The AOL Shuffle
December 27, 2011
Cyber space gossip: more trouble at AOL? Crunched declares, βAOL Looking for New Huffpo Media Group President.β Blogger Michael Arrington admits that the news is βbeing whispered,β not official, but his sources say AOL has engaged recruiter Spencer Stuart to find a new business leader for the Huffington Post Media Group. AOL bought Huffpo earlier this year.
Arianna Huffington, founder of the media group, is now running the business side as well as the editorial side since AOLβs Jon Brod was reassigned. Arrington finds the reported change in the chain-of-command to be the juiciest part. The write up asserts:
By far the most interesting part of all this, though, is itβs not clear that Arianna Huffington is aware that the new position will report to Tim Armstrong, not Huffington. Whatever happens, Iβm pretty sure I wonβt be getting my old job back.
I hope Arrington doesnβt actually want his old TechCrunch job back. He seems to have pretty thoroughly burned that bridge. Just saying. One thing is for sure: Googlers make interesting managers.
Cynthia Murrell, December 27, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google Books Lawsuit Lurches Back to Life
December 25, 2011
Six years ago the Authors Guild first brought a copyright violation suit against Google for scanning books in its attempt to digitize every word ever published. PaidContent.orgΒ reports that now it is βBack to Square One in the Google Books Lawsuit.β The Guild just made the first procedural step required to bring a class action suit. What happened to the first attempt? Writer Jeff Roberts explains:
This is essentially where the authors were in 2005 when Google first partnered with dozens of libraries to create a digital collection that today numbers at least 14 million titles. The collection is now languishing unread after Judge [Denny] Chin rejected the Google Book Settlement, an ambitious three-way partnership that would have allowed Google to sell out-of-print books and share the proceeds with publishers and authors.
Many are anxious to know whether Googleβs scanning will be judged a βfair useβ that doesnβt violate copyright. Google is expected to move to have the case thrown out, but even if it proceeds, it will be a while before that question is answered; the case will be caught up in procedural matters for some time.
Itβs too bad the Library of Congress did not tackle this project, since the Google approach seems to be going nowhere fast. The collective enlightenment of humanity will have to wait.
Cynthia Murrell, December 25, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
SMBs Should Seek the Benefits of PLM Systems
December 22, 2011
Many smaller manufacturing companies tend to shy away from Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems because of implementation and cost concerns.Β However, Apparel Magazine does not think they should hesitate and provides Five Reasons for Small to Mid-size Manufacturers to Adopt PLM”. Β Small to Mid-size manufacturing businesses (SMB) may find that PLM will improve their competitive advantage while increasing their bottom-line.
Apparel says that PLM will improve communication, assist in meeting growing compliance requirements and streamline each phase of the manufacturing. There are specially designed SMB solutions that:
βhave a quicker implementation process and can have a company up and running within days or weeks with little or no disruption in operation.β
It also would reduce independent systems and separate silos of data.Β It is essential that a manufacturing company have an integrated system in place to locate needed information in a range of formats across file systems. Inforbix does just that.Β They make it possible to implement findability within PLM systems regardless the size of the business or the volume of data that is processed. It is a perfect fit for a SMB.
We think these reasons make a lot of sense for SMBs. The cost seems minimal and the benefits seem great. Small manufacturers – it is time to take that leap of faith.
Jennifer Wensink,Β December 21, 2011
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SplashData Finds 25 Most Common Passwords of 2011
December 6, 2011
InfoWorld reported this week on the most commonly used passwords of 2011 in the article βStop Using These 25 Passwords Today.β
According to the security and search application vendor SplashData, many people fall into the trap of using random nouns or numbers for their password.
The article states:
βToo many users still can’t resist the allure of using dangerously simple passwords, such as strings of sequential numbers (“123456” or “654321”), series of letters that sit side by side on keyboards (“qwerty” and “qazwsx”), or passwords that demonstrate little to no imagination (“password” and “111111”). Other users evidently attempt to avoid overly common words or strings of numbers and letters in favor of proper names, types of animals, interests, or short sentences.β
The article provides a list of the top 25 stolen passwords posted by hackers for you to peruse. Our personal favorite is 11111111.
Jasmine Ashton, December 6, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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