“We see convergence as an opportunity to… drive the future growth of our
business,” said Don Rae, Chief Operations Adviser, PLDT. “The Next Generation
Network Laboratory provides us with a test bed where we can trial new ideas and
services before commercial launches.”
Markku Nieminen, Account Director, Networks, Nokia said that Nokia is trialing its converged products with other operators for consumer and corporate customers, “as well as fixed and mobile networks, in what is shaping up to be a new chapter in this industry.”
…
His was an astounding output, including travelogue,
bestsellers, short stories, moving personal recollections (“My Military Campaign,”
yes, click on it, it’s the story of his involvement in the Civil War, takes ten
minutes to read and you’ve never read anything like it.) the first gonzo
journalism – Innocents Abroad – and
serious historical fiction such as the unjustly neglected The Personal
Recollections of Joan of Arc. So many of his sayings have passed into
common mangled usage – “reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” “it
is better to keep you mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove
all doubt,” that it’s easy to forget where they originated.
…
The car company itself “could operate quite profitably while offering its extremely compelling value proposition,” which “in a nutshell, describes the business model of an on demand software vendor using open source technology.”
Calling on-demand software delivery “an extraordinarily effective way to monetize open source,” Gianforte equates it to turning the water of open source into the wine of business value.
The customer, Gianforte declares, “doesn’t care which operating system or database the on demand vendor is using in the hosting facility, as long as the application is scalable, reliable and secure.” This leaves on-demand vendors free to use open source options such as Linux, MySQL, and Apache to keep customer cost low.
In fact, Gianforte attributes RightNow’s success – “over 1
billion customer interactions on behalf of our clients in the past few years at
99.98% reliability, grown revenue for 31 consecutive quarters,” etc. – because “we
decided to use open source, rather than become just another distribution
channel for monopolistically priced technologies from Microsoft and Oracle…
there is simply no good reason to pay through the nose for proprietary
solutions that offer no discernible functional advantages over their open
source counterparts.”
…
A recent poll at the Business & Legal Reports Inc. website found that “a
clear majority,” pegged at 70 percent of HR managers say their organizations
usually host a holiday party. And according to the HR managers, their parties
are for the most part “not bad” or “excellent.” Only 19 percent either say
their party is boring or embarrassing.
When asked “How would you rate your company’s holiday party?” 33% of the visitors
to HR.BLR.com, identified as HR managers, answered “Not bad,” 30% said “What
holiday party?”, 19% said “Excellent,” 14% said “A snooze fest,” and only five
percent were lucky enough to attend “A showcase of embarrassing behavior.”
So in the spirit of the season HR.BLR.com’s editors have posted a white paper
describing how to avoid the major problems that can occur at holiday parties.
It gives advice on how to control alcohol-related problems such as slips and
falls, unwanted sexual advances, automobile accidents, and aggressive behavior.
The white paper, ordinarily restricted to HR.BLR.com’s paid subscribers, is
available at no charge, no registration required, as BLR’s holiday gift to the
HR community. Simply go to http://hr.blr.com/display.cfm?id=16817&source=PRS&effort=65.
…
…
