Category: News

Over the weekend actress/singer Selena Gomez performed the song “Come and Get It” live at the MTV Movie Awards. The performance included a dance routine that was quite obviously inspired by Bollywood-style dances seen in many Indian movies.

Though the performance seems to have gone over well with the audience and viewers, some Hindu organizations are now objecting to it. The main complaint seems to be that Gomez’s makeup included a bindi – a mark worn on the forehead near the eyebrows.

Though a bindi is now often worn as decoration, the symbol has religious significance to Hindus. According to a report from The Hollywood Gossip, the Universal Society of Hinduism has called the performance insensitive and is looking for an apology.

Gomez has not addressed the criticism of her performance, though she has announced a new world tour that kicks off in August. The star spoke about her experiences at the MTV Movie Awards on The Ellen DeGeneres Show today:

StepStone Group said Tuesday it closed its secondary private equity fund at $450 million. StepStone Secondary Opportunities Fund II LP exceeded its original target of $350 million and closed at the hard cap. Together with allocated capital from separately managed accounts, StepStone has raised approximately $650 million for a focused and differentiated strategy within the secondaries market.

PRESS RELEASE

StepStone Group, LP (“StepStone”) today announced the final closing of its secondary private equity fund, StepStone Secondary Opportunities Fund II, LP, (the “Fund”) with total commitments of $450 million. The Fund exceeded its original target of $350 million, closing at its hard cap. Together with allocated capital from separately managed accounts, StepStone has raised approximately $650 million for a focused and differentiated strategy within the secondaries market.

Limited Partners in the Fund consist of leading U.S. and international investors, including public and corporate pension funds, insurance companies, endowments and foundations, family offices, and financial service and advisory firms.

The Fund’s investment strategy focuses on the smaller end of the secondaries market, where StepStone believes it can capture market inefficiencies to drive returns.

“We are fortunate to have a sophisticated, diversified group of global investors as Limited Partners, many of whom have invested with us in the past,” said Tom Bradley, one of the Fund’s co-managers. “In a difficult fundraising environment, we are appreciative of the support and confidence that our Limited Partners have shown in our differentiated secondaries strategy – one which seeks to generate alpha by building a more concentrated portfolio of high quality assets, purchased at attractive prices, leveraging the global StepStone platform. We have generated significant momentum as a result of our recent investment activity and will seek to continue to build upon the success of our secondaries strategy.”

About StepStone

StepStone is a leading private equity firm that oversees more than US$50 billion of private equity allocations, including approximately US$10 billion of assets under management, through its global offices in New York, London, Beijing, and San Diego. StepStone creates customized and targeted portfolios for the world’s most sophisticated investors using a highly disciplined research-focused approach that integrates fund, secondary, mezzanine and co-investments. StepStone leverages its unique global platform to optimize exposure to top performing investment strategies, geographies and managers. For more information about StepStone, its philosophy and services, please visit www.stepstoneglobal.com.

The post StepStone Collects $450 Mln for Secondary PE fund appeared first on peHUB.

Channel-focused cloud provider PeakColo has launched a new storage offering addressing Petabyte-scale amounts of data. Called Mountain-Moving Storage, it’s a white-label object-oriented storage as a service offering that extends petabyte-scale objects storage to providers, averting the need for them to roll out their own.

PeakColo enables value-added resellers, agents, and service providers to roll out cloud services, addressing a growing need. “PeakColo’s Mountain-Moving Object-Oriented Storage service is a key differentiator for our channel partners – from value-added resellers to data center providers – that look to diversify their product portfolios with cloud-based offerings,” said Luke Norris , CEO and Founder of PeakColo. “With the massive amounts of unstructured data created and used by enterprises of all sizes, cost-effective management can be a real problem. Our Mountain-Moving Storage is easy to manage, while still allowing end-users quick access to their stored data. And unlike other providers, Peak does not charge customers for seeding or retrieving their data.”

Mountain-Moving Storage is based on NetApp’s Distributed Content Repository Solution. It offers multiple solutions for managing massive data repositories, including deep archival of unstructured data, long term backup retention, and archival of video and image objects such as medical records, addressing regulatory requirements including PCI, HIPAA, and SOX.

“PeakColo’s pure channel focus offers high-margin financial models to NetApp partners,” said Jon Mellon, vice president and general manager, Service Provider Partners, NetApp. “PeakColo’s new object-based storage service is a great addition to their portfolio and will help our channel partners better meet customer needs for managing petabyte-scale unstructured data.”

