Press release:

NetApp Simplifies Storage and Data Management with Support for Windows Server 2012

Public, Private, and Hybrid Cloud Migration Accelerated by Microsoft and NetApp Technology Integration

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 4, 2012 — Trends toward greater virtualization of IT infrastructure, increased levels of content digitization, faster levels of IT service deployment, and continued service-level availability expectations are driving increased interest in cloud computing. This period of transformation from physical to virtual infrastructures, and then to secure private, public, and hybrid clouds, offers new opportunities for IT professionals to deliver agile, on-demand services built on a flexible pool of shared compute, network, and storage resources.

In close collaboration with technology leaders such as NetApp, Microsoft is unveiling a new Windows Server release to help accelerate this transition. Today, NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) announced support for Windows Server 2012 with storage solutions for server and desktop virtualization, storage and availability, Web and application platform development, and private cloud deployment. For organizations of any size and in any industry, this close collaboration simplifies and accelerates how storage is pooled, provisioned, accessed, and managed in Windows environments.

In June, NetApp was named Microsoft Private Cloud Partner of the Year for 2012 in recognition of its commitment to helping organizations move to private cloud solutions. For more than 10 years, NetApp and Microsoft have teamed to develop and provide innovative storage and data management solutions for Microsoft technologies. Today more than 25,000 enterprise customers worldwide store, protect, and manage their Microsoft application data with NetApp® storage solutions.

"Windows Server 2012 is the category benchmark for organizations looking to migrate rapidly to cloud-ready infrastructures for application and service delivery," said Phil Brotherton, vice president, Enterprise Software Ecosystem, NetApp. "To help organizations realize the full value of their Microsoft technology investments, we continue to align our solution delivery roadmaps to address the critical challenges our mutual customers are facing, from increasing storage efficiency to maintaining high availability of servers, applications, and services."

"Windows Server 2012 is built from the ground up to be cloud ready and delivers important storage enhancements to help organizations reduce costs and achieve a whole new level of business agility," said Thomas Pfenning, general manager, File Server Foundation, Microsoft. "We’ve worked closely with NetApp with a focus on giving our mutual customers an efficient, flexible, and reliable IT foundation for delivering business-critical services."

NetApp Supports Windows Server 2012 Capabilities

NetApp offers the following support for key capabilities of Windows Server 2012:

• Storage. NetApp FAS and V-Series storage systems have been thoroughly tested, and are fully supported with Windows Server 2012, which means compatibility and confident deployment of applications. NetApp is committed to providing support for SMB 3.0 and Windows ODX — file storage and data transfer technologies used in Windows Server 2012 storage environments — and is launching a public beta program for this support in October 2012. For more information about this program, go tocommunities.netapp.com/groups/ontap-82-beta-program. NetApp is committed to making data storage and data movement easier by providing storage protocol choices (including support for FCP, FCoE, and iSCSI) that can make server consolidation and virtualization easier, enabling additional cost savings, greater storage efficiency, increased utilization, and simpler high-availability and disaster recovery solutions. NetApp is also a partner member of the Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track program and is developing prevalidated solutions for Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V on the NetApp and Cisco FlexPod® architecture managed with Microsoft System Center 2012 SP1.
• Server and desktop virtualization. NetApp Snapshot™ based backup and recovery with SnapManager for Hyper-V 1.2 and SnapDrive® for Windows 6.5 have achieved Windows Server 2012 logo certification and provide integrated data protection in Windows Server 2012 environments, speeding backup, restore, and disaster recovery operations in Microsoft Private Cloud and Hyper-V environments. NetApp’s support for the updated Clustered Shared Volumes in Windows Server 2012 and the new VHDx specification significantly reduce consumption of server and storage system resources, enabling large-scale virtualization and private cloud deployments. For desktop virtualization, NetApp storage systems offer an innovative set of features for efficient, reliable, and scalable VDI deployments, including deduplication, zero-space cloning, Flash Cache, and automation.
• Reduced infrastructure for cloud. With delivery expected later this year, a NetApp reference architecture built with Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 SP1 will tightly integrate with NetApp FAS data storage systems and V-Series open storage systems running NetApp Data ONTAP®. This validated architecture is structured to reduce application deployment times; increase utilization of virtual and physical resource pools; and provide end-to-end interoperability of compute, storage, and network resources in conjunction with the release of Microsoft System Center 2012 SP1.
• Management and automation. For private cloud implementations, NetApp OnCommand® Plug-in for Microsoft 3.2 is designed to provide integration with Microsoft System Center 2012 SP1 for dynamic scalability, automated workflow, on-demand self-service, and infrastructure orchestration in conjunction with the release of the updated management suite for Windows Server 2012 by Microsoft.
• Web and application platform. NetApp provides comprehensive support for application platforms on Windows Server 2012, including support of SQL Server 2012 data protection with SnapManager® 6.0 for SQL Server.

