danielsaltman

February 20, 2010

Hype alert: Why cyberspace isn't, and will never be, nirvana

After two decades online, I'm perplexed. It's not that I haven't had a gas of a good time on the Internet. I've met great people and even caught a hacker or two. But today, I'm uneasy about this most trendy and oversold community. Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libraries and multimedia classrooms. They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities. Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems. And the freedom of digital networks will make government more democratic.

Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.

Consider today's online world. The Usenet, a worldwide bulletin board, allows anyone to post messages across the nation. Your word gets out, leapfrogging editors and publishers. Every voice can be heard cheaply and instantly. The result? Every voice is heard. The cacophany more closely resembles citizens band radio, complete with handles, harrasment, and anonymous threats. When most everyone shouts, few listen. How about electronic publishing? Try reading a book on disc. At best, it's an unpleasant chore: the myopic glow of a clunky computer replaces the friendly pages of a book. And you can't tote that laptop to the beach. Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure.

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What the Internet hucksters won't tell you is tht the Internet is one big ocean of unedited data, without any pretense of completeness. Lacking editors, reviewers or critics, the Internet has become a wasteland of unfiltered data. You don't know what to ignore and what's worth reading. Logged onto the World Wide Web, I hunt for the date of the Battle of Trafalgar. Hundreds of files show up, and it takes 15 minutes to unravel them–one's a biography written by an eighth grader, the second is a computer game that doesn't work and the third is an image of a London monument. None answers my question, and my search is periodically interrupted by messages like, “Too many connectios, try again later.”

Won't the Internet be useful in governing? Internet addicts clamor for government reports. But when Andy Spano ran for county executive in Westchester County, N.Y., he put every press release and position paper onto a bulletin board. In that affluent county, with plenty of computer companies, how many voters logged in? Fewer than 30. Not a good omen.

Point and click:
Then there are those pushing computers into schools. We're told that multimedia will make schoolwork easy and fun. Students will happily learn from animated characters while taught by expertly tailored software.Who needs teachers when you've got computer-aided education? Bah. These expensive toys are difficult to use in classrooms and require extensive teacher training. Sure, kids love videogames–but think of your own experience: can you recall even one educational filmstrip of decades past? I'll bet you remember the two or three great teachers who made a difference in your life.

 

http://www.newsweek.com/id/106554

December 23, 2009

Hah, hacker cracks kindle

December 21, 2009

ATT has really bad service

Filed under: Tech — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — briannieves1988 @ 5:38 pm

AT&T

AT&T's De la Vega is getting in trouble for saying that they want to find ways to discourage people from using their data plans. It turns out that AT&T's data network is overloaded and rather than fix the problem, they think punishing their users will help.

As an AT&T customer, it makes me sick.

As an ex-AT&T employee, it just reminds me of why I was so happy to leave.

This is what you get for having salespeople run the company instead of engineers. Engineers would have budgeted for appropriate growth to match customer growth.

AT&T's mindset is that bandwidth is scarce. Every bit is so impossibly costly that it must be measured, counted, monitored, and charged for. On my first day as an employee I had to watch a 30 minute video that did nothing but explain that I can't make a single personal phone call from the office; it looked like it has been made when phone calls were still $3/minute. Don't waste their precious, precious bandwidth.

Bandwidth was expensive for the first 100 years of their history, but it certainly isn't true now. What made the internet great was thinking in terms of plenty, not scarcity.

I remember when “the web” (HTTP) was new. A friend at a different division of AT&T told me their engineers were fearful of HTTP and didn't want it to catch on because their network could never handle such a graphic-rich system (this was 1992 or 1993). I couldn't figure out why they weren't thinking, “Yeah! An opportunity to sell more bandwidth!” If you sell apples, don't you want to freely distribute apple pie recipes? If you sell paint don't you want to encourage everyone to repair their house? Ugh. If AT&T was selling bacon they'd be encouraging everyone to become a vegan.

At the time UUNET (the first commercial ISP) was giving away free Usenet feeds (at this time this was a HUGE amount of bandwidth) and paying people to develop open source Usenet software: all to make it easier for people to need more bandwidth. I thought UUNET's way was much smarter.

It also annoyed me, as an employee, that AT&T kept acting as if Moore's Law didn't exist. This is odd because the Moore revealed this observation during a presentation at AT&T's Bell Labs. Maybe they have to remember that Nielsen's Law makes similar claims about bandwidth. Pushed on by cheaper electronics, bandwidth gets cheaper too.

The biggest innovations in computing have come from brashly using more resources, usually slightly ahead of the supply curve. Textual user interfaces were a “waste of CPU” when first seen by batch computing people. Graphical user interfaces were a “waste of CPU” at first, but now it is what enables billions of people to use computers. RAID was a “waste of disk” but now I would never build a server without it.

The other attitude that I saw at AT&T was sheer shock and surprise that anything changes. “What? We built this thing for our customer base and… there are more customers a year later? They want new features? How could anyone have expected that?” Combine that with an intentional ignorance of Moore's Law and you have a disaster.

A disaster called AT&T.

Yes, AT&T, you have the best selling phone. People use it for data more than voice. The data apps are what make it such a success. Why do I get the feeling that when you negotiated with Apple you thought, “Sure, we'll throw in flat-rate data plans… it isn't like anyone is going to use that stuff!”

Are you still thinking that the internet is a “fad” like CEO Robert Allen?

My AT&T/iPhone contract is over in a few months. Maybe when it ends I should help De la Vega's bandwidth problem by not using his network at all.

P.S. I have a lot of pent up anger bout my AT&T service because twice a day as I take the train from Bloomfield, NJ to New York City and back I am faced with dead-spots at key locations such as the Secaucus transfer station, Watsessing Ave, and others locations along the way. It is frustrating to be on the train and see other passengers using Verizon and T-Mobile able to talk on their phone (and I presume surf the web) at all the points that I can't. It is my twice-a-day reminder to leave AT&T that I could be doing better with a different vendor.

Although made official a while ago, the HTC HD2 is still making waves. The hot Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone hasn’t been released in the USA yet but that’s not the only market still missing HTC’s flagship WinMo phone.

According to rumors and leaked ROMs, the U.S. version of the HD2 is coming from T-Mobile USA. The phone is scheduled to arrive at some point in the first quarter of next year so don’t go off buying that other Windows Mobile 6.5 phone that comes with a 1GHz processor, the LG eXpo, just yet. Naturally nobody from T-Mobile or HTC will confirm any of this so we will have to rely on leaked HD2 ROM filled with T-Mobile content.

Now if you live in India and want the same phone, you’re not going to be thrilled to hear that some smart people discovered in a ROM version what carrier will launch the HTC HD2 in the USA. But you will be particularly interested to hear that Tata DoCoMo has gone ahead and launch the HTC HD2 in India.

Tata DoCoMo is a new GSM carrier launched by Tata Group and Japan-based NTT DoCoMo. The phone will be available for prices varying from around $790 to $855 depending on the region you live in.

Sure the HTC HD2 seems expensive but it’s a handset worth paying extra for. The phone comes with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, a 4.3-inch WVGA touchscreen display with multitouch support, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, 3.5mm headset jack, HTC Sense UI and Windows Mobile 6.5 running in the background.

As you can see folks, India is going to get the hot smartphone before the U.S. but fear not, the HD2 is going to come your way too. On the other hand, by the time T-Mobile does release the HTC HD2 in the USA, some hotter Windows Mobile 6.5 phone might get launched. What do you say? Is it worth waiting for the device?

Robinho looks set to stay at Manchester City for another six months at least after the Barcelona president, Joan Laporta, today ruled out a move for the Brazilian during the winter transfer window. The player had made no secret of his desire to join the Catalans, but Laporta revealed that Barcelona's bid, made when they met representatives from the Premier League club in Abu Dhabi, was rejected. He insists that there is no plan to sign anyone during January – unless City's stance changes over the next month.

“We're happy with our squad and if we have to make any slight alteration we will do so,” the Barcelona president said. “Our offer for Robinho was not accepted and with the team we have, barring any unexpected last minute changes, we will not be signing during the winter .”

Barcelona have been discouraged from making a sizeable offer by the performance of their emerging youth team players. Pedro completed a unique record of having scored in every single competition in 2009 by adding a World Club Championships goal to go with strikes in the league, Champions League, Copa del Rey and Spanish and European Super Cups. He scored the 89th minute equaliser in the final of the World Club Championships against Estudiantes. And, as Barcelona chased the game, coach Pep Guardiola also replaced Thierry Henry with another Barcelona B player, Jeffren Suárez.

Robinho has publicly courted a move to Camp Nou, even as he has insisted that his future lies in City's hands. He admitted: “Of course I would like to play for Barcelona, who wouldn't? We could really enjoy ourselves. It would be a pleasure to play alongside Messi, my compatriot Alves, Xavi, Iniesta, Ibrahimovic, everyone. They are a great team. I have played against them and I know all about their quality. But until now I have only been able to play with them on the PlayStation.

“Pep Guardiola's side is truly spectacular. It is an honour that a coach like Guardiola speaks highly of me, for him to rate me as highly as I have read that he does. I genuinely appreciate it, from the bottom of my heart.”

Meanwhile, Laporta has also said that Gerard Piqué is poised to extend his contract with Barcelona beyond its current end date in 2012.

“He deserves it,” said Laporta of the defender. “He is one of the best in the world in his position.”

The 22-year-old began his Barcelona career at the age of 10 and later spent three seasons at Manchester United and one term on loan at Real Zaragoza before returning to the Catalan capital where he was a key part of last year's treble-winning side.

Following an order by Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Head of the Home Civil Service,
the quarterly details of all expenses incurred by senior officials and
non-executive members of departmental boards must be published online, along
with the hospitality they have enjoyed.

The first documents published by the Department for the Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs – which is meant to “secure a healthy environment” by reducing
carbon emissions and making efficient use of resources – show that its
senior civil servants do not always use “green” modes of travel.

Bob Watson, the ministry’s chief scientific adviser, took nine flights in six
months this year.

He flew to Helsinki, New York, New Zealand, Washington DC, Beijing, Cape Town,
Edinburgh and Madrid between April and September.

His three-day trip to China in July to attend a meeting of the “China-UK
Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network” cost £3,664.

His week-long visit to South Africa later the same month, to chair an
“International Ad-Hoc Technical Expert Group Meeting” cost £5,387. A note on
his file states that the £5,001 flight was the only one available.

Meanwhile Helen Ghosh, the department’s Permanent Secretary, took the 63-mile
journey from Bedford to Oxford by road, costing £249.60, in order to speak
at a school.

Moira Wallace, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Energy and Climate
Change, charged taxpayers £8,157 for the use of an official car between
April and June. Her file notes that the contract is “now terminated”.

Peter Betts, an Acting Director General, claimed £3,944 for a flight to a
meeting in Mexico in June and a further £79 for taxis.

The Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport, Robert Devereux spent
£37,278 on an official car in six months.

Mike Mitchell, the director general of National Networks, spent £242 in three
months on taxis for meetings in London, many of them to events associated
with public transport.

He was driven to Willesden train depot, a Network Rail Event, a High Speed
Rail conference and a Rail Awards dinner along with London Transport awards
and the launch of the Greyhound bus service in Britain. In the previous
three months, Mr Mitchell spent £138 on cars and taxis.

Bronwyn Hill, the director general city and regional networks took a taxi to
the National Transport Awards in July, which were held at a Park Lane hotel
in February.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Wherever practicable officials
must use public transport unless inefficient in terms of cost or official
time. Board members have very demanding schedules which can often only be
met through the use of private transportation.”

Prof Dame Sally Davies, Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department of Health,
claimed £2,722 for a flight to St Lucia to attend a Caribbean Health
Research Council meeting in April. Despite this, her file declares a
“contribution to air fare” from the council, as well as free accommodation.

At the Department for Children, Schools and Families, David Bell, the
Permanent Secretary, claimed £369.83 for one night’s accommodation in London
in April because of “operational requirements”.

In July he spent £112 on an early-morning flight to Newquay.

Between April and September he claimed £43,612 for the use of an “official
secure car”.

Professor John Beddington, the Government’s chief scientific officer, claimed
£10,352 for flights for a three-day official trip to Washington, San Diego
and San Francisco in May. He claimed another £267 for accommodation and
meals during his stay.

Sir Jon Shortridge, a retired mandarin, claimed more than £3,000 in expenses
during the month he was interim permanent secretary at the former
Universities department. Sir Jon, who stood in from May 25 to June 30 this
year, claimed £2,740 for accommodation and travel and another £350 for
travel to meetings.

Louise Casey, the Home Office’s neighbourhood crime “tsar” claimed £213.50 for
a taxi on a visit to a “Community Payback” project in April. During the same
month she claimed £434 for a taxi to “official meetings and speaking
engagement on crime and policing” in London and Surrey.

Marilynne Morgan, a non-executive director in the Treasury Solicitor’s
department, claimed £3.50 in May to cover the cost of parking for a meeting
of the senior civil service pay committee, which oversees mandarins’
salaries.

News From Across The Pond: Sienna Miller 'invites Jude Law to

Sienna Miller 'invites Jude Law on romantic Christmas break in Barbados' (more) • Katy Perry says her heart belongs to Russell Brand – NOT Robert 200912.

