Moving and Storage Business News

The News Review:

- Hewlett-Packard at UBS Enterprise Technology Forum – Final.
- Update: Google interested in South Korean office suite
- E. coli outbreaks reveal holes in food safety net
- Briefs: County gets cash for spray park
- Nalgene Cantene ’48 oz.’ (widemouth)

Hewlett-Packard at UBS Enterprise Technology Forum – Final.
Free with registration – Fair Disclosure Wire – AccessMyLibrary.com – Dec 13, 2006
We had our big security analyst meeting yesterday, and had a lot of information that we can add on to — with the content that I go through today. So, I think the first couple of slides in the deck here are the one’s that Brian put in for me. Let’s get through those, and really talk about Enterprise Storage and Servers. We made significant progress over the last four or five years. I’ll show you some of the background on what we’ve done to get this business on track. Essentially, the assets that makeup Enterprise Servers and Storage were largely the assets that we did the merger with Compaq for, and brought along the additional assets at the time, Digital and Tandem or NonStop at the time. A lot of what we’ve been doing is guaranteeing that we achieve the revenue and cost synergies and value synergies that were originally contemplated by doing that merger… I can tell you for certain that every time we went through the year achieving those extremely high profit levels, what we were really hoping to do is ship the little more balance towards growth. That — as I’ll show you in the next slides, is really our mantra going forward. Now that we have showed some sustainability in our business model, the effects of the various things that we’ve done to get the business on track, it affords us the chance to invest for growth moving forward. You can see the balance of profit and different revenue growth factors that we’ve got in there. Some of the more significant areas that we’ve invested in for growth, around Blade Systems, our mid-range and high-end storage arrays, and software. As well as our Integrity or our Tandem based value servers, where all areas of strategic growth that we identified early on, and are also the ones that are performing the best for us, per plan. However, the story of our margin turnaround has not been one of just the last year.

Update: Google interested in South Korean office suite
InfoWorld – Dec 13, 2006
ThinkFree’s applications run in a similar way. The company’s free offering, ThinkFree Office Online, is a suite of Java applets, downloaded from the company’s servers and cached on the user’s computer. Users have 1GB of storage and can use ThinkFree’s Calc, a spreadsheet; Show, a presentation program; and Write, a word processor. Thinkfree Office is compatible with Microsoft’s Excel, PowerPoint, and Word file formats. ThinkFree offers a Server Edition for $30 a year, which the company advertises is a “fraction” of the cost for licenses for Microsoft’s Office suite. ThinkFree has a desktop edition and two portable editions, one of which allows the viewing of… Interest is growing in lightweight applications that run in Web browsers, as the cost of desktop applications has become exorbitant, said David Bradshaw, principal analyst for Ovum. Google already has word processing and spreadsheet capabilities, so it may be interested in ThinkFree’s Show presentation program. “Google is definitely moving in the direction of launching an alternative to Microsoft’s Office,” Bradshaw said. But “it’s kind of hard to say if they will definitely be a rival to Microsoft.
Related: Extra-suite virus and spam protection.(Security Suites)(Product/Servic…

E. coli outbreaks reveal holes in food safety net
Seattle Times – Dec 13, 2006
It was first blamed for a food-borne-illness outbreak in the early 1980s, leading some microbiologists to suggest that it arose in industrial livestock, which are force-fed grain and pumped with antibiotics. The strain that caused September’s spinach outbreak, which killed three and sickened about 200, has been found in cattle feces near a California spinach field and in wild pigs that roamed through it. The source of the Taco Bell outbreak has not been found, but the company suspects green onions — also from California. Fresh tomatoes served in restaurants this fall, believed to have made nearly 200 people sick, carried another bacterium, salmonella. Taco Bell President Greg Creed said Saturday that the produce supply system needs better guidelines and procedures. Although meat and dairy products are regulated by the Department of Agriculture, fruits and vegetables are the responsibility of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the states. But they have jurisdiction only over processing plants… , and others are calling for consolidation of eight federal agencies — from egg graders to animal and plant inspectors to nutritionists to pesticide regulators — into a single food-safety administration. Public concern could be the catalyst that moves the legislation, which has been introduced every year since 1999, say DeLauro and others. The bill also calls for a system of registration, and regular inspection of slaughterhouses and food processing, storage, and distribution facilities. Looking to CaliforniaMuch of the focus on how to improve standards is on California, where half the nation’s fruits and vegetables are grown. How food producers here respond to contamination problems could serve as a model for the federal government and other states, experts say. “The other 49 states are saying, ‘California, you have the initiative to move forward and deal with it,’ ” said Ron Gaskill of the American Farm Bureau Federation. A 1937 California law, he notes, gives food producers the leeway to solve production and marketing problems collectively that cannot be addressed individually.
Related: Hunger or craving: What makes you want to eat

Briefs: County gets cash for spray park
Vail Daily News – Dec 13, 2006
A spray park is a series of fountains and water jets for children to run through and play. The spray park will be approximately 800 square feet in size with a rough finish that will be durable and slip-resistant. “I’m pleased that we’re finally moving forward on what I believe will be the most popular amenity at Freedom Park,” County Commissioner Tom Stone said. The money came from the Great Outdoors Colorado program and will be used by Eagle County, the Western Eagle County Metropolitan Recreation District and the Edwards Metropolitan District. The total cost of the park is expected to be $200,000. The park will have a shut-off time so water isn’t wasted. Drains located throughout the park should prevent stagnant water… Magic Bus comes from Beaver Creek
BEAVER CREEK – The Vail Valley Foundation’s pre-kindergarten program Thursday will receive its inaugural "Magic Bus" from the Beaver Creek Resort Company. The first bus is an 18-passenger shuttle formerly used at Beaver Creek. The seats will be removed and the interior turned into a mobile classroom, complete with plasma screens for video and computer monitoring, work and reading space and storage for books and equipment. The Magic Bus program will eventually have a fleet of vans that will travel to students throughout Eagle County, "Research into school success shows a direct link to the preparation that young children receive from the time they are born until they enter kindergarten," said Ceil Folz, president of the Vail Valley Foundation. The Magic Bus program received its initial funding of $150,000 in March at the annual Mountains of Hope benefit dinner and auction, held in conjunction with the Countrywide American Ski Classic. The foundation estimates that it will need to raise a total of $275,000 to launch the full program, although the first Magic Bus should be on the road in the spring of 2007. The new bus will replace the existing widely popular Magic Book Bus, a mobile library that visits preschool centers throughout the valley.

Nalgene Cantene ’48 oz.’ (widemouth)
Backpacking Light – Backpacking Light (subscription) – Dec 13, 2006
(Then, I wouldn't use it for clean water uses without first cleaning it up with some chemical or UV or other treatment. As a water storage bag after I get into camp or along the way when there is no water in less than than 4 – 6 hours hiking, maybe even 8 if I am pushing it. Otherwise I use my Platypus. As a mixing bag for soups, or drinks… Again, so long as the sunlight and air temperatures will allow the snow to melt. It gets a five for quality and functionality in relation to weight, so far. But the company info on the tag and the website are almost useless in checking out how to use it best, etc. The Nalgene site does point out that you can stuff a hydration tube in the middle of the top where the loopy cap holder fits in, but I don't use one. For example, I am not even sure if it is called a 48 oz. Cantene, it is not labelled that way — it is not labelled with a volume that I can find. It has a "fill line" labelled 48 oz.