Additional Resources

• For more information about NetApp support for Microsoft: www.netapp.com/microsoftsolutions
• Follow NetApp on Twitter: www.twitter.com/NetApp
• Get the latest on NetApp culture: www.facebook.com/NetAppCulture
• Join NetApp on Facebook: www.facebook.com/NetApp
• View NetApp videos on YouTube: www.youtube.com/NetAppTV
• Connect with NetApp on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=111681

About NetApp
NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that deliver outstanding cost efficiency and accelerate business breakthroughs. Our commitment to living our core values and consistently being recognized as a great place to work around the world are fundamental to our long-term growth and success, as well as the success of our pathway partners and customers. Discover our passion for helping companies around the world go further, faster at www.netapp.com.

Broadcom Foundation and Society for Science & the Public Announce Top 30 Finalists in 2012 Broadcom MASTERS® Competition

Press release:

Broadcom Foundation and Society for Science & the Public Announce Top 30 Finalists in 2012 Broadcom MASTERS® Competition

Young Innovators Travel to Washington, D.C., to Compete for Awards and Showcase Science Projects Ranging From Artificial Intelligence to Wi-Fi Reception, Tsunami Safety Systems and More

IRVINE, Calif. and WASHINGTON, Aug. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

News Highlights:

• 30 U.S. middle school students awarded all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete for more than $40,000 in cash prizes on October 2
• California has the most finalists, followed by Florida, Texas, Massachusetts, New York and Ohio
• Sponsored by Broadcom Foundation, Broadcom MASTERS inspires future scientists and engineers to stay with science and math throughout high school

Broadcom Foundation and Society for Science & the Public (SSP) today announced the names of 30 middle school finalists in the 2012 Broadcom MASTERS® — a leading science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) competition for middle school students. The Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars) winners will be named on October 2 in Washington, D.C., after completion of a rigorous competition that tests their abilities in STEM subjects, teamwork and collaboration. Find the full listing of 2012 finalists atwww.broadcomfoundation.org/masters and www.societyforscience.org/masters.

Key Finalist Data Points:

• The 16 girls and 14 boys come from 17 states and represent 29 schools. California has the greatest number of finalists with six, followed by Florida with four, Texas with three, and Massachusetts, New York and Ohio with two in each state.
• Finalists were selected by a panel of distinguished scientists and engineers from among 300 semifinalists, who were chosen on August 15 from more than 1,470 applicants in 38 states and Puerto Rico.
• Finalists' independent research projects include a range of topics such as:
  • The Impact of a Parabolic Reflector on Wi-Fi Reception at Different Angles
  • The Effect of Oxygen Removal Treatments on the Mold Growth of Blueberries
  • Can 'Artificial' Intelligence Be More Intelligent Than Human Doctors and Professors in Playing Blokus?
  • Could a Small Aquatic Plant Have Reversed Global Warming 49 Million Years Ago?
  • The Tsunami Safety System: Deploying the Barrier
  • What is the Environmental Source of Cryptococcus gattii?

