Google made some waves earlier this week by reportedly moving employees off of Windows and onto Mac OS X and Linux machines -- although the company wouldn't confirm the switch, the move was said to be precipitated by security issues after Chinese hackers attacked the search giant back in January.
Now, that wasn't the only reason mentioned in the report -- Google apparently also wants employees to use home-grown products like Chrome OS, and it's sort of weird for Google to buy tons of software licenses from a major competitor -- but the implication that Windows isn't secure enough for Google seems to have raised Microsoft's hackles: a new post on the Windows Team Blog says the irony of the move is "hard to overlook" as Gmail and Google Docs have privacy and security issues of their own, offers a point-by-point breakdown of all the ways Windows 7 is more secure than the competition, and goes on to suggest that a recent piece of shady Mac OS X malware is "a future sign of things to come for Apple and security." Meow.
Now, we honestly think the real story is as simple as Google not wanting to write Microsoft a really big check, but we're not going to say no to a little fight here -- Eric, Steve, you have anything to say?
source Windows Team Blog
Friday, June 11, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Announcing the dynamic new TV show "Inspiration with Lance Heft" Website Launch (PBS Fall '10):
The Inspiration TV show theme draws from people who are all around us...people who can help to change your perspective; and your life.
Just watch some of the show clips that feature a diverse range of guests who share their own personal inspiring stories and offer ideas and encouragement for leading the best life. Guests come from a variety of industries that include entertainment, business, journalism, medicine and the arts. They are united by one common thread: they have not only achieved a life that encompasses their passions, they are living examples of happiness, contentment, and generosity.
It is about discovering the resiliency and determination of the human spirit through the stories of others...and in the process, finding your own.
Guests include:
Jack & Suzy Welch
Long sought after for their practical and poignant advice in both life and business, Jack and Suzy share their wisdom and secrets about success.
Peter Max
Arguably one of the world's most famous living artists whose painting and art continues to define an Era. The interview goes behind the public persona and explores both the artist and the man.
New York City Animal Rights Activist Gene Baur
Gene Baur founded Farm Sanctuary to end cruelty to farm animals and to promote compassionate living through rescue, education, and advocacy. His ability to engage public and celebrity awareness for this valuable cause is remarkable and inspiring.
Gene's personal journey may open your eyes to the issues that are closest to his mission. His selfless passion demonstrates how you can take the causes that are dear to your heart and serve them in your life.
Visit Lance Heft's Inspiration on the web
www.pbs-inspiration.org
For media interviews, contact:
Diane T. Creston
Creston Advertising & Marketing, Inc.
New York, New York 10017
info@crestonadvertising.com
212-400-8698
Just watch some of the show clips that feature a diverse range of guests who share their own personal inspiring stories and offer ideas and encouragement for leading the best life. Guests come from a variety of industries that include entertainment, business, journalism, medicine and the arts. They are united by one common thread: they have not only achieved a life that encompasses their passions, they are living examples of happiness, contentment, and generosity.
It is about discovering the resiliency and determination of the human spirit through the stories of others...and in the process, finding your own.
Guests include:
Jack & Suzy Welch
Long sought after for their practical and poignant advice in both life and business, Jack and Suzy share their wisdom and secrets about success.
Peter Max
Arguably one of the world's most famous living artists whose painting and art continues to define an Era. The interview goes behind the public persona and explores both the artist and the man.
New York City Animal Rights Activist Gene Baur
Gene Baur founded Farm Sanctuary to end cruelty to farm animals and to promote compassionate living through rescue, education, and advocacy. His ability to engage public and celebrity awareness for this valuable cause is remarkable and inspiring.
Gene's personal journey may open your eyes to the issues that are closest to his mission. His selfless passion demonstrates how you can take the causes that are dear to your heart and serve them in your life.
Visit Lance Heft's Inspiration on the web
www.pbs-inspiration.org
For media interviews, contact:
Diane T. Creston
Creston Advertising & Marketing, Inc.
New York, New York 10017
info@crestonadvertising.com
212-400-8698
Saturday, May 22, 2010
April 2010 Retail Sales Movin' On Up
Retail sales continued an upward climb in April, showing much more consumer confidence compared to this time last year.
The Commerce Department says April retail sales rose 0.4 percent last month...better than the 0.2 percent increase economists had expected but far below the 2.1 percent surge in March. This overall gain marks the seventh straight monthly increase.