Monday's news: Going gaga over Goc – On the Forecheck

Sure, the Chicago Blackhawks pulled back into sole possession of the Western Conference lead by beating Detroit yesterday, but the Nashville Predators are riding high these days, and so are their fans. Perhaps one of the most satisfying …

News Quiz | December 21, 2009 – The Learning Network Blog

See what you know about the news of the day. … News Quiz | December 21, 2009. By SCOTT KOENIG. See what you know about the news below. To prepare, you might scan the articles or summaries on today's front page. …

Thanks in part to AT&T's spotty service, iPhones are great computers, but lousy phones. The mainstream is starting to catch on.

During his fake newscast on Saturday Night Live, Seth Meyers reported on the upcoming Google Phone.

“It was reported this week that Google would soon launch its own cellphone as a challenge to the iPhone,” said Meyers.

“Also a challenge to the iPhone? Making phone calls.”

Now we know why Verizon, which expects to carry the iPhone next year, is already investing so much in its network.

December 8, 2009

Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak

This post was originally published at our fellow WSJ site, the China Real Time Report

Jing Yang reports:

China has lots at stake if Copenhagen climate change talks don’t come up with a comprehensive green energy package, including financing for two potentially huge growth areas–solar power and carbon capture.

Its recent announcement on cutting carbon intensity, while falling short of binding greenhouse gas emissions caps demanded by some countries, shows China is ready to play a central role in the climate summit that started this week.

A deal in Copenhagen could bring the country benefits: more funding and technology transfers from developed nations, and as an exporter of solar-power and wind-power equipment, increased demand for its products. What China dreads most is the end of Kyoto provisions that grant tradable credits for reducing emissions; China has been the top receiver for the credits in terms of registered projects with the United Nations, getting 59% of the total.

A successor to Kyoto could unlock more cash for China, in the form of a renewed inflow of carbon credits generated by the Clean Development Mechanism, money that helped it build the world’s fourth largest wind power capacity and also wrest control of the domestic wind power market from foreign companies.

“If the outlook for CDM after 2012 can get clearer during the Copenhagen conference and it turns out to be positive, then investment interest in China’s clean energy projects would get a boost,” said Wang Weiquan, CDM project director with the China Renewable Energy Industries Association.

(Of course, if the already questionable picture of CDM support gets even murkier, then that could act as a brake on Chinese wind power.)

By the end of last year, Chinese companies had grabbed a 67% share of China’s wind power equipment market, squeezing Vestas Wind Systems AS, Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologia SA and General Electric Co., whose combined China market share slumped to 20%, from 75% in 2004, according to research by IHS CERA.

Lin Na, a manager with the European Commission-funded EU-China CDM Facilitation Project, thinks wind and hydropower, where China has now mature technologies, are unlikely to secure carbon credits in a post-2012 scenario.

But sectors like carbon capture and sequestration and solar power have the potential to receive funding from rich nations, Lin said.

China looks well placed to capture international clean coal technology contracts, even without help from carbon credits.

Satellite Data Proves AGW Models Wrong

From the opinion section of the energy industry news outlet, the Energy Tribune:

Five-Year Average Global Temperature Anomalies from 1880 to 2006. By: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization The End of Global Warming

By Art Horn

December 3, 2009

The story of manmade global warming is over. In reality it never existed except in the minds and hearts of grant-seeking scientists and academics, ratings-obsessed television networks and their misinformed viewers and opportunistic eco-activists.

That said, climate change is real. The earth has been coming out of a 450-year cold era known as the “Little Ice Age” since it bottomed out in the late 1600s. Hundreds of studies have verified the existence of this cold period. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tried to erase the climate history of the last 1,000 years in its 2001 report. They replaced all the peer-reviewed studies of past climate with one that fit their needs. The now-discredited “hockey stick” graph showed virtually no significant change in temperature of the world over the last 1,000 years. Conveniently, the graph then showed a rapid and abrupt increase in global temperature during the last 100 years. This is, of course, due to our sin of burning fossil fuels and stoking the fires of global warming.

The only evidence that human activity is causing global warming comes from computer models. These models take what the people who develop them know about how the earth’s climate system works and attempt to predict the future. Computer models are not evidence. Evidence is something real, something concrete that is not subject to change. Computer models can be changed by their creator. In fact the creator of the model can make it say whatever the creator wants it to say by adjusting parameters. That is not evidence.

In 2007, a study showed the failings of computer model forecasts. The models showed that there exists a global warming “fingerprint” in the air. This fingerprint is a dramatic warming of the atmosphere, not on the ground, but 20,000 to 50,000 feet in the air above the tropics. The 2007 study revealed that real-world temperature observations by weather balloons over a 50-year period showed no global warming fingerprint at all, none. The computer models had grossly overestimated the warming over the tropics. Real world observations trump computer models. Despite this revelation the climate alarmists continued to trumpet the coming doom if we don’t change our sinful ways. To do otherwise would threaten government grants to colleges and universities, research facilities and government agencies. Large corporations are developing eco-friendly technologies to replace fossil fuels and brokerage houses are looking to cash in big time on the evolving carbon trading markets. The United Nations is looking to use climate treaties to wrestle control of carbon emissions from independent nations. This will elevate the United Nations and its leaders to the role of effectively ruling the world’s energy consumption through one world-government authority.

The greenhouse/global warming theory states that as more carbon dioxide is pumped into the air, the atmosphere’s ability to vent excess heat to space will diminish. This is the mantra of global warming alarmism. More carbon dioxide means more heat gets clogged up in the climate system and the earth gets warmer and warmer. From this we have conjured up all the various climate disasters, movies, concerts, fixes, and swindles, with their varied political and economic benefactors and victims.

Enter 2009 and a new study by Dr. Richard Lindzen and Yong-Sang Choi from MIT that uses temperature data from satellites. As background we start with the predictions. The climate models say that as the oceans warmed by one degree Celsius from the 1980s into the 1990s, the amount of heat escaping to space would decrease. More heat would be trapped in the atmosphere, ultimately due to the burning of fossil fuels. The warming of the oceans was natural and part of the large multi-decadal temperature changes that have been known for years. Now if only we had a way to measure the amount of heat going out to space, then we could get some answers. We do, it’s called the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment Satellite (ERBE). It was in orbit above the earth measuring outgoing long wave radiation (heat) for 16 years from the mid 1980s to the late 1990s. This is very significant. Now we had a tool, and real world data, that we could compare to the computer model predictions. It is the ultimate climate system umpire.

The results from the Lindzen and Choi study were stunning. The computer models, all 11 of them, predicted that as the oceans and atmosphere warmed, the amount of heat escaping to space should decrease by 3 watts per square meter. If this were true, then the theory of manmade global warming would have a strong footing. But the satellite data used by the Lindzen and Choi inflicted a bone crushing blow to this assumption. As the oceans and atmosphere warmed, the measurements showed that the amount of heat escaping to space increased by 4 watts per square meter from the mid 1980s to the late 1990s. All the computer models were wrong. If the atmosphere is not trapping heat generated by warming oceans then there is no manmade global warming taking place.

The atmosphere compensated for the additional heat by opening the window a little more. The theory of global warming is lying on the canvas bloodied and dying. Alarmists will attempt to revive the carcass with even louder cries of impending doom and calls to repent. But this clamoring will fall on deaf ears. Science will ultimately prove the winner and the world will bury global warming in an icy grave where it belongs.

Art Horn is a meteorologist who has worked for CBS, NBC and ABC

Notice how we don’t hear about things like this 2009 Lindzen and Choi study from our media watchdogs.

Why is that?

Doesn’t the media claim to love like controversy? Don’t they say that controversy sells newspapers, gets ratings?

Obviously, our media masters only like controversies that don’t question their religious convictions.

source ->

sweetness-light.com/archive/the-end-of-global-warming-a-summary

Developing countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement that would hand more power to rich nations, sideline the UN's negotiating role and abandon the Kyoto protocol

COP15: A Haitian delegation during second-day session at the Bella center in Copenhagen

The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents.

 

The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations.

 

The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much under the proposals.

 

The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as “the circle of commitment” – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalised this week.

 

The agreement, leaked to the Guardian, is a departure from the Kyoto protocol's principle that rich nations, which have emitted the bulk of the CO2, should take on firm and binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, while poorer nations were not compelled to act. The draft hands effective control of climate change finance to the World Bank; would abandon the Kyoto protocol – the only legally binding treaty that the world has on emissions reductions; and would make any money to help poor countries adapt to climate change dependent on them taking a range of actions.

 

The document was described last night by one senior diplomat as “a very dangerous document for developing countries. It is a fundamental reworking of the UN balance of obligations. It is to be superimposed without discussion on the talks”.

 

A confidential analysis of the text by developing countries also seen by the Guardian shows deep unease over details of the text. In particular, it is understood to:

 

• Force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that were not part of the original UN agreement;

• Divide poor countries further by creating a new category of developing countries called “the most vulnerable”;

• Weaken the UN's role in handling climate finance;

• Not allow poor countries to emit more than 1.44 tonnes of carbon per person by 2050, while allowing rich countries to emit 2.67 tonnes.

 

Developing countries that have seen the text are understood to be furious that it is being promoted by rich countries without their knowledge and without discussion in the negotiations.

 

“It is being done in secret. Clearly the intention is to get Obama and the leaders of other rich countries to muscle it through when they arrive next week. It effectively is the end of the UN process,” said one diplomat, who asked to remain nameless.

 

Antonio Hill, climate policy adviser for Oxfam International, said: “This is only a draft but it highlights the risk that when the big countries come together, the small ones get hurting. On every count the emission cuts need to be scaled up. It allows too many loopholes and does not suggest anything like the 40% cuts that science is saying is needed.”

 

Hill continued: “It proposes a green fund to be run by a board but the big risk is that it will run by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility [a partnership of 10 agencies including the World Bank and the UN Environment Programme] and not the UN. That would be a step backwards, and it tries to put constraints on developing countries when none were negotiated in earlier UN climate talks.”

 

The text was intended by Denmark and rich countries to be a working framework, which would be adapted by countries over the next week. It is particularly inflammatory because it sidelines the UN negotiating process and suggests that rich countries are desperate for world leaders to have a text to work from when they arrive next week.

 

Few numbers or figures are included in the text because these would be filled in later by world leaders. However, it seeks to hold temperature rises to 2C and mentions the sum of $10bn a year to help poor countries adapt to climate change from 2012-15.

Oh I'm sorry, you thought your cat loved you?

The Egyptian Mau breed, while perhaps not the oldest recognized cat breed in registries, is believed to stem from the oldest domesticated cat. The original African Wild Cat, is thought to be the cat originally domesticated by the Egyptians, over 4,000 years ago. Today, the Egyptian Mau is the only naturally-occurring spotted breed of cat. To add to its historical distinction, the name “Mau” literally means “cat” in Egyptian. This striking cat fully lives up to these honors, and then some.

You may submit a photo of your own Egyptian Mau cat to illustrate the linked profile, and for future use in an Egyptian Mau photo gallery. Please observe the details requested in the Photo Submittal Guidelines.

MICHAEL Turner admits that the lack of a settled back four is making it difficult for Sunderland's defenders to find their rhythm.

But he believes Steve Bruce has no choice but to keep chopping and changing as he looks for a central defensive partnership capable of cutting out the errors undermining the Black Cats' season. Turner has been one of the few constants in the Sunderland defence since his £4m transfer from Hull.

But with injuries and up and down form wreaking havoc with Bruce's plans, the former Tiger has played alongside four different central defensive partners since arriving on Wearside. Paulo Da Silva was axed at Fulham after his nightmare at Wigan but his replacement Anton Ferdinand endured a rocky half-hour before suffering an ankle injury that is likely to rule him out for a fortnight.

Replacement Nyron Nosworthy was in the wars too as Sunderland struggled to cope with Bobby Zamora's brawn at Craven Cottage, and Bruce is now contemplating another reshuffle for the visit of struggling Portsmouth.

Continue reading »

#3.
Imitating Snakes to Intimidate You

Anyone who has ever witnessed a visceral deathmatch between two angry cats is intimately aware of the blood curdling noises the cute little animals are able to create. Besides the demonically drawn out “Mrrrroww” that emanates from the very bowels of Hell itself, when a cat feels threatened, they always turn to the tried and true hiss.

Lots of animals make this noise when in the throes of battle, but why? Why is a sudden rush of moist air from such a small creature so frightening to other creatures that cats use it time and time again?

It turns out that when a cat pushes its ears down, bares its fangs, squints its slivered eyes and hisses, it closely resembles another animal that is naturally feared and avoided by most predators: the snake. And apparently the resemblance is completely intentional.


Cooobraaaa!!

Cats, like many other animals, from butterflies to birds, instinctively employ the art of mimicry in order to best defend themselves from attack. Just like David Blaine in Las Vegas, a cornered cat relies on deception and misdirection in order to avoid being destroyed by its audience, and since most animals have a natural fear of venomous snakes, a sudden hiss accompanied by a spray of saliva coming from a head that resembles the shape of a python's will cause even the most determined and bloodthirsty hunter to think twice.

