Home Depot. Only later, as the company grew, did the cages and cabinets arrive and lend a professional appearance. With the high tech look and all the security in place, stepping into the ISWest data center is akin to being on the deck of the Starship Enterprise, said Jeff Sherman, the owner and manager of Arcadia Web Service. At his website design and hosting company in Ojai, the server is the biggest asset and Sherman cannot afford to have something go wrong with it. “It makes me feel comfortable that it’s not being stored in someone’s garage,” Sherman said. The new data center is made necessary by the existing center, also in Agoura Hills, filling to capacity. Its design takes advantage of every redundancy possible – two power sources, with two generators and two transformers.A biometric scan is necessary to enter the room, cooled by more than 200 tons of air conditioning equipment and protected by a fire detection system sniffing the air for combustible materials and automatically alerting the fire department when it detects something.While the server hosting drives the growth for ISWest, internet service still accounts for about half the business. Connectivity is provided through DSL lines, T1 lines, and bundled T1 lines that give faster speed without the use of fiber optics. ISWest becomes the conduit between the telecomm provider and the business customer using the service.There is a benefit to being both the ISP and the co-location, Kaplan said, as the connection between the customer and their servers becomes a direct private line that never hits the Internet.Growth through acquisitionA strategy of acquisition grew ISWest’s customer base for much of its existence. Between 1998 and 2004, the company bought out six other ISP in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. That strategy was the quickest way of adding new customers as the purchased companies were not profitable or had no market penetration.“We could benefit from the quick growth and make it profitable right away with the economies of scale,” Kaplan said. Both Sherman and Scott ended up as clients as a result of the buyouts.Sherman, in fact, had some reservations about ISWest taking over his former service provider until a face-to-face meeting with co-founder Robert Johnson calmed those fears. That personal service shown by Johnson continues to this day.“While they have grown bigger and bigger I have never felt like I was just another number to them,” Sherman said. When the switch over to ISWest took place for Scott his server was down for the time it took to drive the equipment from Ventura to Agoura Hills. “They had me up in no time at all,” Scott said.With consolidation reaching its peak, the company now shifts its strategy to using an inside sales force to bring in new customers. Previous tries at using sales people had never worked because the company lacked the right person to lead the sales team, Kaplan said. Several months ago, Joey Cary was hired as the new vice president of sales and marketing to build the sales force. Cary’s experience and track record make him the right person to tackle that job, Kaplan said. Solidifying an internal sales force will help meet Kaplan’s goal of making ISWest into a $50 million company with more data centers serving its customers. Getting there will likely result in more recognition as a fast growing company. The growth the company has already seen, however, has never been unmanageable.Kaplan credits that to the methodology of the business decision process that has the management team staying ahead of the growth.By adding people and equipment ahead of time the future workload can more easily be absorbed. “The worst thing is to have an unhappy customer because we can’t handle what we’ve got,” Kaplan said.