According to the National Retail Federation, April retail industry sales (which exclude automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants) increased 0.5 percent seasonally adjusted over March and 4.6 percent unadjusted year-over-year. With a constantly-shifting Easter holiday, retailers typically look at March and April sales combined to gauge consumer spending. Sales for the two months increased 5.6 percent unadjusted over last year.
“The slow road to recovery is turning into a sprint as retailers experienced a nice bounce in April,” said President and CEO Matt Shay. “But maintaining this sales momentum will be challenging. Until our economy begins to create jobs and reduce unemployment, the breadth and sustainability of this recovery remains uncertain.”
“Spring shopping and seasonal weather helped boost sales last month,” said Rosalind Wells, Chief Economist for NRF. “Spending on discretionary items had fallen by the wayside these last few years and we are encouraged to see consumers dipping into that pot once again.”
Monday, May 17, 2010
PRINCETON: Ex-WSJ chief addresses newspaper industry's distress
Monday, May 17, 2010 6:41 PM EDT By Fred Tuccillo, Managing Editor. The Princeton Packet | |
PRINCETON -- Peter R. Kann admits to a “lifelong love affair with newspapers,” but doesn’t shrink from acknowledging the contributions they have played in their own distress.
Addressing a 55PLUS gathering at the Jewish Center of Princeton Thursday, the former Dow Jones chairman said that publishers have managed to trap their papers and their websites into “a totally illogical business proposition.”
When newspapers began adapting to the Internet in the mid-1990s, Mr. Kann said, most major publishers were swayed by the argument all content offered there should be free of charge. Newspaper business models based on that argument “assumed there would be some enormous flow of Internet advertising that would pay for everything,” he said. “And that clearly has not happened.”
The flawed business strategy contributed to the current depressed state of newspapers, Mr. Kann said. ”It devalued the primary publishing asset, which is news,” he said. “It accelerated the decline of print circulations and of more profitable print advertising. It left the unprofitable Internet editions almost entirely dependent on their news flows from shrinking print staffs and basically left the publishers juggling these two twin products — the old ones in inexorable decline and the new ones in a form of commercial denial.”
Fifteen years into the era of free newspapers on the Internet, the flawed business model is the subject of furious discussion throughout the industry. The Wall Street Journal, which Mr. Kann once headed as editor and publisher, remains the most notable exception with more than a million paid subscribers to its online edition.
But it will require considerable nerve for most newspapers to make such a transition now, he said.
”Publishers are going to kind of have to pick their poison, which is to say, die slowly or take the risk of charging online and perhaps live on in this new form,” he said.
Mr. Kann did not place all of the industry’s woes at its own feet, however. He also addressed the role of technology and demographics, the latter hitting home with the 55PLUS audience. The organization is a non-sectarian group that promotes social contacts for people who are either retired or have flexible working hours.
Noting his own four children “all grew up in a home with two parents who were journalists,” he said, “and yet none of them these days regularly reads a newspaper, not in print and not even in a very regular way online. And you extend that across many millions of families, and, not surprisingly, newspapers around the country are shrinking in size and . . . circulation.”
The current generation, Mr. Kann said, “has actually grown up without the ingrained habit of reading newspapers but also, I’m afraid, with less recognition of what is news. I mean they are bombarded with a constant and confusing cascade of information and opinions and entertainment . . . They expect instant everything from fast foods to instant messaging to anything or everything in real time, 24/7. And they expect an almost limitless array of choices . . . Not surprisingly, this rather old-fashioned concept of a newspaper really is not for them.”
Yet, without the content from newspapers, Mr. Kann said, neither the Internet nor TV has demonstrated the capability of providing “flows of accurate and honest and trustworthy information . . . essential to the functioning of a free society or a democracy.”
Indeed, the digital capability to zero in on specific information is the antithesis of what Mr. Kann called “the serendipity of newspapers — which is to say that they tell me things I did not know I wanted to know.”
He said, “I like the fact that newspapers employ, train and count on reporters to go out and cover and uncover news. I like the fact that they have editors with some level of experience and judgment to kind of sift and sort and guide me as a reader to the most important developments. I like the organization of newspapers, including a format that separates, albeit not always perfectly, news from opinion.”
