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Gary Edwards

Office Productivity Software Is No Closer To Becoming A Commodity | Forrester Blogs - 0 views

blogs.forrester.com/...closer_to_becoming_a_commodity

Office-Productivity Cloud-Computing Cloud-Productivity-Platform Cloud-Compound-Document HTML5

shared by Gary Edwards on 19 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • We just published a report on the state of adoption of Office 2013 And Productivity Suite Alternatives based on a survey of 155 Forrester clients with responsibility for those investments. The sample does not fully represent the market, but lets us draw comparisons to the results of our previous survey in 2011. Some key takeaways from the data:   One in five firms uses email in the cloud. Another quarter plans to move at some point. More are using Office 365 (14%) than Google Apps (9%).  Just 22% of respondents are on Office 2013. Another 36% have plans to be on it. Office 2013's uptake will be slower than Office 2010 because fewer firms plan to combine the rollout of Office 2013 with Windows 8 as they combined Office 2010 with Windows 7. Alternatives to Microsoft Office show little traction. In 2011, 13% of respondents supported open source alternatives to Office. This year the number is just 5%. Google Docs has slightly higher adoption and is in use at 13% of companies. 
  • Microsoft continues to have a stranglehold on office productivity in the enterprise: Just 6% of companies in our survey give all or some employees an alternative instead of the installed version of Microsoft Office. Most surprising of all, multi-platform support is NOT a priority. Apps on iOS and Android devices were important to 16% of respondents, and support for non-Windows PCs was important to only 11%. For now, most technology decision-makers seem satisfied with leaving employees to self-provision office productivity apps on their smartphones and tablets if they really want them. 
  • Do you think we're getting closer to replacing Microsoft Office in the workplace?
  • Gary Edwards on 19 Oct 13
     
    Wow, OpenOffice (3%) and Libre Office (2%) are actually losing gound!  In 2011 they had a combined marketshare of 13%.  Google Docs has a 13% marketshare, but i suspect most of those document originate in legacy MSOffice!!!!!  Making Google Drive - Apps a front end for mobile access and back-end backup.  In the middle of this mess, productivity workers struggle with shredded formats and the confusion of highly interactive and data intensive / time-sensitive compound documents going static (pdf) or otherwise disconnected. Intro: "We (Forrester) just published a report on the state of adoption of Office 2013 And Productivity Suite Alternatives based on a survey of 155 Forrester clients with responsibility for those investments. The sample does not fully represent the market, but lets us draw comparisons to the results of our previous survey in 2011. Some key takeaways from the data:   One in five firms uses email in the cloud. Another quarter plans to move at some point. More are using Office 365 (14%) than Google Apps (9%).  Just 22% of respondents are on Office 2013. Another 36% have plans to be on it. Office 2013's uptake will be slower than Office 2010 because fewer firms plan to combine the rollout of Office 2013 with Windows 8 as they combined Office 2010 with Windows 7. Alternatives to Microsoft Office show little traction. In 2011, 13% of respondents supported open source alternatives to Office. This year the number is just 5%. Google Docs has slightly higher adoption and is in use at 13% of companies. "
Gary Edwards

BriteSnow - The Five Software Architecture Generations: From Mainframe to Mobile Apps t... - 0 views

britesnow.com/...evolution-mobile-apps-to-html5

jeremy-chone productivity HTML5

shared by Gary Edwards on 22 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Gary Edwards on 22 Mar 13
     
    "The software technology industry is like an ants' nest. From up close, everything seems random, chaotic, and purposeless, but as we zoom out, pattern, order, and purpose begin to emerge. At least, this is the way I see it. While I love to get very close to the smallest details, once in a while, I like to step back and see how we, the software industry, came to where we are in order to better understand where we are going. From the beginning of software, the two main characteristics of an application that are often opposed to each other are richness (i.e., application function and experience) and reach (i.e., application distribution and access). A model in which both of these characteristics are maximized has always been seen as the Holy Grail of software development. If we step back and look at the evolution of the software application architecture over the last 20 years, based on these two core characteristics, we can plot the journey of the quest for this Holy Grail on a decreasing sinusoid depicting five generations, as shown here."
Paul Merrell