So the next time you piss off your kitty and it hisses at you, it's not just showing its disapproval. It's pretending to be something that can kill you.

#2.
Obsessively Getting Rid of the Stench of Humans

Gee, cats are such clean animals, aren't they? Always licking their fur and grooming themselves. They must really care about being sanitary, clean-cut pets…

Hmmm… that's strange. Fluffy seems to groom himself a whole lot after you pet him. What, did you have some peanut butter on your fingers he has to get off? Maybe he's allergic to your touch and licking it makes him feel better?

No, he's most likely trying to get your stench off of him.

Cats have glands that are stimulated when they tug on their fur, that ooze their own scent. Licking the fur kicks those glands into high gear, making him smell more like himself and ridding him of the terrible, terrible stink of you. It'd be like if after every time you hugged your Mom, she immediately ran down the hall and took a shower.

Also, have you ever had a cat suddenly start peeing everywhere after you bring a new girl or guy home? Peeing on their clothes, or in the rooms they spend time in? It's sort of the same principle, its trying to erase all signs of his or her scent from the area.

#1.
Bringing Home Dead Animals to Show You Suck at Hunting

Cats love murder. Mice, birds and exposed ankles often find themselves the unwitting prey of one of the few animal species on Earth that seemingly kills for fun. Thus, many a cat owner has also had the morbid pleasure of being presented with their pet's fresh kill. Fluffy will come home and drop the bleeding carcass of a bird on your shoe with an expectant look, as if you were going to gobble it up right then and there.


Dig in rookie! Or ain't ya got the balls?

Why does she do it? Because Fluffy does expect you to gobble it up right then and there.

Most cat people will tell you that cats are instinctual hunters and even when they are satiated by last night's canned tuna, they will still take down a low flying sparrow if the opportunity presents itself, just for kicks. Then after successfully nabbing their quarry, the proud pet will then present it to the dominant group leader (her human owner) as a gift. While perfectly logical, that assumption is slightly incorrect and only half the story.

The dead bird, seemingly gift wrapped in ruffled feathers and crimson ribbon, isn't actually an offering to the owner at all, but more like a training exercise. See, cats teach their kittens and other dependent family members how to hunt and catch prey in gradual steps. When Fluffy dropped the corpse on your shoe, that was lesson number one in her teaching curriculum. She has noticed your appalling lack of hunting skills and inability to catch your own food, and is trying to teach you, as she would one of her kittens, how to feed yourself.

So instead of being appalled or grossed out the next time your cat brings you a fresh kill, eat up, and then prepare yourself for lesson two. That's where your formally cute kitten kombatant teaches you the importance of fatalities.

There seem to be two kinds of people in the world: those who don't understand cats, and those who think cats are kind of douchebags.

Unfortunately for cat lovers, science has kind of come down on the side of that second group. Research has revealed that a lot of the quirky and even cute things your kitty does are actually signs that your cat is kind of a dick.

#6.
Meowing to Imitate a Baby Human

Cats have many different ways of communicating, but the meow is every cat's go-to vocalization when it wants to tell us something; be it, “I'm hungry,” “pay attention to me” or “I just took a dump, go clean it up.” However, far from the one-dimensional barking sound that dogs use to communicate, cats are like living stereo equalizers that are able to fine tune the pitches and tones of their meows… so they can better manipulate you into doing what they want.

A recent study has shown that people subconsciously can tell the difference between a pleading or soliciting meow and a run of the mill, casual one just by listening to sound clips taken from different felines in different situations. The subjects said the soliciting sounds came across as more urgent and less pleasant than a normal meow, much like the cries a human baby makes when she's hungry.

In fact, further studies have proven that a cat's cry for food or attention shares a remarkable similarity in frequency to a baby's cry. It's not coincidence- it's pure, kitty evil genius.

Using their expertise in Soviet-style subliminal advertising, cats adjust their purrs and meows to include this frequency which then prompts their owners into responding to them more quickly. Like well trained animals ourselves, we respond because, not only is the sound annoying to us, but it also stimulates our natural instinct to immediately nurture anything that sounds like our offspring, even if it is covered in fur and named Mr. Bojangles.

#5.
Leaving Their Poop Uncovered As An Insult

One of the major perks to owning a cat over, say, a dog or a horse, is that all cats instinctively drop their waste into neat little litter boxes, eliminating the need for frequent “walkies” and the palpable awkwardness that comes with the public use of pooper-scoopers and plastic baggies. Cats instinctively seek to bury their droppings, so it works out for everybody.

Contrary to popular assumptions though, this behavior doesn't come from Snowball's obsessive compulsive cleanliness, but rather an evolutionary holdover from before felines were domesticated and had more dangerous predators than the vacuum cleaner to worry about.

Burying the poop prevents detection by their enemies, but there's another layer to it, which is that they do it to avoid challenging the dominant cat of the group. It kind of makes sense, if burying the poop is a sign that they fear another, larger animal, then leaving it uncovered would be a pretty aggressive act. “No one here is bad enough to fuck with me. Enjoy my shit.”

So… what do you suppose it means when your cat doesn't bother to cover his poop?

Yep, some cats intentionally leave their crap uncovered or in conspicuous locations (such as on a doormat or in your sister's bed) in order to communicate to us that they are the dominant member of the household, and that this territory is theirs.

In the wacky world of feline politics, feces act as little, smelly flags that clearly dictate the boundaries of each cat's domain. In the wild, these flags are intended to be seen, and smelled, by other cats, a sign that this is the stomping grounds of a badass kitty.


I claim this bed in the name of Admiral Bootiekins!

When it comes to the shared domain with humans that domesticated cats enjoy, the same territorial rules still apply, so a housecat who leaves his waste out in the open is sending the message to us that he is El Presidente, and that we should be covering up our shit, so as not to offend him.

And guess what? We do. We helpfully flush away our poop and your cat probably thinks it's done entirely to avoid offending him. Yes, if you want to take back your house, it's time to poop in kitty's bed.

#4.
Rubbing Against You to Declare Ownership

By nature cats are hard to read. They're not like dogs, hopping around with joy when you walk in the door, or slinking away with shame when caught eating the garbage. No, cats have mastered an expression of almost disdainful indifference that they seem to wear regardless of their mood.

However, as any spinster will tell you, a cat's affection is obvious when its purring and rubbing its face and body against your leg. It's like the animal is giving you a little kitty hug the only way it knows how!

The problem with that, though, is when cats rub up against their owners, it has nothing to do with affection at all, but instead is kitty's way of claiming you as its property.


I own you, motherfucker!

Cats, like many other animals, are packed full of pheromone-oozing scent glands that are primarily used to communicate with other cats on such hot topics as identity, sexual availability and territorial ownership. The most active and important glands that a cat uses to send these messages are located on the tail, the side of the body and the face. Thus, when a cat rubs up against your legs or slides its face along your hand, it is engaging these glands in order to leave its unique scent on you.

That scent in turn communicates to any other animals in the vicinity that not only is it, say, female and horny, but that you, the human, belong to her. When a cat brushes against your legs, it's less a furry hug and more of a prison yard tattoo. One that reads, “Owned By: Mittens” and, “Single Siamese Female, 8, seeking uncut Tom for a romp in the alley.”

microlimitedms@gmail.com
“rhoruns is fat”

November 30, 2009

Sneaky starbucks?

Filed under: Economy — Tags: , , , , , , , — briannieves1988 @ 9:47 pm

The hidden meaning of the hidden Starbucks logo

Posted by: Jon Cook

– Bryant Simon is professor of history and director of American Studies at Temple University. He is the author of “Everything but the Coffee:  Learning about America from Starbucks”. The views expressed are his own. –

Last week, Roy Street Coffee and Tea, located at the corners of Roy Street and Broadway in Seattle, opened.  This is another one of those stealth Starbucks – Starbucks stores without the Starbucks name over the front door – the coffee giant has been opening in its hometown and in London as of late.  Like the other shops of this new vintage, this one is appointed with antique-style furniture, retro lighting, and a distressed looking table top salvaged from an old ship.

The rough-hewed interiors of these not Starbucks Starbucks haven’t really mattered to the journalists and bloggers who have been writing about them.  They talk only about the naming patterns in Starbucks’ most recent branding strategy.

To them, the names of the stores represent a brand crisis.  Quite rightly, they point out, when a brand hides its own identity, it is in some ways admitting defeat, saying that its name – a central part of any brand – has lost value.  When it comes to Starbucks, all of this is true, but the question is why?  Why has the Starbucks brand lost so much value that it has to hide from customers and act like a small business?  The answer to these questions rests with communities and consumers, what they care about and desire the most these days.

Over the last several years, a quiet but decided shift in buying patterns has taken place.  Really, there is something of a velvet revolt or a quiet rejection of brands going on.

In the early years of this century, the then mayor of Baltimore Martin O’Malley begged Starbucks to come to his city.  He thought these big name stores would lend his de-industrializing hometown a much needed upper-middle-class sheen.  Same with the residents of Landsdowne, Pennsylvania.  In 2004, the town had several mom and pops diners and coffee shops.  One day, though, a team of local residents lined up in three rows of forty in an empty lot where a 7-11 used to be.  When the photographer gave them the sign, they turned over the letters.  Their message read: “Got Location! Need Starbucks!” Afterwards, the Greater Lansdowne Civic Association sent this “visual petition” to Starbucks headquarters. Landsdowne never got a Starbucks, but Benicia, California and a lot of other towns got plenty of Starbucks.

By 2007, Benicia didn’t want them anymore.  When Starbucks tried to open a fifth store in the northern California coastal town some residents balked. “It’s a serious problem,” a former city councilor and owner of an independent coffee house, told the Contra Costa Times (By Danielle Samaniego, “Benicia Looks at Limiting Chain Stores,” Contra Costa Times, Feb. 16, 2007). “People need to wake up to it,” she proclaimed, “When you drive through a town and everything is so homogenized that you can’t tell where you are anymore, that’s a problem.”  She had an idea.  Limit the number of chains.  Ban them even.  Encourage, instead, small, one-of-a-kind businesses.  Soon her idea gained the support of local officials looking for ways to curtail the opening of more chain stores without violating state and federal laws.  When the city council started to debate a ban on all “formula” businesses, a city official told the Contra Costa Times, “it’s about protecting the unique character of the commercial areas of Benicia, and there’s nothing unique about a store that has the same look and style, not just here, but everywhere.” (By Rachel Raskin-Zrihen, “Officials Look at Ways to Prevent Starbucks Overflow,” Contra Costa Times, Feb. 9, 2007)

BRAND AVOIDANCE

This wasn’t just about Starbucks.  This was about a growing resistance to brands, and their dominance of the landscape, symbolized by Starbucks. With their feet and their purchases, individual consumers are revolting as well.  Scholars have started to call this trend, “brand avoidance,” as consumers worried about the larger social and economic impact of brands on society look for other options, even if those options cost a bit more.  In growing numbers, buyers are choosing the local over the brand, the farmers market over the supermarket, the Main Street strip over the mall.  Same with coffee.

While Starbucks closed down outlets in 2008, citing the New Recession as the cause, independent coffee houses, the Seattle Times noted, brought in new customers and they didn’t cut prices.  Over the last few years, in fact, the number of independent coffee houses in the U.S. has jumped past the number of chain store outlets, and now represent 54 percent of the coffee market.

How can we explain these consumer choices and the growth of these smaller business sectors?  Consumers, just like the towns they live in, are starting to think that going to the branded store – to Starbucks or Cosi or Chipotle – costs too much.  It makes them look too ordinary and too much like everyone else.
This is what those not Starbucks Starbucks stores tacitly acknowledge. By hiding their logos, they speak to the growing appeal of the locally owned small businesses.  (Remember the stealth Starbucks stores are individually designed and named after the streets they are on – the places themselves.)

Apparently the experiment isn’t working.  A former Starbucks insider said that Seattle’s 15th Ave. Coffee and Tea – the first of the new not Starbucks stores (its website, by the way, is called www.streetlevelcoffee.com) – is doing only a third of the business of the regular green-logoed Starbucks store that used be at that site.

Perhaps consumer really do want something more than branded artifice; they want something genuinely local.

The revolt against sameness may actually be real, too real for a fake Starbucks.  And certainly this growing rejection of brands presents an opportunity for entrepreneurs and small business owners to create something authentically local for their customers.

November 9, 2009

Man charged after telling police of underage sex during traffic stop

Filed under: Crime — Tags: , , , , , — briannieves1988 @ 11:20 pm


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When Ian D. Anderson was pulled over for failing to use a turn signal in June, police asked the 23-year-old why he had three teenage girls in his vehicle at 2:40 a.m.

His answer, according to West Valley City police: He was having sex with one of them.

Investigators say Anderson and a 14-year-old girl had sex June 12 in his truck in the parking lot of Monroe Elementary School, 4450 W. 3100 South, West Valley City.

Anderson will be arraigned in court Friday after he was charged in 3rd District Court last month with third-degree felony unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

Anderson was headed east on 3500 South early the morning of June 15 when he was stopped, according to a booking statement. The officer noticed the three girls in the vehicle and asked why he was with them. He said he had a sexual relationship with one of the girls, who he thought was 16, and had sex with her days before, the statement said.

While filling out a witness statement, Anderson also said he had sexual pictures of girls on his cell phone, which police verified, according to the statement.