This is yet another piece that PeakColo can offer to channel partners to integrate into their own service offerings, increasing competitive advantages. The company is 100% channel focused, as covered in a recent profile.

Providers can create customized back-up solutions for their clients with full protection of their existing data, as well as plan for future data requirements. Once stored, data can be accessed anytime, anywhere. It adds to PeakColo’s appeal with those dealing with and/or wanting to leverage object-minded applications such as web 2.0 and emerging applications designed with objects in mind.

More than 50 years of water-quality data in the Piceance Basin are now available from the U.S. Geological Survey in two new reports.

The need for this baseline water-resources assessment was identified by energy producers and local governments to address concerns regarding potential changes to surface-water and groundwater resources as large-scale energy development and population growth occurs in the Piceance Basin. Data from 1,545 wells collected from1946 through 2009 were compiled, evaluated, and compared with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drinking-water standards, and are published in a USGS groundwater quality report, available online. Additionally, 347 surface-water sites were compared to EPA drinking-water and Colorado State standards, and are contained in a separate surface-water report.

Groundwater findings include:

• Recharge—the downward movement of surface water to groundwater—to most wells was derived from precipitation.
• Dissolved-solids concentrations commonly exceeded the EPA secondary drinking-water standard. Dissolved solids consist of minerals, organic matter, and nutrients that have dissolved in water. The major components of dissolved solids of natural waters include bicarbonate, calcium, sulfate, hydrogen, silica, chlorine, magnesium, sodium, potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus in the form of phosphate. 
• Arsenic concentrations were higher in low oxygen groundwater and likely from naturally occurring rock.
• Nitrate levels likely associated with septic systems, animal manure, or fertilizer.
• The majority of methane detections were found near the Mamm Creek-Divide Creek area.

Surface-water findings include:

• Salinity and selenium concentrations and loads—a primary concern for water managers in the Lower Gunnison River basin—are generally trending downward.
• Approximately 30 percent of phosphorus samples exceeded EPA’s recommended standard.
• Overall results varied by site.

“Data gaps were identified and suggestions provided to develop long-term regional-scale monitoring strategies to fill data gaps, minimize information redundancies, and to assist managers in making informed decisions regarding land and water resources,” said David Brown, Western Colorado Office Chief for the USGS Colorado Water Science Center.

This voluntary effort between energy producers and local, state, and federal agencies inventoried existing water resources in the Piceance Basin. The resulting data repository is the most comprehensive collection of Piceance Basin water-quality sampling information available in a single location.

The USGS studies were done in cooperation with (in alphabetical order): Antero Resources; Bureau of Land Management; Bureau of Reclamation; Chevron Corporation; Cities of Grand Junction and Rifle, Colo.; Colorado Department of Agriculture; Colorado Department of Natural Resources; Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment; Colorado Division of Wildlife—River Watch; Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission; Colorado River Water Conservation District;  Counties of Delta, Garfield, and Rio Blanco, Colo.; EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc.; Gunnison Energy Corp.; National Park Service; Natural Soda, Inc.; North Fork River Improvement Association; Oxy Petroleum Corporation; Petroleum Development Corp.; Shell Oil Company; Solvay Chemicals; Towns of Carbondale, De Beque, Palisade, Parachute, Rangely, and Silt, Colo.; U.S. Forest Service; West Divide Water Conservancy District; and Williams Companies, Inc.

Some of Germany’s industrial titans have decided to partner up with the Berlin chapter of Europe’s Startupbootcamp accelerator, in the hope of stimulating fresh ideas in the fields of connectivity, mobility and big data.

Mercedes-Benz, Bosch and the industrial insurer HDI are all involved in the new partnership with Startupbootcamp, dubbed SBC2go. Cars will probably be a focus here: Mercedes-Benz is of course one of the world’s best-known car manufacturers, and parent company Daimler is behind the Car2Go car-sharing service — you may note a similarity in the naming of that and the accelerator partnership.

Bosch, meanwhile, may be a familiar name for power tool users, but it is also neck-deep in a variety of other areas, including machine-to-machine communications (sensors, smart packaging and so on) and automotive technology (drivetrains and networked infrastructure for electronic vehicles, to name but two specialties).

The SBC2go program should kick off in August. The 10 selected startups won’t have to already be in Berlin – which, after all, is generally known more for its ecommerce and consumer services – but they would have to move there for the duration of the program. Each will get €15,000 ($19,700) in investment.

“The brands will contribute some of their top talent to the mentor pool, open up their global innovation resources and networks, and support marketing efforts,” Startupbootcamp’s Alex Farcet wrote in a blog post. “In return, the brands access the Startupbootcamp open innovation movement driven by early stage, nimble startups which are usually below the radar of global companies.”