Okay data center

2007-12-21T15:50:00.000-08:00

We have a web hosting company in the San Francisco bay area. We used XO communications because their sales person was professional and provided a very good deal at the time. This was nearly 4 years ago.We were treated very nicely. The data center folks were definitely courteous, professional and provided the service as expected. We had initial routing issues when setting up but it was resolved within the same day. We had a committed connection of 10 Mbps with a 42U cabinet with 20 AMP power circuit. Everything ran as expected and we were happy for the last 3.5 years. However, all is well, does not end well. In the last 6 months, we have had to fight XO on nearly everything. XO initially quoted us $$$$ for the colo fees. This contract should not have been open-ended and the prices should have remained the same. However, due to their lack of understanding power consumption, they misquoted us and we were forced to pay $$$ in addition to our colo fees. This happened in July. So, we complied and began to pay the new fees, despite the fact that we had agreed to a lower fee upon contract agreement. I asked them where I signed the dotted line (me being in charge of this) that would allow them to increase the fees without our agreement. They could not answer; in addition, I did not sign anything to that degree. I left that one go...SeptemberWe requested remote hands reboot of a server with the label SERVER-L23. The customer service rep on the phone evidently heard us incorrectly and did not confirm the server hostname. This caused the data center technician to not reboot the server for 2 hours. While we should have been on top of this, we remained oblivious to the fact that they hadn't rebooted the server, thus it remained down for duration of 2 hours. When we confronted the technician and asked her (Monica) to explain why she did not follow-up, she replied with: "I want to let you know that I couldn't find the server with that label, and I'm the only one in the data center right now"Okay, so I can understand why she couldn't find the server hostname despite the fact that: A. ALL servers are labeled clearly with a label maker on the front and backB. That was the ONLY server name that had the letter "L" and number "23"But what I don't understand is why in the world, an entire data center is using one technician, and one that's not very competent...I asked their manager of the data center to explain why this happened. Oh wait, their data center manager in Fremont, ca is actually in Irvine, Ca. Unaware of what really happens in Fremont (200 miles away). I asked her for a credit on the downtime, but that fell on heavy ears.OctoberWe requested a power cycle of a host named SERVER-WVPS10. The customer service rep on the phone recorded SERVER-WETS10 and didn't confirm on the phone. I can understand that mistake. The data center technician took 1 hour to get to the server, and then rebooted the wrong server, named SERVER-W10. Now, I can understand if you're busy and can't get to the server seeing how they only have one person in the entire data center. What I don't understand is that there is no server named SERVER-WETS10 so why in the world would this person reboot SERVER-W10, when it wasn't even the right one to begin with. To that end, he rebooted a database server that caused replication to break, the cluster to break and the database locks to be defunct, all leading to data loss. Again, this is all despite the fact that: A. ALL servers are labeled clearly with a label maker on the front and backB. That was the ONLY server name that had the letter "WVPS"But I guess the number 10 caused the idiot to get confused...When I asked their manager why this happened, she just ignored my emails and calls. I asked for a credit on this incident and nothing happened. NovemberTheir entire data center goes dark for a whole hour. Our servers fail; we lose uptime for an entire hour and not to mention that we had to run a series of diags to fix broken server software, etc. When we asked them for credit, we were told that "the network was down for a minute". Umm... I just spoke to the Seagate admin regarding this and they got a credit for this. So what gives XO?DecemberTheir entire datacenter losses network and all cooling function. This causes the temp to rise close to 100 degrees. We had to shutdown all machine really quickly. A whole 2 hours later and we were back up again. 2 of our core virtual servers were defunct after boot up and it took us nearly 10 hours to recover, answer emails, phone calls and issues refunds for the outage. We also lost close to 10 well paying customers in the duration.They finally admitted to their fault and gave us credit for this one. Suffice to say, we have terminated our contract with them and are in the middle of moving away. They're currently trying to get us to pay $$$$ for the past invoices but we refuse on the counts of incidents above. So, if you want to spare yourself from the headache and agony of dealing with this sort of issue, please don't sign-up with XO.On a final note, when we spoke with our sales person, he mentioned that we were a profitable customer. Yet despite our numerous efforts to get them to realize that they were going to lose a “profitable” customer, they chose to ignore our emails, phone calls and complaints. I guess that’s the XO business model.

Web Host HostICan Upgrades VPS Plans

2007-12-20T16:29:00.000-08:00

The Web host's VPS-Rage hosting plan, which runs cPanel/WHM, will expand from 30GB of hard disk space to 45GB.
Meanwhile, the VPS-Extreme plan will increase from 60GB to 90GB, which HostICan says will make it one of the largest VPS plans on the market.
"While shared hosting services have been upgrading their hosting plans, sometimes with extravagant claims that cannot be supported, the VPS market has been quite stagnant in its approach to value," says Denis Motova, affiliate and operations manager for HostICan. "With our upgraded plans, our new customers can enjoy more memory and hard drive storage, while paying less for both."

Hostway powers Verizon web hosting service for SMBs

2007-12-19T16:36:00.000-08:00

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Carlyle part of team buying Spanish Web hosting firm

2007-12-18T15:18:00.000-08:00

The Carlyle Group and another private equity firm have reached an agreement to acquire Arsys, a Spanish provider of Web hosting and domain registration services, for about $230 million.
D.C.-based Carlyle, a private equity firm with more than $75 billion under management, and Madrid, Spain-based Mercapital will equally invest to buy majority ownership in Logroño, Spain-based Arsys. The founders of Arsys will retain a minority stake in the company.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval, Carlyle said in a statement.
Arsys has more than 550,000 domains registered, 170,000 clients and 250 employees.
Fernando Chueca, an associate director with Carlyle, said in the firm's statement that Arsys "has huge potential" and is in an "exciting sector."

