Here’s a curious case of rebranding. Comcast is probably the best known cable company in the country, but that isn’t always the best thing apparently. That must explain why the megacorp is changing its name to Xfinity, at least for its cable, high-speed Internet and phone services and products

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Comcast changing its name to Xfinity for cable, Internet, phone services

One question I get on a regular basis is from companies wondering how to get the maximum exposure for their white papers and other material but not loose complete control over their intellectual property. In this free-wheeling time, if you place too many restrictions on your Web-based material, no one will quote from it or pick it up in various blogs and other sites (which is often the point).

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An Easy Way to Protect Your Intellectual Property

The Irish Times and other media today carried a report on the publication of a new globalisation index produced by Ernst & Young which places Ireland third on the globalised states list. The EY index joins an increasingly crowded field, so what follows is a bluffer’s guide to globalisation indices. As always, a good starting point (but never more than that) is the relevant Wikipedia entry

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Globalised Ireland

Here are some of this week’s legislative updates from the Chamber Action Network blog: Chamber Supports Extension of R&D Tax Credit The Maryland Chamber believes the R&D tax credit is an important incentive for the state to compete with other states in attracting and retaining manufacturing operations and technology companies Lawmakers Urge Business People to Get Involved wo Annapolis lawmakers discussed this year’s top business issues and encouraged Maryland business leaders to contact their legislators about issues that impact their companies. UI Proposal Would Weaken System, Hurt Businesses This proposal would weaken the unemployment insurance system and ensure that Maryland employers pay higher, more inequitable rates, for a longer period of time. Legislation Would Prohibit the Use of Credit Checks for Job Applicants Legislation would prohibit an employer from using an applicant’s credit report or credit history when making hiring decisions

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This Week in Annapolis – Jan. 29, 2010

All told its been an extraordinary week for trans Pacific business relations. Google served notice on China that it would do what ever it takes to protect the privacy of the data within gmail accounts of human rights activists. Meanwhile back in America Mark Zuckerberg gave an extraordinary interview where he posits his views on the declining utility of personal privacy.

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Zuckerberg: I decide societal norms. (Are Facebook users lobotomized lemmings?)

A very succinct 4 minute video from Dutch think tank ECP-EPN which provides a clear layman’s view of how the internet is evolving to become ubiquitous as intelligent agents interact with everything from washing machines to intelligent devices. I have a slight issue with the term ‘Web 3.0′ given that the web is essentially browser based – we are arguably discussing ‘internet 3.0 appliances’ – but this little video clearly discusses how all sorts of devices will communicate and collaborate with each other as your intelligent agent.

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Ubiquitous Intelligent Internet Agents

A private waste management company (dump operator for those not into politically laundered engineering terms) has refused to accept soil that is radioactive. So now Boeing and NASA will have to look elsewhere for a solution to their pollution. The landfill is the largest in the western U.S.

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Time for a nuclear bailout in America?

Recosoft this week released Version 5 of PDF2Office Professional, software that turns PDF files into formatted Microsoft Office files, including Excel, Word and PowerPoint. The update supports Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and offers more than 100 new features, the company said

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Recosoft releases update to PDF2Office Pro conversion tool

As I was driving through the small town in which our district is based yesterday, I was pondering a conversation I’d had with a local fiber company. In middle-of-nowhere Massachusetts, as in much of rural America, broadband is not easy to come by. It’s expensive and the kind of really high-bandwidth connections available to urban and suburban customers isn’t to be had.

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My datacenter fantasy

Oracle Application Object Library recently added new standard Java datasource and Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) features to Oracle E-Business Suite in Patch 8571001 . These features are meant for use with Java EE programs deployed in application servers on external nodes; that is, nodes other than those where Oracle E-Business Suite middle tier is installed.

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AppsDataSource and Java Authentication and Authorization Service for Oracle E-Business Suite

The Critical Patch Update (CPU) for January 2010 was released on January 12, 2010. Oracle strongly recommends applying the patches as soon as possible. The Critical Patch Update Advisory is the starting point for relevant information

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Critical Patch Update for January 2010 Now Available

Our Applications Platforms Group has certified Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i 11.5.10.2 with the 10gR2 10.2.0.4 Database on Microsoft Windows Itanium (2003). This is a split configuration (or database tier-only) certification.