During Broadcom MASTERS week (September 28 — October 3), finalists will showcase their projects for the public and compete as teams in hands-on STEM activities. The top award is the $25,000 Samueli Foundation Award, a gift of Susan and Henry Samueli, co-founder of Broadcom Corporation. Other honors include $10,000 for second place and $5,000 for third place from Broadcom Foundation in addition to numerous experiential awards such as STEM-focused summer camps and a chance to attend the world's largest international high school science fair in May 2013.

Broadcom Foundation and Elmer's® Products, Inc, the 2012 Broadcom MASTERS official classroom partner, also recognize the middle school teachers who have inspired and mentored the finalists. Elmer's will award each finalist classroom with merchandise, rewards and a $125 Walmart gift card, and  Broadcom Foundation will give each finalist school $1,000. In total, Broadcom Foundation and Elmer's will contribute more than $500,000 in prizes, awards and rebates to nominees, entrants, semifinalists, finalists, and their teachers and schools.

While in Washington, D.C., the students will enjoy an exciting introduction to the nation's capital, experiencing historical sites and organizations that celebrate innovation, science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The finalists also will visit the U.S. Capitol to meet their elected representatives. The week's activities culminate with an awards dinner at theCarnegie Institution of Washington on October 2, featuring keynote speaker Dr. Nicholas Alexopoulos, Broadcom Vice President of Antenna and RF Research and University Relations.

Sponsored by Broadcom Foundation, a non-profit public benefit organization funded by Broadcom Corporation, the Broadcom MASTERS is a program of Society for Science & the Public.

For more information on the Broadcom MASTERS, check out the Broadcom Foundation and SSP websites or visit Broadcom Foundation's Newsroom and read the B-Connected Blog. To keep up with Broadcom MASTERS on Twitter, use hashtag #brcmMASTERS or follow Broadcom and SSP. And to stay connected, visit the Broadcom MASTERS and SSPFacebook pages.

Quotes:

Paula Golden, Executive Director of Broadcom Foundation and Director of Broadcom Corporation Community Affairs"We are thrilled to bring these talented young scientists and engineers to Washington, D.C. Experiences like the Broadcom MASTERS that focus on collaborative team building and project-based learning are powerful catalysts to keeping middle schoolers excited about applied math and science into high school and helping them make academic choices that open exciting new pathways to college and careers in science and engineering."

Elizabeth Marincola, President of Society for Science & the Public"Independent research and hands-on learning is vital to the success of our bright young students, both while still in school and later in their careers. SSP is proud to join with Broadcom Foundation to honor these 30 talented young scientists and looks forward to following their future paths. We hope that programs like the Broadcom MASTERS encourage students to expand and continue the process of scientific inquiry."

About Broadcom Foundation

Broadcom Foundation was founded to inspire and enable young people throughout the world to enter careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) through partnerships with local schools, colleges, universities and non-profit organizations. Broadcom Foundation is the proud sponsor of the Broadcom MASTERS®, a program of Society for Science & the Public — a premier science and engineering competition for middle school children. The Foundation's mission is to advance education in STEM by funding research, recognizing scholarship and increasing opportunity. Learn more at www.broadcomfoundation.org. 

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a FORTUNE 500® company, is a global leader and innovator in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom® products seamlessly deliver voice, video, data and multimedia connectivity in the home, office and mobile environments.  With the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and embedded software solutions, Broadcom is changing the world by Connecting everything®. For more information, go to www.broadcom.com.

About Society for Science & the Public

Society for Science & the Public is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization dedicated to the achievement of young researchers in independent research and to the public engagement in science. Established in 1921, its vision is to promote the understanding and appreciation of science and the vital role it plays in human advancement. Through its acclaimed education competitions, including the Intel Science Talent Search, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, and the Broadcom MASTERS, and its award-winning publications, Science News and Science News for Kids, as well as a weekly e-publication for the iPad, Science News Prime, Society for Science & the Public is committed to inform, educate, and inspire. Learn more at www.societyforscience.org.

Customers Transform IT with VMware vCloud®

VMware News Releases

Customers Transform IT with VMware vCloud®

VMware and Service Providers Enable Customers Across Industries to Successfully Accelerate Delivery of Reliable, High-Performance Secure Clouds

PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 22, 2012 — VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced continued momentum of its customers deploying public and hybrid clouds based on VMware cloud solutions. VMware vCloud® technologies and cloud services enable customers to achieve a wide range of business benefits such as reduced IT costs, improved security and increased flexibility.