The women in the photos who could be identified were contacted by authorities and all turned out to be old than 18, Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Alicia Cook said. No charges were filed based on possession of those photos or other photos showing women whose ages and identifications could not be determined, she said.

The Salt Lake TribuneUpdated: 11/09/2009 02:16:39 PM MST
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                 Lorsque Ian D. Anderson a été arrêté pour défaut d'utiliser un signal de tour en Juin, la police a demandé à la 23-year-old pourquoi il avait trois adolescentes dans son véhicule à 2:40 am Sa réponse, selon la police de West Valley City: Il avait des relations sexuelles avec l'un d'entre eux. Selon les enquêteurs, Anderson et a 14-year-old girl eu des rapports sexuels Juin 12 dans son camion dans le stationnement de Monroe Elementary School, 4450 W. 3100 South, West Valley City. Anderson seront traduits en justice vendredi après il a été inculpé en 3e tribunal de district le mois dernier avec l'activité du troisième degré félonie sexuelles illégales avec une mineure. Anderson a été dirigé vers l'est sur 3500 Sud tôt le matin de Juin 15 quand il a été arrêté, selon un communiqué de réservation. L'agent a remarqué les trois jeunes filles dans le véhicule et a demandé pourquoi il était avec eux. Il a dit qu'il avait une relation sexuelle avec une des filles, qui pensait-il était de 16, et eu des relations sexuelles avec elle jours auparavant, indique le communiqué. Tout en remplissant une déclaration de témoin, M. Anderson a également déclaré qu'il avait des photos sexuelle des filles sur son téléphone cellulaire, dont la police de vérifier, selon le communiqué. Les femmes des photographies qui pouvaient être identifiées ont été contactées par les autorités et tous sortis pour être vieux de 18 ans, Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office, porte-parole Alicia Cook. Aucune accusation n'a été déposée fondée sur la possession de ces photos ou d'autres photos montrant des femmes dont l'âge et l'identification n'a pu être déterminée, dit-elle.

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A grand Jury indicted Ronald James on those charges on April 5, 2008 according to Atlanta Journal Constitution web site. Ronald James is out of jail on a 40,000 bond, and must remain in the area. He is not to own a computer or have any contact with his own children or any children for that matter.

Ronald James is a former literature teacher in Athens, Georgia has been arrested in connected with a child porn ring on the internet, in which members traded images of children.

According to the bad teacher web site, thousands of images of children along with videos were found on the computer owned and used by Ronald James. He was arrested in February 2007 when police seized child porn on three computers, external hard drives and discs from him home as well as the school computer he used.

It is reported on several web sites that Ronald James was the ringleader, of this internet porn ring, which explains why he has so many child porn files on his computers. At the time of his arrest, he was working as a literature teacher at an alternative school in Monroe Georgia but has also worked at the Coile Middle School from September 2001 until March 2002 teaching language to several seventh and eighth graders.

Of course, he was fired from the school district after the news of this child porn ring broke, but many parents still wonder about the safety of their children.

On the same day in an unrelated case, agents in Georgia arrested Elton Manzione a former journalist on child porn charges. Agents searched his home, and seized a computer that held ten child porn images, and he was released on a 40,000-dollar bond. Elton Manzione is awaiting his turn in front of the same grand jury that handled the Ronald James case.

The Elton Manzione case send s strong message to any child molester who chooses to keep child porn on their computers, you will be caught, arrested and face stiff punishments if it is found on there. It sends a clear message that ten or ten thousand you will be tried in a court and punished.

This type of behavior with individuals having child porn happens in small towns and big cities through out our nation. A man I went to school with was convicted of this last year here is the official press release.

Jodie Krapf is not someone you would suspect of this type of crap; I have known him since grade school. He was arrested for molesting a teenage boy, and had hundreds of child porn images on his work and home computers, on discs and dvd's within his home.

The Jodie Krapf case was huge news back here in our hometown of Athens Pennsylvania, last year when he took his work computer in for an upgrade and child porn was found on it. A search of his home computers revealed lots more porn that he downloaded and produced. Just before Christmas of last year Jodie Kraft was sentenced to 15 years in Pennsylvania State Prison for his crimes dealing with child porn.

Child porn is a huge business and unless prosecutors punish those people hard, it will continue.

News coverage Ronald James case:

Atlanta Journal Constitution

bad teacher

News coverage Jodie Krapf case:

Associated content article by simplyme

WBNG TV

www.topix.com/county/bradford-pa/2007/12

 

November 5, 2009

Success in 'space elevator' competition (Update 3)

Filed under: Space — Tags: , , , — briannieves1988 @ 11:20 pm

 

(AP) — A robot powered by a ground-based laser beam climbed a long cable dangling from a helicopter on Wednesday to qualify for prize money in a $2 million competition to test the potential reality of the science fiction concept of space elevators.

The highly technical contest brought teams from Missouri, Alaska and Seattle to Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert, most familiar to the public as a space shuttle landing site.

The contest requires their machines to climb 2,953 feet (nearly 1 kilometer) up a cable slung beneath a helicopter hovering nearly a mile high.

LaserMotive's vehicle zipped up to the top in just over four minutes and immediately repeated the feat, qualifying for at least a $900,000 second-place prize.

The device, a square of photo voltaic panels about 2 feet by 2 feet and topped by a motor structure and thin triangle frame, had failed to respond to the laser three times before it was lowered, inspected and then hoisted back up by the helicopter for the successful tries.

LaserMotive's two principals, Jordin Kare and Thomas Nugent, said they were relieved after two years of work. They said their real goal is to develop a business based on the idea of beaming power, not the futuristic idea of accessing space via an elevator climbing a cable.

“We both are pretty skeptical of its near-term prospects,” Kare said of an elevator.

The contest, however, demonstrates that beaming power works, Nugent said.

“Anybody who needs power in one place and can't run wires to it – we'd be able to deliver power,” Kare said.

Earlier out on the lakebed, team member Nick Burrows had pointed out how it grips the cable with modified skateboard wheels and the laser is aimed with an X Box game controller.

It had never climbed higher than 80 feet previously, he said.

The day's competition began late after hours of testing the cable system, refueling the helicopter and waits for specific time windows in which the lasers can be fired without harming satellites passing overhead.

The Kansas City Space Pirates went first with a machine that initially balked but eventually began climbing. Its speed was too slow to qualify for any prizes but it got within about 160 feet of the top before the laser had to be shut down for satellite protection.

Ben Shelef, CEO of the contest-sponsoring Spaceward Foundation, said the Pirates had a minor laser tracking problem but the real problem appeared to be in the mechanical system.

As the afternoon grew late, the University of Saskatchewan's Space Design Team had to put off its attempts until Thursday. All three teams had further chances to qualify through Friday.

The competition was five years in the making, Shelef said.

“A lot of hurdles to cross,” he said. “Now that it's happening I'm actually happy already. It doesn't matter what the outcome is.”

The 2009 Space Elevator Games
Enlarge

The 2009 Space Elevator Games.

Funded by a program to explore bold technology, the contest is intended to encourage development of a theory that originated in the 1960s and was popularized by Arthur C. Clarke's 1979 novel “The Fountains of Paradise.”

Space elevators are envisioned as a way to reach space without the risk and expense of rockets.

Instead, electrically powered vehicles would run up and down a cable anchored to a ground structure and extending thousands of miles up to a mass in geosynchronous orbit – the kind of orbit communications satellites are placed in to stay over a fixed spot on the Earth.

Electricity would be supplied through a concept known as “power beaming,” ground-based lasers pointing up to photo voltaic cells on the bottom of the climbing vehicle – something like an upside-down solar power system.

The competition has not produced a winner in its previous three years, but has become increasingly difficult.

The vehicles must climb at an average speed of 16.4 feet (5 meters) per second, or about 11 miles (18 kilometers) per hour, to qualify for the top prize. A lesser prize is available for vehicles that climb at 2 meters per second.

The rules allow one team to collect all $2 million or for sums to be shared among all three teams depending on their achievements.

While the concept of an elevator to space may seem too fanciful, Andrew Williams, 26, a mechanical engineer on the Saskatchewan team, said he has no doubts it will come about.

“Once we put our minds to something it's just a matter of time for us to achieve it,” he said.

Video: In their first run today and their first ever successful run in any of the NASA sponsored Power Beaming Challenge events, Team Lasermotive qualified for at least a share of the 1st level prize money of $900,000.

More information: http://www.spaceelevatorgames.org/

©2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Un robot propulsé par un motif à base de laser est monté un long câble suspendu à un hélicoptère mercredi pour bénéficier de prix en argent à un concours de 2 millions de dollars pour tester la réalité potentielle de la notion de science-fiction d'un ascenseur spatial. Le concours apporté très technique des équipes du Missouri, de l'Alaska et à Seattle pour Rogers Dry Lake dans le désert de Mojave, les plus connues du public comme un lieu d'atterrissage de la navette spatiale. Le concours exige que leurs machines à gravir 2953 pieds (environ 1 kilomètre) un câble accroché sous un hélicoptère en vol stationnaire près d'un mile de haut. Véhicule LaserMotive's zippé jusqu'en haut en un peu plus de quatre minutes et immédiatement répété l'exploit, admissible pendant au moins un prix de 900,000 $ deuxième place. L'appareil, un carré de panneaux photovoltaïques d'environ 2 pieds par 2 pieds et surmonté par une structure de moteur et le châssis triangle mince, avait omis de répondre au laser à trois reprises avant qu'elle ne soit abaissé, inspectés et ensuite hissé en arrière par l'hélicoptère pour les essais réussis. LaserMotive les deux directeurs, Jordin Kare et Thomas Nugent, a déclaré qu'ils étaient soulagés après deux années de travail. Ils ont dit que leur but réel est de développer une activité basée sur l'idée de la puissance rayonnante, pas l'idée futuriste de l'espace d'accéder via un ascenseur escalade d'un câble. "Nous avons tous deux sont assez sceptiques quant à ses perspectives à court terme", dit Kare d'un ascenseur. Le concours, cependant, démontre que les œuvres de puissance rayonnante, Nugent dit. «N'importe qui qui a besoin de pouvoir dans un seul endroit et ne peut pas courir des fils à elle – nous serions en mesure de fournir de l'énergie", dit Kare. Plus tôt sur le lit du lac, membre de l'équipe Nick Burrows a fait observer la façon dont il saisit le câble avec des roues de planche à roulettes modifiées et le laser vise avec un contrôleur de jeu X Box. Il n'a jamais grimpé plus haut que 80 mètres plus haut, dit-il. Concurrence La journée a commencé tard après des heures de tester le système de câble, de ravitaillement de l'hélicoptère et attend les fenêtres temporelles particulières dans lesquelles les lasers peuvent être congédiés sans nuire satellites passent au-dessus. Le Kansas City Space Pirates se rendit d'abord avec une machine qui initialement hésité mais a finalement commencé à monter. Sa vitesse était trop lente pour se qualifier pour les prix mais c'est devenu à environ 160 pieds de haut avant le laser a dû être fermée pour protéger les satellites. Ben Shelef, PDG du concours-parrainage Spaceward Fondation, a déclaré Les pirates avaient un laser mineur suivi des problèmes mais le vrai problème semble être dans le système mécanique. Comme l'après-midi à se faire tard, l'Université de la Saskatchewan's Space Design Team ont dû reporter ses tentatives jusqu'à jeudi. Les trois équipes ont eu d'autres chances de se qualifier au vendredi. La compétition était de cinq ans dans la fabrication, Shelef dit. «Un grand nombre d'obstacles à franchir, dit-il. «Maintenant que ça se passe, je suis effectivement heureux déjà. Peu importe quelle est l'issue." Agrandir L'édition 2009 du Space Elevator Games. Financé par un programme de la NASA pour explorer la technologie en gras, le concours est destiné à encourager le développement d'une théorie qui a pris naissance dans les années 1960 et a été popularisé par Arthur C. Clarke 'S 1979 roman "Les Fontaines du Paradis." Ascenseurs spatiaux sont envisagés comme un moyen d'atteindre l'espace sans risques et aux frais de roquettes. Au lieu de cela, les véhicules électriques devrait monter et descendre un câble ancré à une structure de chaussée et l'extension des milliers de miles jusqu'à une masse en orbite géosynchrone – le genre de communications en orbite des satellites sont placés dans de séjourner plus de un point fixe sur la Terre. L'électricité serait fournie grâce à un concept connu comme «le pouvoir rayonnant, lasers basés au sol vers le haut de cellules photo-voltaïques sur le fond du véhicule escalade – quelque chose comme une tête en bas système d'énergie solaire. Le concours ascenseur spatial n'a pas produit un gagnant dans ses trois dernières années, mais il est devenu de plus en plus difficile. Les véhicules doivent grimper à une vitesse moyenne de 16,4 pieds (5 mètres) par seconde, soit environ 11 miles (18 kilomètres) par heure, de se qualifier pour le premier prix. Un prix moindre est disponible pour les véhicules qui montent à 2 mètres par seconde. La réglementation autorise une seule équipe pour recueillir l'ensemble des 2 millions de dollars ou pour des sommes à répartir entre les trois équipes en fonction de leurs réalisations. Bien que le concept d'un ascenseur pour l'espace mai semblent trop fantaisiste, Andrew Williams, 26 ans, ingénieur en mécanique à l'équipe de la Saskatchewan, a déclaré qu'il n'a aucun doute qu'il se produira. "Une fois que nous mettons notre esprit à quelque chose, c'est juste une question de temps pour nous d'y parvenir", at-il dit. Vidéo: Dans leur première manche aujourd'hui, et leur premier passage réussi à tout jamais de la NASA a parrainé Power Beaming événements Challenge, Team Lasermotive qualifié pour au moins une part du prix de 1er niveau de prix de 900.000 $. Plus d'informations: http://www.spaceelevatorgames.org/ © 2009 The Associated Press. Tous droits réservés. Ce matériau mai ne pas être publié, diffusé, modifié ou redistribué.

