Moving and Storage Business News

The News Review:

- Quick Take: U-Store-It, Someplace Else
- In Far North, Peril and Promise
- Google Apps: Should You Switch?
- Disloyal Employees – Computer Abuse Law Turns On Meaning Of ‘Witho…

Quick Take: U-Store-It, Someplace Else
Motley Fool – Feb 22, 2007
These three folks are the founders of the company that preceded U-Store-It Trust, and they all have the same last name: Amsdell. What the Amsdells did is not exactly clear, but the company did update its guidance to account for charges related to a legal settlement on actions taken by the predecessor company, and there are some other interesting details in the company’s 8-K. Whatever is ultimately found to have happened, the company believes that Robert J…
An improvement in results hasn’t been seen yet, but when you compare the current management team’s operational steps taken and communication with shareholders against what was provided by the original management the Amsdells brought to the table, it’s not much of a contest. Given that the Amsdells own approximately 20% of the company’s outstanding shares, their involvement won’t completely go away, and they’ll still have some say in how the company is run. But overall, I think the new management team and an independent board will help the company become more focused and better able to compete with Public Storage (NYSE:.

In Far North, Peril and Promise
Washington Post – Feb 22, 2007
Many of the consequences of global warming that experts once predicted would take centuries are occurring in decades, such as the melting of the world’s glaciers and ice caps. But other changes might be more gradual. “With permafrost, it may take longer for change to get moving. But it may keep moving, even if we get our emissions under control,” said Antoni Lewkowicz, a professor of geography at the University of Ottawa. “It’s like a big boulder. Once you get it moving, it won’t stop. “Brian Amiro, head of the department of soil science at the University of Manitoba, is part of a research team involved in a project called Fluxnet…
What goes back into the ground here heartens some environmentalists. The giant EnCana oil and gas company, which operates more than 700 oil pumps in this field, pumps carbon dioxide deep down to drive more oil out of the porous rocks. Almost inadvertently, the company has become the world’s largest working example of carbon storage, or sequestration, a technique being hailed by international experts as one tool to reduce greenhouse gases. Darcy Cretin, operations superintendent at the EnCana plant, is slightly amused by the environmental scientists who have flocked here to see the maze of pipes, pumps, valves and sensors planted in the prairie. “We have to keep explaining we are doing this to make more oil,” he said. “The carbon sequestration is an extra. “When the oil brought up at Weyburn dwindled after 40 years of pumping, EnCana struck a deal with the Dakota Gasification Co.

Google Apps: Should You Switch?
Wired News – Feb 22, 2007
07 Google’s new web-based office software suite, which the company announced Thursday, is a swift kick to the teeth delivered squarely in the direction of Microsoft. Or is it? Google Apps Premier Edition is a collection of office tools for businesses — word processor, spreadsheet, e-mail, calendar and web page creator — all of which are accessible through a web browser. Pricing is set at $50 per user per year, less expensive than Microsoft Office but with much the same functionality. Microsoft has its own web-based suite of tools in Office Live, but the company’s offering doesn’t match Google’s. And Google isn’t going after Office Live, it’s going after Office…
Companies may be faced with a bump in training costs when the switch first happens, but Google offers some interactive training presentations that could help tilt the learning curve. Centralized data storage. Documents are available from any web browser, upping the convenience ante for remote workers. Plus, 10 GB is plenty of room. For most users, that’s more than they’ll ever need. Data is accessed through secure connections and stored redundantly, and Gmail uses SSL for mail connections.

Disloyal Employees – Computer Abuse Law Turns On Meaning Of ‘Witho…
Free with registration – Mondaq Business Briefing – AccessMyLibrary.com – Feb 22, 2007
Section1030(g) of the act offers a right to injunctive relief and damages where the former employee “without authorization” has accessed the network in order to abscond with proprietary information and documents or interfere with relationships between the company and its customers or suppliers. Cases decided since 2000 construed in a way favorable to employers the act’s concept of “authorization” in the context of the departing employee. In the typical fact pattern, an employee with authorized access to the network decided to accept another position and, before departing, copied important electronic information to better compete with the former employer in her new job. Judges faced with this scenario generally held that the employee’s “authorization” ceased or was “exceed[ed]” when the employee engaged in conduct intended to benefit the new employer. In Lockheed Martin Corp.