Web Hosting Q and A: Five Questions With FastNext

2007-12-16T16:49:00.000-08:00

TH: What challenges did you face entering the market in 2006 and how successful has FastNext been in overcoming them?
SR: Back in 2006, the Web hosting market was very competitive and competitors came to market almost daily it seemed. But providing quality services is not enough when no one knows your company as yet. So our challenge was to distinguish our services from the hosting giants and other well-known hosts.
We entered the marked as a “true multidomain” hosting provider. We designed MultiManager control panel to create full-featured domains. We developed customer-oriented reseller offerings. We implemented new technologies and served clients 25 hours a day. And it works! We’ve got pretty good customer feedback and were recommended as a reliable provider in various forum and chat reviews. Not bad results since 2006.
TH: Tell us about major victories or milestones the company has achieved so far and what accomplishments/goals you have in mind for 2008.
SR: We are about to extend the product portfolio and offer our clients Web design services. Our existing customers often ask for help with design and “Webmastering”. By the way, we started providing dedicated server hosting also by customers’ requests.
As for the goals for 2008, we’ll keep infrastructure development in mind. We’d like to scale up customer services and provide multi-language customer support. We’ll keep on improving business development and services…for this the sky’s the limit!
TH: You’ve spoken about the benefits of clustered hosting. How successful has FastNext been in making customers aware of the value in these services and how is customer adoption so far? Is this a growth area for the company?
SR: You know, Cliff, we always do our best to provide most progressive solutions to our customers. Money and investments dictate our plans at times. But online projects are treated more seriously now than it was in the ’90s. We just offered clustered hosting as an option and it’s getting traction. Our Web pages describe what clustered hosting is and what it’s needed for. If someone needs extra information, our support administrators, customer service and community forums are available round-the-clock.
TH: FastNext’s EasyStart Reseller program was recently introduced. How pleased are you with the market reaction so far? What other programs are in development?
SR: This program was developed to help those people, who would like to start hosting, but don’t know what to begin with. Our EasyStart plan allows one to create and host unlimited domains for only $3.95 a month. It has cPanel and WHM access with Fantastico and RVSkin plus dozens of other awesome features. This package set resellers’ minds free, because they don’t need to stew how to get high-end servers and suitable software. We just make the start easy!
Besides reseller hosting we provide dedicated server hosting as well, as I mentioned previously. So our new programs will address this product group. For instance, our gaming server offerings are coming soon.
TH: FastNext has an excellent backup system in place for its client base. Are customers scrutinizing this service more these days in light of certain natural disasters and security breaches? Would you be considering an online backup service offering in the future based on strong customer response to backups in general?

Web Hosting Provider Infrenion Networks Announces BoonEx-Dolphin 6.0 on Shared and Reseller Servers

2007-12-14T03:48:00.000-08:00

December 14, 2007 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Web hosting provider Infrenion Networks(http://www.infrenion.com/) has announced the inclusion of BoonEx-Dolphin 6.0 on its shared and reseller servers, it was reported recently. The company, who specializes in providing FFmpeg (sometimes knows as “YouTube Clone”) services, suggests the Dolphin web community script is a “universal software package that allows one to build any kind of online community”. According to the company, Boonex Dolphin Ver 6.0 provides functionalities similar to YouTube, MySpace, Odeo, Flickr, Match and Facebook. It is fully customizable and as an Open Source solution, it is free, although there is a charge if links to the solution developers’ website are to be removed. Support for PHPmotion, Clipshare, Socialmedia, and Rayzz is also available through the company.Infrenion Networks offers a range of web hosting services including shared web hosting, reseller hosting, domain name registration, SSL certificates, and FFmpeg hosting. The company has servers hosted in the United States and the United Kingdom.