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Like Google, Yahoo, and most other search engines, Bing offers to autocomplete queries in their search box. While Google calls this feature “autocomplete,” Bing calls it “search suggestions.”

Well, it looks like Bing is suggesting that you search for some pretty disturbing stuff.

I was pointed in the right direction thanks to a reddit post. “Why don’t you have a seat over there, Bing,” it read, referencing Dateline NBC host Chris Hansen’s famous line on the show To Catch a Predator.

Ok, I’ll bite. Here’s what Bing’s search suggestions suggest:

Say what? It appears that Bing is suggesting that I search for “sex games for kids,” and “sex games for kids in bed” and “sex games online for children.” Hm, ok then.

Digging a little deeper with the questionable queries produced similar results. For instance, here’s what Bing suggests when you search for “sex kids”:

And here’s a Bing search for “sex child…”:

Even worse, here are Bing’s suggestions for what I’m sure is one of their (and any search engine’s) most popular single-word queries, “sex”:

Damnit, Bing.

Also, changing your SafeSearch settings to strict does nothing to eliminate these results. When you think about it, it would probably look even worse for Bing if it did, because that would indicate that Bing felt that a search suggestion like “sex games for kids in bed” was an appropriate suggestion for a moderate level SafeSearch.

“Still seeing inappropriate content? SafeSearch uses advanced technology to filter adult content, but it won’t catch everything. If SafeSearch is set to Strict or Moderate and you’re seeing adult content, tell us about it so we can filter it in the future,” says Bing.

But this isn’t a SafeSearch problem, this is a search suggestions problem. You can turn search suggestions off in your settings, but by default they are on. That means that the average person that pulls up bing.com and searches for “sex g…” sees these questionable suggestions.

Now, I guess the next big question is whether or not Bing has a responsibility to filter out these search suggestions.

On one hand you could make the argument that Bing doesn’t have to manually edit which search suggestions it gives for particular queries. The suggestions are clearly based upon popular and recent searches from the Bing community – and if that’s what they’re searching for then hey – let it be.

On the other hand, Google limits its autocomplete results. Here’s what you’ll see when you search “sex games” on Google:

And here’s what you see when you search “sex kid”:

As you know, Google also censors other questionable searches. They won’t give you suggestions for sexual terms like “boobs” or “pussy,” and they won’t even display curse words like “fuck” or “shit” in autocomplete results.

They also censor any search that has to do with the illegal downloading of copyright protected content. For instance, “game of thrones torrent” won’t autocomplete.

Over on Bing, it’s a totally different story:

Bing doesn’t really filter any of the types of searches that Google does. Last year, we pointed out that Bing was suggesting painless ways to kill yourself while Google was displaying the suicide prevention hotline.So, if they’re going with a true hands-off approach to any sort of search suggestion censoring, what’s different about queries about sex games for kids?

Well, it’s the “c’mon, dude” argument I guess. As in, Bing…c’mon dude. It doesn’t help that instead of “autocomplete,” Bing’s version of the technology is called “search suggestions.” So, when you think about it, Bing is suggesting that you search for “sex kids movies” and “sex games with kids in bed.”

C’mon, dude.

UPDATE:

As you know, Facebook partners with Bing for their search results. And you can find the same questionable suggestions inside Graph Search results:

One of the more controversial decisions in Windows 8 was how the OS forced users to boot into the new Start menu metro interface. You could get into the desktop from that, but then you would be without the iconic Start button. There are unofficial workarounds, but nothing official just yet.

That all may be changing if reports from WinBeta over the weekend are to be believed as people are finding an option in the leaked version of Windows Blue that adds a boot to desktop option. ZDNet spoke to a source who said this was the plan while saying that Microsoft will be bringing back the sorely missed Start button as well.

Unfortunately, none of this is set in stone. ZDNet’s source says “Until it ships, anything can change.” Windows Blue, or Windows 8.1 as some are now calling it, will reportedly ship to manufacturers in August. That means we have a few months time in which Microsoft could go back on its currently rumored plans.

Of course, doing so would benefit nobody. IDC recently reported that PC shipments are at an all-time low and much of the blame was placed upon Windows 8. Why are consumers avoiding Windows 8? The report specifically called out “radical changes to the UI” and “removal of the familiar Start button.” If these two issues are affecting Windows 8 adoption then Microsoft needs to address them.