<b>News</b> Corp. Saved by Movies and Cable, Hammered by Broadcast and <b>…</b>

Rupert Murdoch and company aren't exactly celebrating, but they did provide a better earnings number than Wall Street expected. They can thank Fox <b>News</b>, and yet another "Ice Age" movie. Not helping the cause: The company's broadcast TV …

Cornyn: 'We Will Not Spend Money in a Contested Primary' – The Note

With Republicans grappling with the fallout of an intra-party battle that may have cost them a House seat, the head of the Senate Republican campaign effort is making a pledge that may ease some of the anger being directed at the party …

Olympus launches E-P2 Micro Four Thirds camera: Digital <b>…</b>

Olympus launches E-P2 Micro Four Thirds camera: Olympus has announced the E-P2 just five months after the launch of its first Micro Four-Thirds camera, the E-P1. It's a minor upgrade with the addition of a port for a …

General Tech

Lucky Goldstar, or LG, appliances have become some of the best and most requested appliances in the industry. This company is constantly pushing the envelope in designs and technologies so you are able to receive one of the best appliances in the industry. If you are in the market for a new refrigerator, I would highly suggest viewing an LG refrigerator so you can understand what true and high-quality refrigeration is really like. The LG 21.0 Cu. Ft. Side-by-Side Refrigerator, Model: LSC21943ST is one of the best refrigerators in the market for its unique style and its amazing refrigeration technologies. I highly recommend this product for all consumers.

Product Ratings:

User-Friendliness: 4.5/5 Stars

Refrigeration Technologies: 4.5/5 Stars

Product Features: 5/5 Stars

Overall Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Main Product Features:

Within this LG refrigerator, you will find some of the coolest, literally, features within the industry as well as a smartly designed exterior. With a gorgeous stainless steel exterior that is highlighted with steel handles and an ultra-large water and ice dispenser this refrigerator will greatly enhance any kitchen it is placed in.

There is a digital LED control panel, which will allow you to view the temperatures within the refrigerator/freezer as well as the temperature of your kitchen. There is also a child lock safety feature as well as a water filter status indicator. Of course, you will be able to choose between crushed and cubed ice as well as purified water from this control panel.

Within the refrigerator, there are a total of eight digital sensors located throughout the unit. These sensors will detect the slightest temperature change, and thus activate the compressor. You will always have consistent temperatures within this advanced refrigerator.

The fresh foods section features the OptiChill Drawer, which will provide you with three different temperature placements, so you can store extra-sensitive food items without having to cool your entire refrigerator. This drawer is perfect for fruits that you wish to chill but not freeze, which are perfect for smoothies and other cold food items.

There are a total of three spill-proof glass shelves, which will contain any spill that may happen. These shelves include one folding shelf, which can be enlarged or closed depending on what you are storing. There is also one fixed shelf and one slide-out shelf, which is perfect for long casserole dishes. There are numerous door baskets as well as basic features as dairy storage and a meat drawer.

Within the freezer section, you will have a total of three drawers that will slide out, giving you optimum access to your frozen foods. There are also two freezer door bins and you will also be able to enjoy over 10% more freezer space than comparable refrigerators due to the ice maker being located in the door and not on a freezer shelf.

Product Price:

This LG Side-by-Side Refrigerator can be purchased online and in retail stores for an average price of $2,000.

October 27, 2009

Is it best not to outsource email archiving?

Filed under: Tech — Tags: , , , , — briannieves1988 @ 8:50 pm

Outsourcing E-Mail Archiving: 2Q09 Update
27 April 2009

Adam W. Couture

Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00166711

With software as a service and “cloud computing” gaining increased focus as companies seek more cost-effective ways to meet the increased demands on IT, e-mail archiving is an area of opportunity. Established providers and new entrants are delivering increased functionality at declining prices.


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Overview

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Demand for e-mail active archiving products and services continues to escalate, as pure financial industry compliance considerations are being replaced by the broader market requirements for message retention, mail server management and legal discovery support. Early hosted e-mail archiving service providers focused almost entirely on the requirements of the broker-dealer part of the financial industry, which was mandated by regulation to supervise and retain broker communications. Today, service providers have beefed up their offerings to meet legal requirements regarding retention management, retrieval and evidentiary procedure. Additionally, some service providers offer a portfolio of solutions that includes e-mail continuity, spam and virus filtering, and even e-mail hosting, in addition to archiving. These integrated solutions are offered at a discount over purchase of the individual components. To meet concerns regarding the security of data at service provider sites, encryption and improved access control, as well as facility security, have been improved. Some providers now offer e-mail server data store management capabilities, such as attachment stubbing. These enriched capabilities have many companies evaluating the merits of deploying internal e-mail archiving applications vs. e-mail archiving delivered on a software as a service (SaaS) model. This report examines the benefits and capabilities of today's hosted e-mail archiving solutions and profiles key service providers in this market.

Key Findings
  • Despite a sagging economy in North America, e-mail archiving service providers continue to grow and prosper.
  • Long-term vendor viability remains a concern, as prospects evaluate solutions. Reselling partnerships with large companies are helping to remove that concern.
  • Large companies, and those with long retention periods, have been slow to broadly use archiving services, but barriers to SaaS solutions are being overcome.
  • As companies look to add e-mail continuity, and spam and virus-filtering services, vendors that offer those services are achieving success in adding archiving and capturing not only a larger number of customers, but those with larger numbers of mailboxes as well.
  • Look for this market to continue to see fast growth and new entrants, with successful providers increasingly acquired by companies looking to expand into the SaaS market.
Recommendations
  • Most organizations should be doing some kind of e-mail archiving. Organizations must implement in-house or outsource an e-mail archive that can be immediately useful for legal discovery, supervisory requirements and retention compliance.
  • Organizations should consider using service providers to help them quickly implement interim or permanent solutions without heavy upfront investments in technology or internal expertise. Consider using a service provider for not just archiving, but also for e-mail continuity, virus protection and spam filtering.
  • Robust mailbox management is still best done with an in house solution, but if attachment archiving is enough to relieve the pressure on the data store management, some service providers can meet this need.
  • Negotiate pricing upfront for retrieving and restoring archived e-mails, in case you want to switch service providers or bring the solution back in house.
  • For organizations looking to capture and save everything, with limited or no mailbox management requirements, a hosted solution may be more cost-effective than an in-house solution. Increased use of on-site appliances for bandwidth and encryption management, plus the addition of attachment management and attractive pricing have made hosted solutions much more competitive with in-house solutions.

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    Analysis
    1.0
    The Three Faces of E-Mail Archiving
    1.1
    Compliance/Records Retention/Supervision
    1.2
    Legal Discovery
    1.3
    Mail Server Data Management
    2.0
    The Hosted E-Mail Value Proposition and Vendor Challenges
    2.1
    The Benefits of Outsourcing E-Mail Archiving
    2.2
    Vendor Solutions — An Expanded Range of Options
    2.3
    Vendor Challenges
    3.0
    Comparing Service Provider Pricing the Gartner Way
    4.0
    Selected Hosted E-Mail Archiving Service Providers
    4.1
    Autonomy Zantaz — Pleasanton, California, U.S.
    4.1.1
    Strengths
    4.1.2
    Challenges
    4.2
    Global Relay — Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
    4.2.1
    Strengths
    4.2.2
    Challenges
    4.3
    Google — Mountain View, California, U.S.
    4.3.1
    Strengths
    4.3.2
    Challenges
    4.4
    Iron Mountain Digital — Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
    4.4.1
    Strengths
    4.4.2
    Challenges
    4.5
    LiveOffice — Torrance, California, U.S.
    4.5.1
    Strengths
    4.5.2
    Challenges
    4.6
    MessageOne — Austin, Texas, U.S.
    4.6.1
    Strengths
    4.6.2
    Challenges
    4.7
    Microsoft — Redmond, Washington, U.S.
    4.7.1
    Strengths
    4.7.2
    Challenges
    4.8
    Mimecast — London, U.K.
    4.8.1
    Strengths
    4.8.2
    Challenges
    4.9
    Perimeter eSecurity — Milford, Connecticut, U.S.
    4.9.1
    Strengths
    4.9.2
    Challenges
    4.10
    Proofpoint — Sunnyvale, California, U.S.
    4.10.1
    Strengths
    4.10.2
    Challenges
    4.11
    Smarsh — Portland, Oregon, U.S.
    4.11.1
    Strengths
    4.11.2
    Challenges

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    Table 1.
    E-Mail Archiving Requirements Checklist


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    Figure 1.
    E-Mail Archiving Outsourced Market

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    Analysis

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    In 2003, Gartner chronicled the advent of e-mail archival service providers. That perspective examined a whole new category of service providers founded primarily to help companies meet regulatory requirements related to preserving electronic communications. At the time, only two service providers, Iron Mountain and Zantaz (acquired by Autonomy in 2008), fit the category. Since then, many new companies have announced hosted e-mail archiving as stand-alone services or in conjunction with other services. SaaS is gaining increased market acceptance as service providers address the concerns about data security and establish selling partnerships with large vendors to reduce viability concerns. While several of the featured service providers offer very basic capabilities, others have continued to raise the bar and have worked to compete more aggressively in larger accounts by adding attachment management and improved discovery tools.

    Gartner believes increased competition is inherently good for users, because it gives them more choices and generally promotes lower prices. The challenge becomes sorting out different vendor pricing models and the value of the services delivered measured in conjunction with service capabilities, service levels and quality of service.


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    1.0 The Three Faces of E-Mail Archiving

    Most organizations and businesses looking for an archiving solution for e-mail are motivated by one or more of the following three reasons:

    • Compliance/records retention/supervision
    • Legal discovery
    • Mail server data management


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    1.1 Compliance/Records Retention/Supervision

    Most companies and organizations are mandated to retain records of the business. Highly regulated industries generally must comply with industry-specific as well as general business and geography-specific requirements that relate to retention of business records and, in some cases, supervision of employee communications with customers. For example, broker-dealers in the financial services sector must comply with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 17a and self-regulating requirements of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA); see Note 1. These regulation not only define the kinds of records to be retained but also require supervision of communications to ensure that brokers are acting within mandated guidelines. Government agencies and state and local governments must also retain and make available records, including e-mail communications. The Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act highlighted the need to include electronic records as part of the retention plan for keeping records of the business. A similar regulatory focus and rules update has occurred in countries around the world.

    With the exception of the SEC and FINRA, there is currently little clarity around the required process for retention and, in many cases, even the length of time e-mail must be maintained. Determining which e-mails meet the definition of a record is also often unclear; thus relying on each e-mail user to identify and retain the appropriate messages requires a clear classification policy, careful training, and supervision to ensure that all required records are retained. Some companies are blocked from moving forward with archiving projects as negotiations on policy and practices are debated. Some have decided to save every e-mail, just to be safe. A few have developed classification policies and are working to see how reliable users are in identifying corporate records.

    Few e-mail archiving software and service companies will provide records policy development or legal advice. Specialty law firms and consulting firms have developed practices specifically to help companies to research regulations and develop policies.


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    1.2 Legal Discovery

    Legal discovery is related to compliance in that information retained by the business or agency can be subject to disclosure. In late 2006, the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) were revised to better address the requirements relating to the retention and discovery of electronically stored information (ESI) and its production in the discovery process. This update highlighted the responsibility of corporate management to understand how records are stored and managed. CIOs and other IT managers are now being asked to help support corporate efforts to document record-retention policies and to provide detailed information about related IT processes, while, at the same time, trying to cope with growing data volume. The implementation of the revised FRCP rules has served as a wake-up call to corporate legal teams that has them driving their companies to move quickly to bring electronic records management under control.

    Over the past several years, there has been a surge in market activity around electronic discovery (e-discovery). Although the update to the FRCP clarifies that discovery extends to any type of digital data, e-mails have been a common target in legal discovery. There is a tug of war going on within companies with some constituencies looking to delete all e-mail within a very short time to reduce risk while others are concerned about destroying valuable corporate information. Monitoring and content filtering is being used to supervise proper e-mail use and to identify potential problems before a legal situation arises. Since it is difficult to delete all copies of an e-mail, some companies find retaining all e-mail provides important information when preparing for a case.