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EBS 11i Certified on Windows Itanium (2003) and 10gR2 10.2.0.4 Database

[Editor: This is the third of a five-part series on virtualization and cloud topics from Ivo Dujmovic, an architect in our Applications Technology Integration group.] In my two previous articles, we announced the availability of our EBS Oracle VM (OVM) templates, and then announced the availability of the EBS Virtualization Kit.

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On Clouds and Virtualization in EBS Environments (OpenWorld 2009 Recap)

Some observers refer to the displaced in south Asia as among the world’s first climate refugees. Low elevation, increased river flow, encroaching ocean water, displaced rural populations. It has been predicted that global warming will make this the new pattern across thousands of miles of coastline in south Asia and other heavily populated areas

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Effects of global warming seen in low-lying areas of Bangladesh

Now that the holiday sugar n’ booze overdose is starting to wear off, perhaps it’s time to consider putting some of the gift cards you received to practical use. Here are some suggested products that likely went unnoticed while shopping in the bygone month, small must-haves for any Mac professional

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The best after-holiday guide to practical hardware and Mac tchotchkes

[Dec 29, 2009 Update: Removed erroneous references to SLES 9 and specific Solaris versions] I’m very pleased to announce that the 11gR2 Database version 11.2.0.1 is certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 versions 12.0 and 12.1. Existing Apps 12 environments currently running Oracle 10g Release 2 (10.2.0) or Oracle 11g Release 1 (11.1.0) may be upgraded to the 11gR2 Database. Prerequisites Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.0.4 or later; or, Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.1 or later Certified Platforms Linux x86 (Oracle Enterprise Linux 4, 5) Linux x86 (RHEL 4, 5) Linux x86 (SLES 10) Linux x86-64 (Oracle Enterprise Linux 4, 5) Linux x86-64 (RHEL 4, 5) Linux x86-64 (SLES 10) Pending Platform Certifications Certifications for the following operating system platforms are still pending: Sun Solaris SPARC (64-bit)

[Editor: This the second of a four-part series on virtualization and cloud topics] As I’ve mentioned in the first article of this series, I do want to delve more deeply into topics from my OOW’09 E-Business Suite Virtualization Update presentation .

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Using Oracle VM with Oracle E-Business Suite Virtualization Kit

Here is this week’s news round-up for home business, micro business, sole-traders, freelancers, self-employed and any one who is interested in small business news from around the world. Free tax help for small businesses : Thomas P. Ochsenschlager, vice president of taxation for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, will offer free, year-end tax planning and preparation tips in a Small Business Administration Web chat on Wednesday at 10 a.m.

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Small Business World News Round-up – 2009/12/15

[Editor: This the the first of a four-part series on virtualization and cloud topics] As you may have noticed, we have not yet done the recap of my OOW’09 E-Business Suite Virtualization Update presentation. The reason was twofold: we wanted to create a blog mini-series, for which this is the first article, and we wanted to publish that after we finished some development work.

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E-Business Suite 12.1.1 Templates for Oracle VM Now Available

Apple today released Airport Client Update 2009-002 which addresses minor issues in Snow Leopard’s wireless access software. It is recommended for all Macs running Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and includes fixes for the following: • Inability to turn AirPort on or off in some cases after upgrading from Mac OS X Leopard • An occasional loss of network connection when using Wake on Demand • Inability to create a computer-to-computer network, or share the Internet connection on some MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini computers The update weighs in at 13MB and is available in Software Update and at Apple’s Support Web site.