IX Web Hosting Launches New Offerings

2007-12-12T15:47:00.000-08:00

December 12, 2007 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Web hosting provider IX Web Hosting (ixwebhosting.com), a subsidiary of Ecommerce Corp. (ecommerce.com), announced on Wednesday that is has expanded its Marketing Center with some new offers.

After launching $486 worth of free marketing in the form of ad coupons and a SitePal offering in the past, IX Web Hosting is now providing a free ringtone offer from Jamster as well as a free one-year subscription of Practical Ecommerce Magazine. The IX Marketing Center currently hosts several other services including a 250 business card offering from VistaPrint as well as other free website magazine offers.
"Our aim in offering these services is to allow our customers and visitors to have the seamless all-in-one experience for their online needs," says Jack Death, executive vice president of IX Web Hosting. "Whether it's knowledge they seek, or just a fun time, we have them all in our Marketing Center."
Ecommerce Corp. recently licensed the CM4all WebsiteCreator Business Edition to integrate into IX Web Hosting and its other subsequent Web hosting brand, Host Excellence.

Internal Combustion Web Hosting Model

2007-12-11T16:01:00.000-08:00

HostedToday recently announced it had acquired TheGreatHostingCompany. I tracked down HostedToday owner Rodney Ringler, or was it the owner of RoundBerry? Or the person who owns HostChart.com? All the same Mr. Ringler. He is an unabashed self promoter, nothing wrong with that.Rodney confirmed one of my hosting theories, the internal combustion model. He has several brands, all competing with each other, all about the same price point, all answered by the same customer service staff. Sounds synergistic.Combined Ringler’s four hosting brands serve about 10,000 accounts, the recent acquisition of TheGreatHosting Company added about 200 accounts. But it was for a friend and it got him a press release.With internal combustion you spread your bets with several brands, if a potential customer does not like brand "A" maybe they will like brand "B". Same type servers, same data center, same staff but different skins. Many web host firms do this.As I have told other hosting firms, he should add some high-octane to the mix. Why have your top price at $24.95 as the RoundBerry shared Corporate… when your new brand “OpiumHost” (I made that up) can have basic corporate “red line” hosting for $49.95 – and expanded shared hosting plans up to $185.00. Many buyers like to pay more, it is obviously better. Same type servers, same data center, same staff but different skin. Yes much higher margins.Not only do you make more money, when you go to sell your conglomerate you have pushed up your average rate. Higher average rates will command a higher price and make your firm easier to sell.

Web Hosting Provider DiscountASP.NET Integrates Microsoft CardSpace with ASP.NET Control Panel

2007-12-08T16:22:00.000-08:00

December 8, 2007 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Web hosting provider DiscountASP.NET (http://www.discountasp.net) has integrated Microsoft CardSpace with their ASP.NET control panel, it was announced recently. The beta launch of Microsoft CardSpace integration enables customers with Internet Explorer 7 and CardSpace on their local computer to use personal Information Cards for password-free login to their hosting control panel. The move replaces traditional username and password authentication and helps users better manage their digital identities while shielding them “from various forms of identity attacks, such as phishing or brute force password attacks”. To access the function, DiscountASP.NET’s customers log into their hosting control panel and “bind” their InfoCard to their account using an Information Card Binding feature. “The Control Panel CardSpace integration serves two main purposes. First, especially with the recent introduction of .NET 3.5 hosting, we wanted to demonstrate the use of new .NET 3.x technology,” explained DiscountASP.NET’s VP Marketing, Mr. Takeshi Eto. “Second, we wanted to give our customers the opportunity to provide feedback on CardSpace during this early stage as Microsoft works toward delivering on their vision for an Identity Metasystem.”DiscountASP.NET is a Microsoft Windows-based shared hosting provider offering ASP.NET hosting and SQL database hosting. The company is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner, and was one of the first hosts to launch ASP.NET 3.5 hosting, IIS7 beta hosting, and ASP.NET AJAX hosting.
More web hosting news for Saturday, December 08, 2007

Web Hosting Provider LeaseWeb Awarded Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Status

Web Hosting Provider SiteGround Offers Original Christmas Promotion

Web Hosting Provider WebFaction Upgrades Plans and Launches New Website