    A key part of any archiving solution is the deletion of data when it reaches the end of its defined retention period. When companies are involved in legal situations, they may need to suspend the deletion of data per a court order —which is referred to as putting the data on “legal hold.” Most archiving service providers look to meet the legal hold requirement by copying the impacted data to a case file for retention until no longer needed for that case. The original copy is deleted when the original retention period is reached. This is a simple approach but one that corporate legal council needs to be comfortable with. Solutions that suspend deletion of the data in the archive are available, but are often more complex to manage.


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    1.3 Mail Server Data Management

    One primary advantage of e-mail archiving for IT is the potential for removing older messages from the active message system, thus freeing up storage space on e-mail servers and improving application performance. Using a mailbox management capability, archived e-mails and/or attachments will no longer reside on the mail server, freeing up precious disk space and reducing backup volume. Users should be able access this older e-mail via a Web browser-based application or through a mail system plug-in application. Service providers are increasingly offering a feature called “stubbing.” Stubbing (or linking) gives users access to archived e-mail within the e-mail application, just as if it were still stored in the active e-mail data store.

    The automating of the migration of older e-mail to the archive with deletion and stubbing negates requirements for use of unpopular mailbox-size quotas. In addition, migrating user personal stores to the archive where they are stored more efficiently can free up substantial disk space. Centralizing all historical messages in the archive provides IT with a single location to search when needed and the control to delete messages per a defined policy. Until recently, IT departments interested in providing users access to historical e-mail via stubs in the active mail store had to manage the archiving in-house. Within the past year, service providers have started to offer stub-based solutions, mostly for attachments only, removing this roadblock to a service solution where this approach is sufficient to address the management problem.


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    2.0 The Hosted E-Mail Value Proposition and Vendor Challenges

    2.1 The Benefits of Outsourcing E-Mail Archiving

    For many organizations and companies, managed e-mail archiving services can deliver a fast, relatively painless, solution with no initial infrastructure investments. Monthly usage payments address capital challenges. Defined service-level agreements commit the service provider to providing the required level of performance. Moreover, keeping internal IT out of the solution eliminates concerns about the possibility of insider tampering for companies under particular scrutiny.

    Additional service provider benefits include the following:

    • Pay for use — Push initial and ongoing resource purchases and related planning to service provider, paying for only what is needed.
    • Offload disaster recovery implementation — Leverage service provider's multiple sites to meet remote storage and disaster recovery requirements.
    • Media maintenance — Rely on service provider to update media and data formats as records age and as device and application technology changes.
    • Compliance requirements tracking — Use service provider's expertise to alert company of legislative changes or interpretations that may affect company compliance to records retention requirements.
    • Staffing efficiency — Continue IS staff focus on the company's core business.
    • Complete capture — 24/7 coverage to ensure that all records are captured.
    • Provide a short-term solution while company management decides on the ultimate approach to be records management.


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    2.2 Vendor Solutions — An Expanded Range of Options

    Because they are designed to meet the same legal requirements, the basic functionality of all e-mail archival service providers is pretty much the same when addressing records capture, search, and retention requirements. The provider will work with the customer to determine which e-mails are to be archived and if compliance supervision is required. From there, the process for archiving is usually as follows:

    • Selected e-mails are transferred to service provider via VPN, although smaller companies might chose to use the Internet.
    • E-mails are indexed and archived for specified retention periods and sometimes encrypted and/or digitally signed.
    • Each message and/or attachment is given a unique code to ensure that it is stored only once. Tools that store attachments separate from the message can result in a greater reduction of data stored.
    • The metadata and index for the record are stored separately and manage the retrieval and retention of the archived e-mail record.
    • Browser-based searches are available to assigned individuals or can be designated to an audit agency.
    • Records are destroyed at end of the retention period, so that they are not retrievable, even with forensic tools.
    • Records that are under legal hold need to be retained for as long as the requirement exists.

    For all service providers, ingesting active mail at the start of the process and migrating existing personal stores often requires additional cost in the form of professional services from the vendor, although some vendors are starting to provide tools that speed the process and reduce the cost. The cost of this activity should be negotiated upfront. Depending on the amount of data involved, this cost could be a factor in vendor selection.

    Although the basic purpose of external service provider solutions is the same, their implementations, user interfaces, breadth of services, security features, experience and pricing certainly are not. In fact, no two service providers highlighted in this report use exactly the same technology in their solutions. The increased use of on-site appliances to manage data reduction and encryption helps to reduce bandwidth traffic and fears about data security.

    In addition to different architectures, service providers can have very different pricing methodologies. Autonomy and Iron Mountain charge strictly by the amount of data stored. Google, Mimecast and Smarsh charge on a per-seat basis with unlimited storage. Others price on a combination of per-user and per-storage basis. Some service providers charge for searches, others don't. Additionally, service providers will charge different rates for ancillary services, such as supervisory compliance, discovery services, help desk and tape restores.

    Finally, the breadth of services and methods of service delivery differ greatly from one service provider to another. Some have acquired other companies to meet SEC supervisory regulations. Others sublicense or partner to meet those same requirements. Additionally, some service providers grew from a background in electronic records management or security and have migrated to e-mail archiving services, while others grew from e-mail archiving and are moving to more comprehensive digital records archival and management.


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    2.3 Vendor Challenges

    Currently, Gartner tracks more than a dozen e-mail archiving service providers, exclusive of e-mail hosting companies that may also offer archiving as an incremental service. But no matter what their business model, all archiving service providers face similar challenges. To begin with, providers of hosted e-mail archiving services face many of the same hurdles that are challenging service providers in general. Certainly, security tops the list, but e-mail archiving providers might face even tougher scrutiny here. Not only must the data they store be secure, for financial clients with broker-dealers, it must be tamper-proof as well. Another factor is market maturity. The market for e-mail archival services is still young and is attracting a growing number of players — many of them will be acquired, merge, change business models or simply go out of business.

    For organizations looking for a service provider, finding one that will be in business for as long as the data will need to be stored is a concern. Service provider viability is as much of a concern as service capabilities, especially for organizations with long retention periods.


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    3.0 Comparing Service Provider Pricing the Gartner Way

    Although customers have dozens of service provider options, it's not that difficult to narrow the field rather quickly. The first hurdle is the e-mail platform itself. All service providers can support Microsoft Exchange. Fewer can handle Lotus Domino. Still fewer Novell GroupWise, Bloomberg, or Web-based mail systems. If mail server data management is a requirement, this will further narrow the field. A few vendors do attachment management, leaving a stub or link. Autonomy can do full mailbox management with its EAS On-Demand and MessageOne also manages stubbing with an on site appliance

    Comparing vendor pricing is difficult because of the wide range of pricing models and the various forms of discounting available. To accurately compare one service provider's prices with another, Gartner recommends the following steps:

    • Define a likely scenario and ask each vendor to provide a monthly price and identify setup fees. Because different service providers utilize different billing methodologies, it can be very difficult to compare prices without a scenario. Some charge by the total amount of data protected, while others charge a flat price per user and retention period. In either case, it should be possible for the service provider to estimate a monthly “run rate” based on volume and service levels. Keep in mind that models based on the amount of data protected will increase every month throughout the retention period unless it is moved to lower-cost media. As a consequence, so will the bill. For vendors that charge by amount of stored data, the vendor's approach to compression, single-instance store or data deduplication can have an impact on the cost. Discuss the vendor's approach to deduplication and estimate the additional savings possible with a vendor that is more efficient removing duplicates. Encryption in the active e-mail system can negatively impact deduplication, so discuss this impact as well.
    • Decide which services and service levels you really need — All the “free” services included in a service provider's base price are worthless if you don't need them. Just how valuable are instant messaging archival capabilities if your company doesn't support instant messaging? In this case, it simply doesn't matter whether the service provider charges additional for these capabilities.
    • Remember that bandwidth isn't free — Transferring e-mails with large attachments can burn up bandwidth, and one way or another the customer will pay for it. Ask vendors with on-site appliances if single instancing of messages occurs prior to transmission so that only unique messages and attachments are sent or if all copies are sent over the wire and then duplicates removed at the service provider site.
    • Ask pricing for discovery support — Are robust discovery tools available? If so, is there an added cost? Can the vendor provide additional services if you have questions, or must you find that help elsewhere. Give the vendor a discovery scenario and ask it to provide a price.
    • What will it cost to get your data from the service if you decide to bring the application in-house or if you decide to change service providers? Get a guaranteed price and delivery time commitment written into your contract.
    • The requirements list in Table 1 is a good starting point for comparing vendors you want to consider. But no matter which e-mail archiving service provider is ultimately selected, Gartner recommends negotiating an exit strategy upfront. Transforming archived e-mails into .pst files can be an expensive proposition. Rearchiving them into another service provider's repository could be even more expensive.
    Table 1. E-Mail Archiving Requirements Checklist

    Our Requirements
    User E-Mail and IM Environments to Be Supported
    Exchange, Domino, Novell, Bloomberg IM, etc.
    Planned migrations from/to
    IM, Mailboxes and Servers
    Number of e-mail mailboxes to be archived
    Number of e-mail mailboxes to be supervised
    Number of IM accounts to be archived
    Number of IM accounts to be supervised
    Approximate mailbox monthly volume
    Approximate IM monthly volume
    Location of mail/IM servers
    Legacy Data to Be Archived (E-Mail Backup Tapes)
    Other Documents to Be Archived
    Confirms, Statements, 1099s, SharePoint, etc.
    Mailbox Management Requirements
    Message and/or attachment removal
    Deletion of messages from mailboxes
    Archive Access and Security
    Integration with application development or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol for management and security
    End-user access to archive via Outlook
    End-user Web access to only its part of the archive
    Data stored in encrypted form at service provider's data center
    Data stored multiple times in at least two different locations
    User Compliance and Supervision Requirements
    SEC 17a, FINRA, HIPAA, NYSE 342, etc.
    Discovery Requirements
    Legal hold
    Review and case management capabilities
    Data export format requirements
    IM = instant messaging
    HIPAA = Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
    Source: Gartner (April 2009)



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    4.0 Selected Hosted E-Mail Archiving Service Providers

    Before 2000, only Zantaz (now a division of Autonomy) delivered a robust service provider alternative to in-house deployments. Today, customers have many choices among managed e-mail archiving service providers, ranging from archiving and discovery companies such as Autonomy Zantaz; to managed backup companies, like EVault; to spam filtering and e-mail hygiene service providers including Global Relay, LiveOffice, MessageOne, Proofpoint, and Postini (acquired by Google); to managed security companies like Perimeter to business continuity/disaster recovery behemoths, such as IBM and SunGard. Hosted e-mail services like NTT America and Intermedia frequently provide e-mail archiving services to their customer base.

    Since our report in February of 2008, the customer base for archiving services has grown to 23,624 companies. Petabytes (PB) under management grew from about 1PB to 2.5PB, with most vendors having modest archives per customer. Autonomy, with only 3% market share based on number of customers (see Figure 1), had the largest amount of data under management. As a metric to measure success in the market, terebytes of data under management can recognize service providers managing the largest amount of data, or reward those who inefficiently manage the storage resource. Leading vendors are constantly looking for ways to leverage new technologies, such as new redundant array of independent disks levels and data deduplication, to store more data in less space.

    Since our February 2008 report, the acquisition frenzy for e-mail archiving services has slowed dramatically. Other than the acquisition of Fortiva by Proofpoint, all service providers featured in this report remain under the same ownership as in 2008. Prior to that, FrontBridge was acquired by Microsoft, EVault was acquired by Seagate, and Zantaz was acquired by Autonomy. MessageOne, (acquired by Dell) entered the market in 2006. Postini also launched an archiving service in 2006 and then was acquired by Google in 2007. The service providers featured in this report represent larger and more-established service offerings but are not an exhaustive compilation of every service offering available. SunGard offers a service using EMC's EmailXtender software product but has only a handful of customers since launching the service in 2005. IBM, EDS, Quest Systems and Renew Data also sell a service managed by AXS-One, which itself became an acquisition target of Unify in 2009.

    Gartner anticipates a plethora of new market entrants, partnerships and acquisitions in 2009 and 2010 for a number of reasons. One is purely economic. Despite a weakening global economy, not a single service provider interviewed for this report reported any deterioration in market demand for its services, and some anticipate 2009 revenue to top 2008 two to three times over. Additionally, cloud technologies are lowering the barriers to market entry. Previously, service providers had to spend investment capital on compute and storage infrastructure. But the advent of cloud computing is allowing newcomers like Sonian Networks to enter the market without investing a nickel in servers and storage.

    Figure 1. E-Mail Archiving Outsourced Market

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    Source: Gartner (April 2009)


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    4.1 Autonomy Zantaz — Pleasanton, California, U.S.

    www.zantaz.com

    Founded in 1996, Autonomy Zantaz (Zantaz), with its Digital Safe service, is the oldest and one of the largest e-mail archiving service providers in terms of the amount of stored mail. The company broadened its solutions offerings through the 2004 acquisitions of Educom and Steelpoint Technologies and was itself acquired by Autonomy in 2007. Zantaz offers licensed software, as well as hosted services primarily related to e-mail archiving, eDiscovery and records management. The company has seen strong growth in volume of Digital Safe data under management as a result of its support for large customers, including some of the largest financial services companies in the United States. Autonomy's strong European presence has helped Zantaz grow e-mail archiving business to the point that it now represents one-third of company revenue. In 2006, the company introduced a new service option (EAS On-Demand) that places an appliance at the customer site for handling the capture and transmission of messages but also serve as a local repository for messages deleted and stubbed in the user's mailbox. Adoption for this new service got off to a slow start but is accelerating.