"VMware customers are looking to deploy reliable, high-performance, secure clouds that are compatible with their existing applications and datacenter operations. VMware and its partners are uniquely positioned to deliver this,” said Mathew Lodge, vice president, cloud services, VMware. “Today VMware has the broadest cloud ecosystem and the rapid adoption of vCloud services  by customers – triple digit growth in year-over-year VSPP bookings in 2011 and 2012 to date -- is a true testament to the value that the vCloud ecosystem delivers.”

VMware and its service providers cater to a variety of use cases ranging from compute resources for pre-production environments to seasonal and transient workloads to disaster recovery in the cloud. VMware customers who have recently adopted cloud computing to transform their IT environments include Columbia Sportswear Company, eMix (Electronic Medical Information Exchange), Star Alliance and Subaru of America, Inc.

Columbia Sportswear Company
Based in Portland, Oregon, Columbia Sportswear is the worldwide leader in outerwear, sportswear apparel and accessories and has over 4,000 employees and 50 locations. Nearly 100 percent virtualized, Columbia Sportswear first looked to the public cloud to have the option of moving workloads outside the facility to prevent downtime during disasters or datacenter moves. They wanted the flexibility to move workloads seamlessly from their private cloud to their vCloud-based ecosystem provider. 

Two real-life scenarios that Columbia experienced reinforced the need for a cloud model centered on the Japanese tsunami in 2011, which caused continuous power outages to their Tokyo-based facility. First, had a cloud model been in place, the ability to move the data out of the region temporarily would have improved operations and allowed for local staff to access their data remotely. Second, office and datacenter moves shouldn’t necessarily affect access to data and therefore, the need to temporarily park workloads somewhere else without disruption would have allowed for greater productivity. Columbia Sportswear now moves workloads seamlessly from their private cloud to their vCloud provider, having control of where workloads live.

 “We are very pleased with how easy it has been to deploy VMware vCloud to meet our rapidly growing business requirements, allowing us to scale instantly and reduce infrastructure costs,” said Michael Leeper, senior manager, global IT engineering, Columbia Sportswear Company.

eMix
Tasked with providing a highly available, secure platform for hospital providers to share medical information, eMix is replacing the need for CDs, DVDs and VPN connections, bringing healthcare communications into the 21st century on the foundation of VMware vCloud.  eMix collaborated with iLand, 2012 “Global Service Provider Partner of the Year,” to build a public cloud solution that provides massive scalability as well as a holistic approach to security when exchanging medical imaging data between proprietary IT systems. One eMix customer reported an average savings of $14,000- $18,000 per emergency room visit as a result of the cloud.

“The importance of having VMware compatibility and the need to partner with a service provider that can address HIPAA compliancy was a priority when considering a cloud solution,” said Florent Saint-Clair, vice president, corporate development, DR Systems and general manager, eMix (division of DR Systems). “With VMware’s vCloud solution the adoption curve has been accelerating tremendously, and we expect that the growth over the past two years, which was from zero to five hundred customers, will accelerate even further.”

VMware customers to share their cloud stories at VMworld
IT executives from Fortune 1000 and mid-market companies using VMware vCloud will gather on stage at VMworld in San Francisco, Calif. on Aug. 27, 2012 at 2:30 PM to discuss why they chose a hybrid cloud solution and share their use cases and deployment outcomes, including infrastructure, security, provider selection, and results. The session, “Industry Leaders Share the Impact of Their Cloud Deployments (session CSM2258),” will be moderated by Paul Strong, CTO, global customer and field initiatives, VMware and will be open to audience questions. Register here to attend this session at VMworld San Francisco.

VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP) and vCloud Services
The VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP) is for partners offering cloud computing and hosted IT services built on VMware cloud infrastructure. There are over 8,500 partners in the program to date.