Afghan Opium Production 40 Times Higher Since US-NATO Invasion - 0 views

www.mintpressnews.com/...219974

war & peace opium-production Afghanistan ISIL Russia

shared by Paul Merrell on 01 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • Since the U.S.-led NATO invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the production of opium in the country has increased by 40 times according to Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service, fueling organized crime and widespread death. The head of the FSKN, Viktor Ivanov, explained the staggering trend at a March U.N. conference on drugs in Afghanistan. Opium growth in Afghanistan increased 18 percent from 131, 000 hectares to 154, 000, according to Ivanov’s estimates. “Afghan heroin has killed more than one million people worldwide since the ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ began and over a trillion dollars has been invested into transnational organized crime from drug sales,” said Ivanov according to Counter Current News.   Prior to the invasion of Afghanistan, opium production was banned by the Taliban, although it still managed to exist. The U.S. and its allies have been accused of encouraging and aiding in the opium production and the ongoing drug trafficking within the region. Ivanov claimed that only around 1 percent of the total opium yield in Afghanistan was destroyed and that the “international community has failed to curb heroin production in Afghanistan since the start of NATO’s operation.”
  • Afghanistan is thought to produce more than 90 percent of the world’s supply of opium, which is then used to make heroin and other dangerous drugs that are shipped in large quantities all over the world. Opium production provides many Afghan communities with an income, in an otherwise impoverished and war-torn country. The opium trade contributed around $US 2.3 billion or around 19 percent of Afghanistan’s GDP in 2009 according to the U.N.
  • The Islamic State Group is reported to have recently taken over opium production and trafficking. In November, the extremist group was estimated to be earning over $US 1 billion from the opium trade. Profits also go to international drug cartels and money-laundering banks.
  • Paul Merrell on 01 Sep 16
     
    Since early in the Viet Nam War, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has dominated the production and smuggling of opium. After the Viet Nam War, that operation was largely transferred from Southeast Asia's "Golden Triangle" to Afghanistan, with primary shipment initially through Pakistan. That production center was threatened when the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in 1996, as the Taliban began shutting down the growing of opium poppies in that nation. So it was no surprise that Afghan production of opium skyrocketed after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. Indeed, there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that al-Qaeda was blamed for the 9-11 attack precisely to justify invasion of Afghanistan to block the Taliban's interference with the CIA's production of opium. Opium, like cocaine production in South America, provides enormous amounts of off-the-books financing for CIA covert activities. For such reasons, there are strong reasons to suspect that ISIL would not be taking over opium production in Afghanistan without the CIA's acquiescence and participation. (For example, ISIL would need to use the CIA's shipment and marketing capabilities in Pakistan to bring their product to market. So I regard ISIL's rise in opium production as further evidence that the CIA and ISIL are joined at the hip, that ISIL is a CIA operation.
Paul Merrell

Venezuela to Freeze Oil Production under New OPEC Deal | venezuelanalysis.com - 0 views

venezuelanalysis.com/12701

oil cartels OPEC production-freeze

shared by Paul Merrell on 30 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • Venezuelan Oil Minister Eulogio del Pino confirmed Wednesday that the world’s largest oil cartel, OPEC, has reached a preliminary agreement to freeze crude production during a special meeting in Algeria. Under the deal, all 14 of OPEC’s member states agreed to freeze oil production at the combined daily total of between 32.5 and 33 million barrels. The precise ceiling and duration of the freeze will be decided during the cartel’s November 30 meeting in Vienna, Austria, which will also discuss the possible incorporation of non-OPEC producers. Del Pino hopes that the deal will facilitate a recovery of world crude prices, which have fallen by 60 percent over since late 2014, sparking acute economic difficulties in countries such as Venezuela, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria.
  • Paul Merrell on 30 Sep 16
     
    Sounds like the Saudis finally decided that they've eaten up too much of their capital reserves.
Joe La Fleur