Mr. Kann expressed a less generous view of opinion-based blogs — “they may produce gossip at times, but they aren’t producing news” — and of the right/left cable competitors at Fox News and MSNBC — “talking heads yelling opinions at each other . . . political actors masquerading as journalists.”
But the retired reporter and Princeton resident, who won a 1972 Pulitzer Prize for overseas reporting, sees hope for the survival of serious news coverage in the students he teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
”These are remarkably bright and engaged and idealistic young people, who are still being attracted to journalism even though the job prospects for them are much gloomier than when I began in this career,” Mr. Kann said. “I expect it is going to be these kids who are going to be able to create some new media models.”
ftuccillo@centraljersey.com
Addressing a 55PLUS gathering at the Jewish Center of Princeton Thursday, the former Dow Jones chairman said that publishers have managed to trap their papers and their websites into “a totally illogical business proposition.”
When newspapers began adapting to the Internet in the mid-1990s, Mr. Kann said, most major publishers were swayed by the argument all content offered there should be free of charge. Newspaper business models based on that argument “assumed there would be some enormous flow of Internet advertising that would pay for everything,” he said. “And that clearly has not happened.”
The flawed business strategy contributed to the current depressed state of newspapers, Mr. Kann said. ”It devalued the primary publishing asset, which is news,” he said. “It accelerated the decline of print circulations and of more profitable print advertising. It left the unprofitable Internet editions almost entirely dependent on their news flows from shrinking print staffs and basically left the publishers juggling these two twin products — the old ones in inexorable decline and the new ones in a form of commercial denial.”
Fifteen years into the era of free newspapers on the Internet, the flawed business model is the subject of furious discussion throughout the industry. The Wall Street Journal, which Mr. Kann once headed as editor and publisher, remains the most notable exception with more than a million paid subscribers to its online edition.
But it will require considerable nerve for most newspapers to make such a transition now, he said.
”Publishers are going to kind of have to pick their poison, which is to say, die slowly or take the risk of charging online and perhaps live on in this new form,” he said.
Mr. Kann did not place all of the industry’s woes at its own feet, however. He also addressed the role of technology and demographics, the latter hitting home with the 55PLUS audience. The organization is a non-sectarian group that promotes social contacts for people who are either retired or have flexible working hours.
Noting his own four children “all grew up in a home with two parents who were journalists,” he said, “and yet none of them these days regularly reads a newspaper, not in print and not even in a very regular way online. And you extend that across many millions of families, and, not surprisingly, newspapers around the country are shrinking in size and . . . circulation.”
The current generation, Mr. Kann said, “has actually grown up without the ingrained habit of reading newspapers but also, I’m afraid, with less recognition of what is news. I mean they are bombarded with a constant and confusing cascade of information and opinions and entertainment . . . They expect instant everything from fast foods to instant messaging to anything or everything in real time, 24/7. And they expect an almost limitless array of choices . . . Not surprisingly, this rather old-fashioned concept of a newspaper really is not for them.”
Yet, without the content from newspapers, Mr. Kann said, neither the Internet nor TV has demonstrated the capability of providing “flows of accurate and honest and trustworthy information . . . essential to the functioning of a free society or a democracy.”
Indeed, the digital capability to zero in on specific information is the antithesis of what Mr. Kann called “the serendipity of newspapers — which is to say that they tell me things I did not know I wanted to know.”
He said, “I like the fact that newspapers employ, train and count on reporters to go out and cover and uncover news. I like the fact that they have editors with some level of experience and judgment to kind of sift and sort and guide me as a reader to the most important developments. I like the organization of newspapers, including a format that separates, albeit not always perfectly, news from opinion.”
Mr. Kann expressed a less generous view of opinion-based blogs — “they may produce gossip at times, but they aren’t producing news” — and of the right/left cable competitors at Fox News and MSNBC — “talking heads yelling opinions at each other . . . political actors masquerading as journalists.”
But the retired reporter and Princeton resident, who won a 1972 Pulitzer Prize for overseas reporting, sees hope for the survival of serious news coverage in the students he teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
”These are remarkably bright and engaged and idealistic young people, who are still being attracted to journalism even though the job prospects for them are much gloomier than when I began in this career,” Mr. Kann said. “I expect it is going to be these kids who are going to be able to create some new media models.”
ftuccillo@centraljersey.com
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