VMware vCloud Services offer a broad array of VMware-compatible infrastructure clouds built on a secure platform and delivered by vCloud service providers, enabling customers to easily extend, manage and scale their datacenter workloads to a public cloud. With more than 150 certified VMware vCloud Services in 29 countries, VMware and VSPP partners together form the number two public cloud ecosystem in the world. 
 
Additional Resources

• Learn more about how customers are using VMware vCloud on Another VMware Cloud
• Learn more about the vCloud ecosystem
• Read the VMware vCloud Blogfor the latest information on VMware vCloud
• Follow VMware vCloud on Twitter @vCloud

About VMware
VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2011 revenues of $3.77 billion, VMware has more than 350,000 customers and 50,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

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Facebook’s Ambition Collides With a Harsh Market

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Facebook’s Ambition Collides With a Harsh Market

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Inside Facebook’s headquarters, a red-and-white poster affixed to a wall asks bluntly: “What Could Go Wrong?”

Below, in black ink, someone has scrawled in tiny letters: “Everything.”

The poster, one of several displayed across this sprawling campus, is part of the company’s risk-taking start-up culture, as is the fact that management has not pulled down the defaced copy. But as the company loses its luster on Wall Street, this exchange on the wall points to the improbable turn that Facebook’s fairy tale has taken.

Once hailed as the most valuable technology company to hit Wall Street, Facebook is now worth just over half what it was three months ago, with shares closing at $20.01 Monday. Wall Street analysts are openly wondering whether its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has the business skills to deliver on his promises.

Facebook’s troubles began in earnest with an exceptionally ambitious initial public offering. Even the grown-ups that Mr. Zuckerberg, 28, chose to run the business side of the company — Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operations officer, and David Ebersman, the chief financial officer — seem not to have been skilled enough to stave off that disaster. Nor were the bankers who handled the deal, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

“The company is suffering from a classic disease — it went public at too high a value,” said Dan Alpert, a partner with Westwood Capital, an investment bank that did not participate in the Facebook offering.

The challenge for Facebook executives, Mr. Alpert said, is to persuade the market that it is not a fad and that its managers have a blueprint for making money.

In what passes for good news for Facebook these days, Morningstar, the investment research firm, said shares were almost cheap enough to consider buying, but warned that the price had not yet hit bottom.

That twist of fate, in many ways, reflects the tension between two moneymaking cultures in America: Silicon Valley and Wall Street. They are as symbiotic as they are dismissive of each other. They are equally focused on making money, but their approaches are different.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Press release:

IBM Research, CDC and PHDSC Enable Real-Time Reporting of Public Health Cases

New state and federal effort to align public health case reporting with Meaningful Use requirements could have sweeping impact on health systems.
Access to critical information will help national, state and local public health agencies better manage communicable illnesses and respond quicker to infectious disease outbreaks.

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SAN JOSE, Calif. - 16 Aug 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) scientists are collaborating with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Public Health Data Standards Consortium (PHDSC) to further standardize the exchange and use of public health information to improve healthcare quality and coordination of care.

Controlling major outbreaks of infections such as whooping cough or tracking circulating flu strains is critical to public health. However, the lack of public health electronic reporting standards results in irregular and delayed reports that often create inconsistencies and duplication of efforts.   

IBM Research is working with the CDC and PHDSC to develop a new approach to defining and delivering public health reporting by drawing insights from structured and unstructured data that currently exists in disparate systems. The scientists are creating templates for public health case reports that could work with electronic health record (EHR) systems, allowing critical information in the proper format to be easily shared among local, county, state and federal public health agencies to speed response times to public health issues. 

The coordination and surveillance of public health information across organizations will aid in understanding and potentially preventing the spread of health threats by automating the process and ensuring consistent access to data anywhere in the country. This technology is being piloted with public health information systems in Delaware, New York State, and San Diego County to create, validate and exchange test public health case reports originating from commercial EHR systems or health information exchanges (HIE). 