    Digital Safe, a compliance-and-discovery-focused solution, supports the archiving of Exchange, Domino, GroupWise, Oracle Collaboration Suite, Unix Sendmail, Bloomberg and Instant Message. The product was re-engineered to operate on top of the Autonomy Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL), which indexes, removes duplicates, and provides the tools for analyzing the archived data. If mailbox management is not needed, no on-site user hardware is required and journaling is used to capture messages for transmission to two of five primary data centers located in the U.S. and the U.K. Data is not stored in encrypted form. For those looking for mailbox management, an on-site server is required and all the capabilities of the EAS product solution are available for managing mailbox sizes and access to stubbed data through EAS On-Demand. Digital Safe has extensive supervision and eDiscovery capabilities and the ability to export and load data into the more comprehensive Introspect discovery and Aungate legal hold and Early Case Assessment (ECA) solutions.

    The company also offers data restoration and electronic discovery services as well as consulting, implementation and support services. Leveraging Autonomy's IDOL search engine, Zantaz claims the unique position of being the only service provider to create a consolidated archive of all information sources including e-mail and instant messaging, voice, video and enterprise systems. The 2007 acquisition by Autonomy of electronic records management software provider Meridio has provided more-robust retention management technology for integration with the archiving offerings. Digital Safe is priced based on storage used, with added cost modules for supervision, discovery, real-time policy management, and mailbox management. Monthly cost decreases for data stored beyond three years.


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    4.1.1 Strengths
    • Public company with strong financial viability and large development team
    • Blue-chip company references and a competent professional services organization for advisory and legacy migration services
    • Both hosted and on-site managed compliance and discovery solutions


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    4.1.2 Challenges
    • Bankruptcies, consolidations and chaos in the U.S. financial industry, the company's primary customer segment, resulting in both challenges and opportunities
    • Delivering on the EAS On-Demand solution to establish a competitive advantage over the growing number of viable competitors
    • Growing the customer base and providing new references for the IDOL-based solution


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    4.2 Global Relay — Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    www.globalrelay.com

    Founded in 1999, Global Relay is a 60-person, private, employee-owned company offering hosted services for e-mail archiving, filtering and continuity. The Message Archiver & Compliance Reviewer service supports the archiving of Exchange, Lotus Domino, GroupWise, Bloomberg, Instant Messaging, and SMTP-based mail systems. Reporting 3,000 customers and 180 terabytes of data, the company is now targeting large companies. Their largest customer is using the service for 8,000 mailboxes. The bulk of Global Relay customers are in the financial industry and have focused on supervision tools for the archive. Discovery focuses around its proprietary search capability and exporting capabilities. Through partner selling efforts, the company (notably in an exclusive partnership with Reuters) can boast customers around the world, including growth in Asia/Pacific, although 80% of its business is in North America. Other partners include IBM's Exchange Hosting business through Apptix, Rackspace, USA.NET, Softek and Bell Canada.

    The Message Archiver stores all messages on disk in .eml format in its own proprietary encrypted format, which incorporates both Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and RSA secure encryption algorithms. The data is mirrored between geographically dispersed data centers in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada, and multiple copies are stored in each location. The company also makes a copy of the client's data on a dedicated write once, read many (WORM) tape drive to meet tamperproof requirements and also will provide the drive and tapes to the client use if it decides to take the data back on-site. User information can be imported from company directory systems. The product includes the ability to restore a message to the active mailbox, if needed. The product is Unicode-enabled and the graphical user interface is localized in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese. Service pricing is based on the number of users, but there is a volume-stored pricing option for customers with more than 1,000 users.


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    4.2.1 Strengths
    • Strong partner channel network and exclusive deal with Reuters
    • Robust supervision capabilities with no journaling requirement
    • XML formatting technology delivers easy integration into multiple messaging services


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    4.2.2 Challenges
    • Expanding customer base beyond traditional financial institutions
    • Limited market awareness
    • Need to expand discovery and mailbox management capabilities to compete effectively against expanding capabilities of competitors


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    4.3 Google — Mountain View, California, U.S.

    www.google.com

    On 5 February 2008, Google announced the extension of its Google Apps Packages to include Postini's services for spam and virus protection and an e-mail archiving and discovery offering based on the Postini technology. Postini had launched an e-mail archiving service in mid-2006, but it really began to gain traction when the company partnered with Google in February 2007. Google acquired Postini in September 2007. Marketing for the Postini offering was limited, as the company worked through the acquisition. Initial target was the compliance market. Google now offers archiving based on the Postini code for both Google Apps, as well as on-premises e-mail systems. The majority of its installed base is small and midsize companies, but customer size has been growing as Postini/Google has rolled out advanced investigation capabilities and the ability to consolidate historical data.

    The Google Message Discovery service captures messages from any messaging system using MX record redirect or can use envelope journaling with Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Domino. Messages, header, and attachments are indexed and stored, unencrypted, in multiple secure data centers in different geographical areas. Retention management includes the ability to implement legal hold when required and manage retention policies for up to 10 years of data, at either the domain, or the user-group level. Three levels of access privileges allow the user, IT and legal or compliance personnel to access appropriate parts of the archive. Users can recover a message from their personal archive, bringing a copy back into their e-mail in-box. Google also offers a toolbar plug-in for Outlook that allows end users to search for, view and respond to e-mails natively in their e-mail client. All access to the archive is logged, and the logs are retained for review if needed. A centralized Web-based administration tool provides for monitoring and display of reports on archive use. Current searches are English only, but the user interface has been localized in French, German, Spanish and Italian.

    Pricing is based on mailbox and the length of time the data is to be retained. List pricing for Google Message Discovery is $25 per user, per year for one-year retention, and $45 per user, per year for up to 10 years of retention. Both packages include unlimited storage. Virus and spam protection, as well as Postini's content policy management, are included as part of the service. Additional services are available for ingesting personal stores and messages on backup tapes.


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    4.3.1 Strengths
    • Public company with large base of Google Apps customers
    • Postini customer base in spam and virus protection
    • Simple pricing structure, simple deployment


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    4.3.2 Challenges
    • Enterprise resistance to storing unencrypted data outside the corporation
    • Increasing market awareness for and positioning of the capabilities of the Google Message Discovery versus the Postini Archive Manager
    • Scalability and customer support as it targets larger clients with longer retention periods


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    4.4 Iron Mountain Digital — Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

    www.ironmountain.com/digital

    Founded in 1951, Iron Mountain is a public company with more than 20,000 employees and 2008 revenue of over $3 billion, primarily from the storage and protection of paper records and electronic media. Digital services accounts for about 7% of company revenue. In November 2001, the company entered the digital archiving market by offering services for archiving e-mail, electronic documents and scanned images. In 2003, Iron Mountain introduced data restoration services for regulatory investigations and litigation discovery. The Digital Record Center for Compliant Messaging (DRC-CM), formerly known as Digital Archives, is targeted at customers in the financial industry with North America SEC compliance archiving and supervision requirements. For all other customers, Iron Mountain provides e-mail archiving and management based on technology licensed from Mimecast (see Mimecast section) and infrastructure but hosted by Iron Mountain. Iron Mountain also resells the Dell MessageOne managed e-mail service solution, which includes e-mail archiving, continuity, and security.

    Today, DRC-CM is used for Exchange, Bloomberg, and Instant Message. Support for Lotus Domino was added in 2007, and the company now supports a few customers on that platform. Pricing is based on monthly gigabytes (GB) of storage consumed. Scaling to meet massive data requirements has been a recent challenge, but a major revamping of the company's storage architecture is in place, and current customer data is in progress and expected to be completed by midyear.

    Microsoft's journaling feature is used to capture messages from specific targeted users. Once data is captured and sent to Iron Mountain, it is fully indexed, digitally fingerprinted, and written to disk. Today, data is encrypted in transit, although not in the existing store. The product road map will provide for encryption capabilities as part of the store in the updated archive services platform architecture. The index data is stored in Oracle databases for searching, and the original message is stored on two WORM devices and dispatched to separate locations. Results from queries can be moved to “discovery folders” where result sets can be further managed and, if desired, exported using .eml, PST, and NSF formats for use by other litigation support tools. Iron Mountain's acquisition of Stratify should provide additional discovery capabilities. For regulated environments, DRC-CM supports postreview and provides tools for sampling and management by reviewers.


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    4.4.1 Strengths
    • Public company with a large base of paper- and tape-archiving customers
    • Reputation in records management, compliance and document management
    • Professional services organization to support policy design and legacy ingestion of data


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    4.4.2 Challenges
    • Competition from product and service providers with lower cost, but equally robust solutions — including the MessageOne offering that it resells
    • Saturated market for North America SEC compliance archiving and turmoil in its key target market, the financial services industry
    • Porting customer data to the new storage infrastructure to reduce costs


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    4.5 LiveOffice — Torrance, California, U.S.

    www.liveoffice.com

    Founded in 1998, LiveOffice is a private, 150-person company that provides a variety of e-mail services in addition to archiving including spam filtering, antivirus protection, e-mail continuity and hosted e-mail and BlackBerry. Archiving accounts for the vast majority of company revenue. LiveOffice supports mainstream e-mail applications, including Exchange, Domino, GroupWise and SMTP as well as instant messaging from Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Google, Bloomberg, and Reuters. LiveOffice currently reports 8,500 customers in North America and is archiving 250 terabytes of customer e-mail data. The company historically targeted businesses in the financial community but began offering a service in June, 2008 targeted at the rest of the market, which accounted for more than one-half of its sales in the fourth quarter of 2008. The average customer archives 125 mailboxes being archived with less than a couple hundred GB stored. About 100 have more than 500 mailboxes being archived, with some managing thousands of mailboxes. The company promotes tight integration of its service into both Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange.

    The product provides journal-based archiving with data stored in the primary data center in El Segundo, California, U.S., with a backup facility in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. The system supports the archive, index, search and retrieval of messages and attachments. The user interface has been localized in English, Spanish, and French. Archiving is in multiple languages, including Unicode character sets. Access to the archive system is protected by user-identification and password, but the data is only encrypted if requested. The service is offered on a per-mailbox basis with unlimited storage. There are two offerings, one with special supervision features targeted at the regulated portion of the financial industry, which includes the ability to do both pre- and postreview of messages, and one for all other industries. The base product outside financial services provides online search (Boolean logic, proximity searches, fuzzy and phonetic searches) and retrieval features that meet eDiscovery requirements. Compliance policy management capabilities (that is, lexicon-based scanning) are also available. In 2008 LifeOffice offered free e-mail continuity services to all of its Exchange customers and added an incremental encryption option.


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    4.5.1 Strengths
    • “Prereview” capabilities that provide the ability to quarantine suspect e-mail for review before it is sent to a user mailbox or gets sent out
    • Strong management team and marketing resulting in fast customer growth
    • “Free” e-mail continuity services and an incremental encryption offering


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    4.5.2 Challenges
    • Concern about company viability, a standard concern for any small, private company, but especially important in a market where the relationship depends on the service being available for a multiyear period
    • Limited visibility in the market
    • Managing fast growth


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    4.6 MessageOne — Austin, Texas, U.S.

    www.messageone.com

    In April 2008, Dell finalized its acquisition of MessageOne, a 175-person, private company providing archiving and continuity services for Exchange as well as e-mail hygiene under the E-mail Management Services (EMS) brand. Additionally, the company offers an emergency notification service for crisis management. MessageOne entered the archiving market in mid-2006, leveraging its exiting continuity storage infrastructure with data centers in the U.S. (Chicago and Dallas) and Europe (the U.K. and Germany). Three-quarters of its customers are in North America. Europe is the next-largest regional penetration, but the company reports customers in other areas as well, mainly divisions of U.S.- or Europe-based companies. MessageOne targets companies with 1,000 or more mailboxes, with such customers accounting for 80% of its revenue. The company does support one customer with 200,000 mailboxes. Iron Mountain and SunGard are reselling partners, offing both continuity and archiving services through MessageOne.

    MessageOne customers deploy a small Windows appliance in their environments, which connects to the Exchange and Active Directory servers to perform functions, such as message capture, compression, attachment stubbing, transmission and receipt verification. Once messages are sent to a MessageOne data center, they are redundantly stored in at least two locations and indexed. Every message is encrypted in motion and then stored. The archive supports Unicode; non-English access is available through Outlook, but the Web-access capabilities are available in English only. Authentication and access permissions are synchronized through the appliance with the user's company security policy as recorded in Active Directory. Searches are federated across many search nodes, and all data exists on at least two nodes for high availability and data protection. MessageOne has no tools other than storage and policy management to support the special requirements of the broker-dealer part of the financial market, preferring to focus on the broader market where eDiscovery is more of a concern. The company has developed tools for ingesting active messages and personal stores and has the ability to recover messages to the exchange server. And it provides an extract capability that allows users to roll data off the archive as it ages onto their user storage if they wish to store and manage it themselves for “just in case” use. The service is priced based on number of mailboxes and volume of storage.