An Original Western Journalism Production: - 1 views

www.westernjournalism.com/-production-big-big-government

original western journalism production government

shared by Joe La Fleur on 19 May 12 - No Cached
  • Joe La Fleur on 19 May 12
     
    BIG BIG GOVERNMENT
Paul Merrell

The US Led Drug War in Afghanistan Failed | nsnbc international - 0 views

nsnbc.me/...ed-drug-war-afghanistan-failed

war & peace war-on-drugs™ Afghanistan opium-production CIA

shared by Paul Merrell on 27 Dec 14 - No Cached
  •  According to the latest reports opium poppy cultivation rates are growing consistently in Afghanistan, over the last year they have increased to another seven percent. As for the opium production, according to The Guardian, it has increased up to 17% in this period alone, reaching the staggering 6.4 million tons per year. Additionally, the poppy plantations keep on spreading at a record pace across the country, as of now they are covering 224 thousand hectares. The largest province of Afghanistan – Helmand accounts for 46% percent of Afghan poppy cultivation, due to this fact 69 % of opium is produced in the south.
  • In general, Afghanistan produces as much as 90% of all the opium consumed in the world, therefore this criminal business employs more than 400,000 people across the country.
  • Paul Merrell on 27 Dec 14
     
    Hard to fight a War on Drugs when drugs are a major off-books revenue source for the CIA. 
Paul Merrell

U.S. Seen as Biggest Oil Producer After Overtaking Saudi Arabia - Bloomberg - 0 views

www.bloomberg.com/...er-after-overtaking-saudi.html

oil fracking U.S.-production Big-Energy

shared by Paul Merrell on 07 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • The U.S. will remain the world’s biggest oil producer this year after overtaking Saudi Arabia and Russia as extraction of energy from shale rock spurs the nation’s economic recovery, Bank of America Corp. said. U.S. production of crude oil, along with liquids separated from natural gas, surpassed all other countries this year with daily output exceeding 11 million barrels in the first quarter, the bank said in a report today. The country became the world’s largest natural gas producer in 2010. The International Energy Agency said in June that the U.S. was the biggest producer of oil and natural gas liquids. “The U.S. increase in supply is a very meaningful chunk of oil,” Francisco Blanch, the bank’s head of commodities research, said by phone from New York. “The shale boom is playing a key role in the U.S. recovery. If the U.S. didn’t have this energy supply, prices at the pump would be completely unaffordable.”
  • Oil extraction is soaring at shale formations in Texas and North Dakota as companies split rocks using high-pressure liquid, a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The surge in supply combined with restrictions on exporting crude is curbing the price of West Texas Intermediate, America’s oil benchmark. The U.S., the world’s largest oil consumer, still imported an average of 7.5 million barrels a day of crude in April, according to the Department of Energy’s statistical arm.
  • “The shale production story is bigger than Iraqi production, but it hasn’t made the impact on prices you would expect,” said Blanch. “Typically such a large energy supply growth should bring prices lower, but in fact we’re not seeing that because the whole geopolitical situation outside the U.S. is dreadful.”
Paul Merrell

40 Years of Economic Policy in One Chart » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Nam... - 0 views

www.counterpunch.org/...f-economic-policy-in-one-chart

economy class warfare productivity income wealth-transfer

shared by Paul Merrell on 16 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • Growth of Real Hourly Compensation for Production/Nonsupervisory Workers and Productivity, 1948–2011
  • Is America in the throes of a class war? Look at the chart and decide for yourself. It’s all there in black and white, and you don’t need to be an economist to figure it out. But, please, take some time to study the chart, because there’s more here than meets the eye. This isn’t just about productivity and compensation. It’s a history lesson too. It pinpoints the precise moment in time when the country lost its way and began its agonizing descent into Police State USA. That’s what it really means.
  • Did you know that inequality has actually gotten worse under Obama? Much worse. It’s true. He might proclaim his determination to “tax millionaires” in one of his blustery orations, but it’s all just rhetorical fakery. The fact is, the 1 percenters have done better under Obama than they did under Bush. Check this out from Naked Capitalism:
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Are we there yet? Pretty close, I’d say. The only way to preserve democracy is by keeping one hand firmly clasped around the windpipe of every rich bastard in the country. If you can’t keep your tycoons in check, you’d might as well throw in the towel and accept a life of indentured servitude now, because that’s where you’re headed anyway. Here’s a short rundown of the changes that took place in the ’70s by economist Lawrence Mishel:
  • Yup, under Bush, the 1% captured a disproportionate share of the income gains from the Bush boom of 2002-2007. They got 65 cents of every dollar created in that boom, up 20 cents from when Clinton was President. Under Obama, the 1% got 93 cents of every dollar created in that boom. That’s not only more than under Bush, up 28 cents. In the transition from Bush to Obama, inequality got worse, faster, than under the transition from Clinton to Bush. Obama accelerated the growth of inequality.” (Growth of Income Inequality Is Worse Under Obama than Bush, Matt Stoller, Naked Capitalism) 93 cents of every buck has gone to the 1 percenters under Obama. And you wonder why Wall Street loves this guy? It’s because he’s bent over backwards to make them richer, that’s why.
  • But as bad as Obama may be, the problem didn’t start with him. It goes back decades as the first chart indicates.
Paul Merrell