“The state of a national healthcare infrastructure can be vastly improved through better management of data and an improved understanding of how healthcare services are delivered,” said Dr. Nikolay Lipskiy, Health IT Standards and Interoperability Lead for the CDC. “This collaboration is an opportunity to reduce disparities, improve control of infectious diseases, with the aim of building standardized electronic healthcare systems that is accountable for the health of our communities and our country.” 

Clinicians need to report suspected or confirmed cases of infectious diseases, occupational acquired illnesses and other conditions to their local and state public health programs. This provides public health practitioners the ability to monitor and provide an appropriate response to health threats in the population. These reports are needed in addition to laboratory tests or other generated notifications as labs usually have very little clinical information. 

Many of these reports are delivered today to public health by phone call, faxed or mailed paper forms, or electronic fill-in-the-blank forms which is time consuming and leads to underreporting, errors, and cannot scale up during a large event. To be effective, public health needs real-time, meaningful data that existing EHR systems are just starting to generate and exchange for care coordination. 

“A huge investment has been made to implement standards for the exchange of electronic health records. These same records contain critical data that public health requires, and in time of crises they require it urgently,” said Sondra Renly, Lead Scientist, Collaborative Public Health Transformation, IBM Research. “This community effort will bring near real-time automated reporting to public health and give public health the information required to respond effectively.” 

Built on standards required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services EHR incentive program, the new public health report template tools developed by IBM Research could lower the cost of compliance for healthcare providers while improving public health’s ability to monitor and respond to endemic and novel infectious diseases. 

By leveraging existing templates, EHR systems can automatically capture most components of a public health case report, such as a doctor visit, a test result, or a prescribed medication. This approach provides public health professionals a way to publish and maintain jurisdiction-specific templates and EHR vendors a way to rapidly adopt these templates for reporting purposes. It could also greatly reduce the time needed to report new or updated case information to public health. 

“We are committed to bringing a common voice from the public health community to the national efforts of standardizing health information technology and population health data to improve individual and community health,” said Dr. Anna Orlova, Executive Director, Public Health Data Standards Consortium. “This standards-based integration of public health and clinical systems for electronic data exchanges will help improve the effectiveness of public health programs, the quality of care and the health of the public.”

Facebook’s Stock Has Suffered, but Some Investors See Long-Term Value

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, August 13, 2012

Facebook’s Stock Has Suffered, but Some Investors See Long-Term Value

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

SAN FRANCISCO — The Facebook spring is over. The dog days of August have taken hold.

In May, when investors tripped over themselves to buy a piece of Facebook, not even the skeptics predicted what has happened. Three months after the offering, shares have lost more than 40 percent of their value, closing at just under $21.81 on Friday, from $38 on May 18.

The stock began to dip immediately after its debut on the public markets, and at first technical errors with the offering were blamed. But these problems did not account for the stock’s subsequent plunge, analysts and shareholders say. That decline, they say, can be traced to several factors, among them the sheer size and price of the initial offering, early exits by major investors and slowing growth.

Not least, the stock seems to have been jinxed by Facebook’s own fairy tale.

“The underwriters (and the media) did a great job of hyping Facebook leading up to the I.P.O., and the sell-side (including me) did a great job of hyping it after,” Michael Pachter with Wedbush Securities, an equity research firm, wrote in an e-mail.

Still, some investors remain bullish. Facebook is profitable, it keeps its nearly one billion users glued to their screens longer than any other Internet site, and it is aggressively experimenting with new ways to drum up advertising — its main source of revenue. Just this month, for instance, it began offering application developers a way to focus ads, and sought to diversify revenue by opening its site in Britain to online gambling.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Disruptions: Apple Patent Fight With Samsung Spills Some iPhone and iPad Secrets

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, August 06, 2012

Disruptions: Apple Patent Fight With Samsung Spills Some iPhone and iPad Secrets

By NICK BILTON

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Back in the early 1930s, a magician by the name of Horace Goldin went to court to defend his signature illusion: sawing a woman in half.