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Apple releases patch for AirPort clients

Here is this week’s news round-up for home business, micro business, sole-traders, freelancers, self-employed and any one who is interested in small business news from around the world. Ringing in the Holiday but Sharing the Bil l: For small businesses, shared office parties offer the feel of a big event at a lower cost — and without the planning headaches. Small business job losses continue : While the federal government’s relatively upbeat employment report for November is fueling optimism among restaurateurs and other businesses that the economy might be turning the corner, another study states that job loss continues to be a problem for small business owners

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Small Business News World Round-up – 2009/12/08

TiVo isn’t the only company trying to entice people to choose its DVR solution over one you can get bundled with your cable or satellite programming. Moxi is going the extra step with the latest version of its HD DVR, unleashing a new model that incorporate three HD tuners instead of the dual-tuner setup introduced earlier this year (and at which TiVo’s HD DVR also maxes out). Three tuners means you can record three different programs at the same time while watching a fourth program that’s already been recorded.

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Moxi introduces three-tuner HD DVR, reduces prices on dual-tuner version

Our Applications Platforms Group has just released a flurry of new platform certifications for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.1 for the 10gR2 10.2.0.4 Database Server. The following operating systems are now certified for database-tier only deployments: * Sun Solaris x86-64 (Solaris 10) * IBM: Linux on System z (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise System 9 and 10) * IBM: Linux on Power Systems (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise System 9 and 10) * Linux Itanium (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise System 9 and 10)

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Thirteen New E-Business 12.1.1 Database-Tier Only Certifications for 10gR2

If you are a MobileMe customer and want to sync your contacts and calendars Over-The-Air (OTA) to your iPhone there’s an easy and a hard way to do it — and the easy way isn’t exactly intuitive or documented very well. This post will explain how to setup up MobileMe the easy way so that you don’t have multiple versions of your contacts and calendars on your iPhone. If you’ve already synced your iPhone to iTunes and checked the boxes for syncing your contacts and calendars, I recommend starting over — which means restoring your iPhone as new

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The proper way to set up MobileMe on an iPhone

If you’re like me — and by all accounts 75 percent of you are — you don’t like glossy screens on your notebooks. The reasons are obvious and have been enumerated on this blog ad nauseum, but suffice it to say, glare. The Queensland University of Technology has published health and safety considerations for Macs with high gloss screens in which they note: Reflections and glare on high gloss monitor screens and their relation to the angle of the monitor screen, could cause the operator to adopt awkward postures when viewing the monitor screen and using related equipment

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Users petition Apple for anti-glare screens

Here is this week’s news round-up for home business, micro business, sole-traders, freelancers, self-employed and any one who is interested in small business news from around the world. California vendors fight for their cash : As if struggling to stay afloat during a faltering economy isn’t difficult enough, hundreds of small business vendors that rely on contracts with California are facing another hurdle: There’s a good chance the state won’t be paying any of their invoices this month

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Small Business World News Round-up 2009/07/14

There is always a debate on whether these are worth investing in or not.  Whatever the side of the argument you are on it is worth having the ability to create and display these tags well. Wordpress is a wonderful tool but has some out of the box deficiencies.  The creation of meta tags is one but this can be addressed by adding plugins which extend the functionality of the core package. One plugin I have adopted is the excellent Headspace2 which is modular and gives you the ability to control many aspects of your code as seen by the search engine spiders.

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Meta tags keywords and descriptions

If you are aware of Twitter you may think is is a great opportunity but how can you get off the ground.  This is the usual problem in internet marketing,  if you are famous you can continue to be famous.  If you are starting out you will find it hard to get off the bottom of the pile. If you have a look at this post called Twitter Smarter with Greasemonkey you can read how you can remove all the pain and effort by using a Greasemonkey script that they have developed to automate your Twitter posting.

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How can I start and be successful with Twitter

Following our recent certification of E-Business Suite Release 11i with the 10gR2 10.2.0.4 Database, I’m very pleased to announce that the E-Business Suite Release 12 is now also certified on 10.2.0.4. For those of you who are planning ahead, this means that you can upgrade your Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i environment to the 10gR2 10.2.0.4 Database and then upgrade your environment to E-Business Suite Release 12, without worrying about incompatible target database versions.

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10gR2 10.2.0.4 Database Certified with Apps 12