Snowden leaks spur new crop of secure phones, communications | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...s-phones-idUSKBN0G527220140805

surveillance state NSA-blowback NSA-reform privacy-products

shared by Paul Merrell on 06 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • (Reuters) - Public concerns about the U.S. government's secretive surveillance programs exposed by Edward Snowden have spawned a slew of encryption products and privacy services that aim to make electronic spying more difficult.
Paul Merrell

EU issues guidelines on labelling products from Israeli settlements | World news | The ... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...ducts-from-israeli-settlements

war & peace Israel settlements products labeling EU

shared by Paul Merrell on 11 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • The European Union has issued new guidelines for the labelling of products from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, after years of deliberation and in the teeth of fierce Israeli opposition. Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, made a personal appeal to a number of key European figures in the runup to the decision, in which he said the plan was discriminatory, indicative of double standards, and would embolden those who seek to “eliminate” Israel. The measures will primarily cover fruit and vegetables and should affect less than 1% of all trade from Israel to the EU, which is worth about €30bn. EU officials said existing measures for produce brought into Britain have had no negative economic effect.
  • On some products, like fruit and vegetables, the labelling referring to settlements will be mandatory, while on others it will be voluntary. Israel sees the move as a political stigma that rewards Palestinian violence and will push consumers away. It immediately summoned the EU ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, in protest. The Israeli foreign ministry said the EU has chosen “for political motives, to take an unusual and discriminatory step” at a time when Israel is facing a wave of terror. In a statement, the ministry said it was “surprised and even angered by the fact that the EU chooses to implement a double standard against Israel, while ignoring 200 territorial disputes taking place today around the world, including within [the EU] or right on [Israel’s] doorstep”. The EU’s claim that the decision was a “technical step” was baseless and cynical, the statement added.
  • Despite insisting in public that the new guidelines provide clarity to consumers, European diplomats have privately made it clear the move is designed to put pressure on Israel over its continued settlement building in the occupied territories and the absence of a peace dialogue; a sharp rise in violence between Israelis and Palestinians has claimed 90 lives in the last month. Announcing the new guidelines, a European commission official said it had “adopted this morning the Interpretative Notice on indication of origin of goods from the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967”. Although the new guidelines are expected to have little real economic impact, they do carry a political significance for Israel, not least because of the widespread agreement among European governments over their implementation. The decision to push ahead with issuing the guidelines also marks the second major defeat in a year for Netanyahu on an international stage, following his defeat over the Iran nuclear accord, amid mounting evidence of Israel’s growing international isolation.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Senior European officials insist that European consumers are entitled to know the source of goods previously labelled as Israeli. Israeli politicians – including Netanyahu – have made comparisons between labelling and the Nazi era, with some suggesting the move is immoral and antisemitic.
  • On Tuesday, a letter leaked to the Guardian showed that Netanyahu had written or spoken to a number of senior European figures, including European parliament president Martin Schulz, asking for their help to block the move. In a letter to Schulz, the Israeli prime minister said the move was politicised, adding that it could “lead to an actual boycott [of Israel], emboldening those who are not interested in Israeli-Palestinian peace but eliminating Israel altogether”. Since 2003, the EU has placed a numerical code on Israeli imports to allow customs to distinguish between products made within the Green Line and those that are produced beyond it. The UK adopted labelling guidelines for settlement products three years ago.
  • Paul Merrell on 11 Nov 15
     
    Too mild. Under international law, the EU should do a total ban on importing all products from the Occupied Territories. 
jacob logan

Total starts production on Kaombo Sul FPSO - 0 views

www.offshore-technology.com/...total-kaombo-fpso

#Kaombo_Sul_FPSO #Oil_And_Gas #French_Oil_And_Gas #Offshore_Luanda #Angola #Production

shared by jacob logan on 03 Apr 19 - No Cached
  • jacob logan on 03 Apr 19
     
    French oil and gas company Total has started production on the Kaombo Sul floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit at the Kaombo project offshore Luanda in Angola.
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