Mr. Goldin filed a lawsuit against the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for using this magic trick in an advertisement and explaining how it worked. According to an article in The New York Times from March 1933, Mr. Goldin, who had won a patent for the illusion a decade earlier, asserted that the ad had adversely affected his ability to get people to see his shows. He asked for $50,000 in damages. (That's about $865,000 in today's dollars.)

I thought about Mr. Goldin last week as I sat in a federal courtroom here in the capital city of Silicon Valley. I listened to evidence presented in a patent lawsuit that Apple has brought against Samsung Electronics. Apple claims that Samsung copied its designs for the iPhone and the iPad.

You see, even just by filing his patent, and then using it to litigate, Mr. Goldin publicly drew attention to the secrets of his profession. Apple, by going to a jury trial to defend the patents of its most prized products, is also allowing competitors and the public to see inside one of the most secretive companies in the world.

Steven P. Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, was very much in the mold of a magician. People often spoke of being sucked into a "reality distortion field" as he pitched his new products. Anyone who closely watched those dramatic announcements may recall how he repeatedly used the word "magical" to describe his latest devices.

Obama Responsible for Greater Oil & Gas Production?

U.S. Chamber’s Energy Institute Comments on President Obama’s Energy Speech

February 23, 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s remarks on energy delivered at the University of Miami today:

 

“As the President said, there is no silver bullet that will decrease gas prices and improve our energy security. However, there are a series of significant steps that this President could take that would lead us to a more secure energy and economic future, but this Administration has rejected that path.

 

“Today’s speech contained two fundamental mischaracterizations. The first is the notion that raising taxes on oil companies is going to lower gas prices. It won’t, and we know it won’t because it has been tried before. The result was higher prices and more imports. 

 

“The second is that this Administration is somehow responsible for the uptick we’ve seen recently in domestic production. It’s not. Because of the restrictions this Administration has placed on accessing public land, as well as the ever-increasing amount of red tape, the energy industry has moved to produce oil and gas on private lands. Also, credit is due to policy decisions made years ago in previous Administrations. The fact that the Administration would repeatedly try to take credit for this shows a troubling lack of understanding of energy production in this country. 

 

“The results of the President’s ‘just say no’ energy policy will be felt in the years to come. The facts speak for themselves. President Obama’s administration has issued 50.7 percent fewer annual leases on public lands than President Clinton’s did. Gulf of Mexico energy production is down 16 percent since 2009 and is projected to decrease even further in 2012. President Obama denied the Keystone XL pipeline permit, which would have created thousands of jobs and provided all Americans with a steady supply of oil from a friendly ally. He also has banned new offshore areas from oil and gas exploration, and recently his Administration took one million acres of onshore land rich with oil shale off the table.

 

“The American people can see that the current approach is not working. But we cannot have a constructive conversation about energy policy as long as this Administration fails to put forward any new ideas, relying instead on four year old campaign rhetoric. It isn’t enough just to be for an ‘all of the above’ energy policy in a speech. It’s time to actually propose one.”

 

The mission of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy is to unify policymakers, regulators, business leaders, and the American public behind a common sense energy strategy to help keep America secure, prosperous, and clean. Through policy development, education, and advocacy, the Institute is building support for meaningful action at the local, state, national, and international levels.

 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations.

Maryland Company Settles Pesticides Violations

News release from EPA Region 3:

Maryland Company Settles Pesticides Violations

PHILADELPHIA (February 9, 2012) -- PAMEX Foods, Inc. of Forestville, Md., has agreed to pay a $158,880 civil penalty to settle alleged violations of federal pesticide regulations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today.

EPA cited PAMEX for violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), a federal law requiring the registration of pesticide products and pesticide-production facilities, and the proper labeling of pesticides.

FIFRA's requirements protect public health and the environment by ensuring the safe production, handling and application of pesticides; and by preventing false, misleading, or unverifiable product claims. FIFRA also prohibits the marketing of misbranded, improperly labeled, or adulterated pesticides.

EPA alleged that PAMEX violated FIFRA by selling two unregistered pesticides, Fabuloso Aroma de Bebe and Clorox Magia Floral, from its distribution facility located at 7900 Parston Dr., Forestville, Md. Fabuloso Aroma de Bebe, marketed as an antibacterial product, was sold 161 times, and Clorox Magia Floral, marketed as a disinfectant, was sold once.