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    4.6.1 Strengths
    • No journaling required, strong encryption through a local appliance that guarantees secure access
    • Multitenancy, multigeography storage architecture for secure, low-cost storage with two copies at the primary site and another at a different location
    • Additional e-mail services, including spam-blocking, virus protection, and e-mail continuity services


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    4.6.2 Challenges
    • Charging for storage capacity while increasingly competitors do not
    • Gaining increased visibility for the company and the offering
    • Extending its eDiscovery and mailbox management capabilities if it is to effectively compete in the 1,000-or-more market


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    4.7 Microsoft — Redmond, Washington, U.S.

    www.microsoft.com/exchange/services

    Microsoft became a hosted e-mail archiving service provider through the acquisition of FrontBridge Technologies in 2005. Microsoft offers the service as one of four Exchange Hosted Services. In mid-2009 Microsoft will begin migrating its e-mail archiving data to the company's cloud storage infrastructure, the same storage platform as SQL Data Services, a building block service of the Azure Services platform.

    The average customer for Microsoft Exchange Hosted Archive has approximately 450 to 500 mailboxes under management and less than 150GB of data stored though Microsoft reports at least one customer with over 6,000 mailboxes under management. Microsoft also has a reselling relationship with Proofpoint; this archiving solution can be used in conjunction with the Exchange Online Dedicated service for customers with 10,000 or more mailboxes who may also need an encrypted data store.

    Based on a redirection of a customer's mail exchange (MX) record, messages to and from the Internet are copied to the archive “in stream” with envelope journaling used to capture internal messages. Although most current customers are in North America, Microsoft does have a geographically separate data center network for archiving in Europe. The product currently supports Exchange, Bloomberg and IM archiving. Messages in the archive are single-instance stored. The product provides search and postreview supervision capabilities with highlighting of words in returned messages that caused the message to be selected. Supervision tools include sampling via keyword dictionaries and/or percentages and extensive reviewer management tools. The product also has a message-restore feature to allow deleted messages to be copied back to the active mail store. Exchange Hosted Archive also includes a continuity feature that allows ongoing send/receive functionality of e-mail during a network outage. The new offering is now Unicode-enabled, and messages are not encrypted when stored. Microsoft SQL Search is the offering's search engine.


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    4.7.1 Strengths
    • The Microsoft brand, financial strength, technologies and R&D money
    • Microsoft selling channel partners
    • Part of a portfolio of Exchange Hosted Services, including continuity and message-filtering services


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    4.7.2 Challenges
    • Scalability — which may be addressed when migration to CloudDB is complete
    • No professional services capability for retention policy construction, compliance assessment, or audit support
    • Positioning Exchange Hosted Archiving offering with resale of Proofpoint
    • Competing with other robust solutions that are less costly


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    4.8 Mimecast — London, U.K.

    www.mimecast.com

    Founded in 2002, Mimecast offers managed e-mail archiving as part of a wider Unified E-mail Management service. The service includes integrated continuity and security for corporate communications and data. A U.K.-based company, Mimecast began active operations and marketing in the U.S. in January 2008 and has other operations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and offshore. The 130-person company claims 2,000 customers, including 40% of the U.K.'s top law firms. Gartner estimates that more than 50% of its customers are using the e-mail archiving service. Mimecast markets through direct and alliance channels to the enterprise market and also serves the small and midsize markets through partners. In April of 2009, Iron Mountain announced an agreement to license Mimecast technology for a managed solution that would be hosted at Iron Mountain facilities.

    Mimecast e-mail archiving works with all mail servers but offers additional services for Exchange and Outlook implementations, such as integration into Outlook for active search and transparent failover and the archiving of e-mails to and from users on the same mail server. With Mimecast's proprietary technology, e-mails are captured either through the gateway for external mail or journaling for internal mail, then encrypted, hashed, split into component parts, single-instanced, and then hashed again. Encryption is AES 256, with fragments of both customer data and decryption keys stored across different servers so individual server data is meaningless outside of the entire repository. At present, Mimecast archives e-mail messages and attachments only. Plans for document archiving, IM and SharePoint support are on the road map. Pricing is on a per-seat basis with unlimited storage. Mimecast also charges a small annual fee for technical support.


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    4.8.1 Strengths
    • Encryption of customer data and key management
    • Strong European presence
    • E-mail continuity service


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    4.8.2 Challenges
    • Charges customers for phone support
    • Currently no mail server management — planned for mid-2009
    • No IM support — currently negotiating with providers
    • Potential for acquisition by Iron Mountain


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    4.9 Perimeter eSecurity — Milford, Connecticut, U.S.

    www.perimeterusa.com

    E-mail archiving is only one of 50 Perimeter eSecurity services offered on a software as a service (SaaS) basis. Founded in 1997, the company's services focus largely on managed security, such as intrusion detection and prevention, vulnerability scanning, Web content filtering, secure remote access using identity tokens, and anti-phishing. E-mail-related services include e-mail hygiene, e-mail continuity and hosted e-mail. Managed e-messaging compliance is provided by wholly owned subsidiary, Seccas. The company also provides hosted messaging through the 2007 acquisition of USA.NET. The e-mail archiving service was launched in 2001 and has attracted only a relatively small number of customers — 550 — who are fairly evenly split between Exchange and SMTP Mail. The service supports Lotus Domino, as well as Bloomberg, Reuters and Instant Messaging. Perimeter developed proprietary technology for e-mail archiving. E-mails are captured by journaling. They are indexed, deduped and then stored in redundant data centers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. E-Discovery is supported using Boolean searches. Pricing is based on the number of users, amount of storage and retention period.


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    4.9.1 Strengths
    • Large client base to sell into
    • Managed e-messaging service
    • E-mail continuity service


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    4.9.2 Challenges
    • Keeping focus on e-mail archiving with 50 other SaaS offerings.
    • Concern about company viability, a standard concern for any small, private company, but especially important in a market in which the relationship depends on the service being available for a multiyear period; company will open financials to prospects under NDA.
    • Growing market awareness.


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    4.10 Proofpoint — Sunnyvale, California, U.S.

    www.proofpoint.com

    Founded in 2002, Proofpoint focuses on e-mail products and services with solutions for e-mail security, archiving and data loss prevention. Proofpoint lacked an e-mail archiving service until June of 2008 when it acquired 45-person e-mail archiving service provider, Fortiva, of Toronto.

    Proofpoint e-mail archiving service offers capabilities for journaled capture and archiving of e-mail, IM, Bloomberg mail, and attachments with the added ability to delete attachments from the active e-mail data store, leaving a link for mailbox-size reduction but with easy user retrieval. Searches can be done in real time or via a batch process with a resulting copy of the messages available for review online or exported in PST format. Supervision is available as an additional service option and offers a range of workflow scenarios for message review. But Proofpoint's unique contribution is its patented DoubleBlind Encryption technology that allows customers to retain exclusive access to their data while archiving at one of Proofpoint's data centers. The appliance is on the customer's network, connected directly with the Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory servers. At configurable time intervals, the on-site appliance uses MAPI calls to log into Exchange and access the journal mailbox and copy any messages to the appliance where they are indexed, encrypted and sent via secure connection for storage at a Proofpoint data center. Messages stay in the journaling mailbox until storage at Proofpoint is confirmed. The only data permanently stored on the appliance is the user's encryption keys. Messages can be decrypted only when an authorized user on the customer's network conducts a search from Outlook or from a Web-based user interface.

    Messages can be viewed only by someone with access to both the customer Proofpoint appliance and the Proofpoint data center. Ten roles can be defined, each with different data access characteristics, and users can be assigned a role in their Active Directory profile. Proofpoint e-mail archiving maintains a full audit trail of user activities relating to the data. In November 2008, Proofpoint enhanced the service to allow mobile employees to search the archive using any device supporting Microsoft Outlook Web Access. Proofpoint pricing is on a per-seat and per-GB per-month basis, billed annually.


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    4.10.1 Strengths
    • Complementary e-mail security offerings
    • Strong encryption
    • Microsoft relationship


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    4.10.2 Challenges
    • Limited archiving customer base
    • Limited market visibility, and limited focus on archiving
    • Concern about company viability, a standard concern for any small, private company, but especially important in a market where the relationship depends on the service being available for a multiyear period


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    4.11 Smarsh — Portland, Oregon, U.S.

    www.smarsh.com

    Founded in 2001 and named for founder Steve Marsh, Smarsh initially targeted its e-mail archiving and compliance hosted solution to the financial services market as a solution compliant with the requirements of SEC 17A and FINRA 3010. In 2008, the company acquired CentraScan and Financial Visions, adding additional hosted e-mail and turnkey Web site services to its core e-mail archiving services. Smarsh reports 4,000 e-mail archiving customers, predominantly North American financial services companies. In 2009 and beyond the company is seeking to expand its customer base to other industries.

    Based on proprietary technologies, the Smarsh SaaS offering accommodates all e-mail systems as well as IM. E-mail messages are typically journaled from the e-mail server then indexed, scanned, deduped and stored on WORM devices to multiple locations in the U.S. Unique to Smarsh is a rule-based classification agent called Virtual Compliance Officer designed to automate many e-mail supervisory tasks. Customer support is provided 24/7 from East and West Coast centers. Professional services are delivered mainly through partners. Pricing is on a per-seat basis with unlimited per mailbox capacity.


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    4.11.1 Strengths
    • Focus on financial services with unique “virtual compliance officer” supervisory tool
    • Large customer base
    • Customer relationship management service offering targeted at the financial industry complements e-mail archiving in that market


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    4.11.2 Challenges
    • Migrating customer data to new storage infrastructure and new deduplication capabilities
    • Concern about company viability, a standard concern for any small, private company, but especially important in a market where the relationship depends on the service being available for a multiyear period
    • Expanding outside of financial services


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    © 2009 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction and distribution of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Although Gartner's research may discuss legal issues related to the information technology business, Gartner does not provide legal advice or services and its research should not be construed or used as such. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

October 22, 2009

The Kindle on our laptops will soon be the real deal

Filed under: Tech — Tags: , , — briannieves1988 @ 8:41 pm
Kindle for PC. I Bet You Look Good On a Touchscreen
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    awesm_api_key: 'edfc207d929b8ae0d024b6c647946188450f042727c838dda8f2d1b2227e4734',
    title: 'Kindle for PC. I Bet You Look Good On a Touchscreen'
    –> <!– –>
by John Biggs on October 22, 2009

kindle-for-pc-tcg-coming-soon._V229480704_

Amazon has just made their new Kindle for PC available for pre-order online, a move that turns almost any PC in the entire world into a fully-fledged ereader. The software comes on the heels of all of the big Win7 announcements today evens up the playing fields when it comes to PC-based ereaders.

Amazon has long had the Kindle but Barnes & Noble launched a PC ereader long before Amazon, putting them at a disadvantage. B&N also has versions of their reader for OS X, BlackBerry smartphones, and the iPhone/Touch.

Kindle for PC Demo on Windows 7

The actual Amazon PC version isn’t quite available – it’s still coming soon – but it’s currently floating around in Beta. Unfortunately there is no planned Mac version either, something that B&N already has. Interestingly, Michael noted the value of “opening up” the Kindle service to multiple devices back in August 2008 and it seems that they’re clearly seeing ways into new markets untouched by the current ereader craze.

The B&N’s PC/Mac/iPhone e-reader is here.

I also have this song in my head:

.cbw padding: 1px; border: 1px solid #b6b6b6; margin: .6em 0 .6em 0 !important; clear: both; .cbw a color: #3F87BB !important; border: 0 !important; text-decoration: none !important; .cbw a:hover color: #165d91 !important; border: 0 !important; text-decoration: none !important; .cbw_header font-size: .9em; font-weight: bold; position: relative; .cbw_header_text background: #f4f4f4 !important; padding: 1em 1em 1em 1em !important; .cbw_header_toggle display: block; position: absolute; top: 1em; right: 1em; _right: 3.5em; font-weight: bold; cursor: pointer; .cbw_header_get display: block; position: absolute; top: 1em; right: 7em; _right: 9.5em; font-weight: bold; cursor: pointer; .cbw_subheader padding: .7em .7em .5em .7em !important; border: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; font-size: 1.2em !important; background: #f4f4f4 !important; font-weight: bold; .cbw_subcontent font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.2em !important; margin: .15em 0 .15em 0 !important; padding: .7em !important; background: white !important; border-top: 2px solid #f4f4f4 !important; border-bottom: 2px solid #f9f9f9 !important; overflow: hidden; height: auto; .cbw_subcontent p margin: .45em .15em .45em .15em !important; padding: 0 !important; .cbw_subcontent_left float: right !important; margin: 0 0 .5em .5em !important; .cbw img max-width: 150px !important; max-height: 150px !important; border: 0 !important; padding: 0 !important; .cbw img:hover, .cbw_subcontent_left a:hover border: 0 !important; .cbw_subcontent_right .cbw_subcontent table width: auto !important; .cbw_subcontent td padding: .15em !important; vertical-align: top !important; .cbw_subcontent .td_left width: 40px !important; font-weight: bold !important; .cbw_footer padding: .8em !important; font-size: .9em !important; text-align: right !important; background: #f9f9f9 !important; .cbw_footer a font-weight: bold; .cbw_header_text display: none; geAmazon
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