As part of the settlement, the company neither admitted nor denied liability for the alleged violations, but has certified that it is now in compliance with FIFRA requirements.

For information about pesticides, call EPA's hotline at: 1-800-858-7378.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also offers a hotline for Spanish-speaking citizens: a toll-free hotline where questions can be answered about pesticides. The Hotline Number is 1-888-919-4372.

For more information about EPA's pesticide program, visit: www.epa.gov/pesticides/.

Note: If a link above doesn't work, please copy and paste the URL into a browser.

Bid Rigging at Foreclosure Auctions

News release from the FBI, Sacramento Division:

California Investor Pleads Guilty to Bid Rigging and Fraud at Public Real Estate Foreclosure Auctions
Ninth Guilty Plea in the Investigation to Date

U.S. Attorney’s Office January 27, 2012

Eastern District of California (916) 554-2700

— filed under: Fraud, Press Release, Sacramento Top Stories

SACRAMENTO, CA—A real estate investor pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Sacramento to conspiring to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions held in San Joaquin County, Calif., Sharis A. Pozen, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, and Benjamin B. Wagner, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, announced.

Kenneth A. Swanger pleaded guilty to conspiring with a group of real estate speculators who agreed not to bid against each other at certain public real estate foreclosure auctions in San Joaquin County. The primary purpose of the conspiracy was to suppress and restrain competition and to obtain selected real estate offered at San Joaquin County public foreclosure auctions at noncompetitive prices, the department said in court papers.

According to the court documents, after the conspirators’ designated bidder bought a property at a public auction, they would hold a second, private auction, at which each participating conspirator would bid the amount above the public auction price he or she was willing to pay. The conspirator who bid the highest amount at the end of the private auction won the property. The difference between the price at the public auction and that at the second auction was the group’s illicit profit. The illicit profit was divided among the conspirators in payoffs. According to his plea agreement, Swanger participated in the scheme beginning in or about June 2009 until in or about October 2009.

To date, nine individuals, including Swanger, have pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in connection with the investigation. They are: Anthony B. Ghio; John R. Vanzetti; Theodore B. Hutz; Richard W. Northcutt; Yama Marifat; Gregory L. Jackson; Walter Daniel Olmstead; and Robert Rose. In addition, four other investors, Wiley C. Chandler, Andrew B. Katakis, Donald M. Parker and Anthony B. Joachim, and one auctioneer, W. Theodore Longley, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Sacramento on Dec. 7, 2011.

“This type of illegal scheme undermines the transparency and integrity of the competitive market for residential real estate. Today’s guilty plea sends a clear message that the Department of Justice does not tolerate anticompetitive conduct that harms consumers,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Pozen. “The Antitrust Division will continue to work with its law enforcement partners to prosecute the perpetrators of anticompetitive schemes in public real estate foreclosure auctions in the Sacramento area and into northern California.”

“The Department of Justice is bringing greater scrutiny to auctions of foreclosed properties as part of our effort to root out fraud in the real estate industry in all its forms,” said U.S. Attorney Wagner. “The days when a few players could rig these auctions for their own benefit are ending.”

Swanger pleaded guilty to bid rigging, a violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine. Swanger also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

These charges arose from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation of fraud and bidding irregularities in certain real estate auctions in San Joaquin County. The investigation is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, the FBI’s Sacramento Division and the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office. Trial attorneys Anna Pletcher and Tai Milder from the Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Office and Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell L. Carlberg are prosecuting the case.

Today’s charges are part of efforts underway by President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes. One component of the task force is the national Mortgage Fraud Working Group, co-chaired by U.S. Attorney Wagner. For more information on the task force, visit www.StopFraud.gov.

Anyone with information concerning bid rigging or fraud related to real estate foreclosure auctions should contact the Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Office at 415-436-6660, visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.htm, contact the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California at 916-554-2700 or contact the FBI’s Sacramento Division at 916-481-9110.