Besides the rumored return of the Start button, Windows Blue will also reportedly feature a number of enhancements to the Metro interface. Users will now be able to resize Live Tiles so more important apps are afforded screen real estate. Multitasking has also been improved with two apps being able to share the equal width on the screen.

Yes, just two.

A company is either Brave New World — or Faster, Better, Cheaper. One is not better than the other. Neither is more noble or impressive. Put another way: a company can be a huge success no matter which model it embraces. But the trick of success depends on acknowledging your company’s core identity with unflinching honesty. Otherwise, it’s like putting on a Superman cape when you’re the Incredible Hulk — you may look the part, but you’ll never fly. And playing to win means more than just playing to your strengths; it starts with knowing them.

Vision. Are you a Benz or are you a Model T? Brave New World companies are Benzes — for them, today’s demand isn’t half as interesting as where they see the possibilities five, 10 or 15 years in the future. And shaping that future is precisely where a Brave New World company will pump its resources — until it can create a new market category. That’s what German inventor Karl Benz, father of the gasoline-powered automobile, did in 1885. In contrast, a Faster, Better, Cheaper business is a Model T — laser focused on enhancing a good product and making it more affordable, which is precisely what the assembly line did for the Model T, resulting in more and more market share.

Culture. What’s your workforce’s collective personality? A Brave New World culture is peopled with long-lead thinkers, intuitives who want to light up entirely new markets for their products. Accordingly, there’s a much higher tolerance for extended development cycles and a greater comfort level with uncertain long-term gains. If your employees are execution maniacs who love cheetah-swift iteration and tight deadlines, welcome to the land of Faster, Better, Cheaper. An FBC team grasps the dominant market realities and pushes hard to test quickly. They roll out a fresh version of a product and then incorporate user feedback and technological advances into subsequent iterations.

Resources. Brave New World companies tend to need to raise more capital, which buys them more time to develop, make errors and push that future envelope. When they succeed, they tend to be pretty huge — think Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Amazon, eBay and the Yahoo! of yesterday. Faster, Better, Cheaper businesses tend to be smaller. Google is the obvious exception here — while not the first search engine, it’s clearly the best and biggest. Both company types have relative low records of successful exits, though Faster, Better, Cheapers tend to fare somewhat better. In part, that’s because Brave New Worlds are fewer in number and far more future-dependent — Faster, Better, Cheaper companies are trying to capitalize on the currently understood and well-characterized moment and use much more concrete intel to do it.

Every entrepreneur today is operating in an environment where 75 percent of startups fail. That’s why it’s worth the self-examination to identify your type and give your company its best possible chance for launch and growth.

Yet again, third-party accessory makers have revealed an upcoming iPad design. Alibaba.com is awash in cases for a redesigned iPad. Nearly every case is for a device that has a thinner bezel and slimmer profile. In short, the next iPad will look like the iPad mini — except, you know, just not mini.

This is the standard story line for Apple devices. Months before a major product is released, accessory makers start pumping and dumping cases. Most of the time these cases are rebadged and sold under a brand name. This process takes time, which is why the cases are available prior to the device launching.

This has happened for nearly every iDevice launch since the iPhone 4. Every iPad — full size or mini — was revealed prior to Apple’s announcement through case makers. And a good chunk of case makers display their wares on Alibaba.com.

Apple is part of this cycle, too. A vast accessory ecosystem is part of the iOS magic. A buyer knows that they can purchase the latest iPhone or iPad and customize it to their fitting without any fuss. Even dime stores sell iPhone cases. It’s oft been circulated that Apple releases the dimensions of upcoming devices to accessory makers months before the announcement so the device launches to a full assortment of items.

These factories have likely not seen the next iPad yet. Most of the images are physical mockups or renderings. But they know the device’s dimensions.

So again, act surprised when Apple reveals the next iPad in the coming months. Pretend like you hadn’t seen it before.

As of today, there are now 1.5 million Android devices being activated every day, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said Tuesday. That’s led to more than 750 million Android phones currently in use. But he said the current rate of signups and phones being sold means Android devices in use “will cross 1 billion in six to nine months,” Schmidt said at the Dive into Mobile conference.

“Android is by far the primary vehicle by which people are going to see smartphones,” he said. It’s clear that while Android is growing, its rate of growth is plateauing a bit: Android activations were at 1.3 million per day back in September 2012.

Schmidt didn’t share a lot more news about the current state of Android, but he did warn people to not assume too much about the future with Sundar Pichai’s promotion to lead the Android group in addition to the Chrome business. He suggested the Android OS and the Chrome OS won’t be merging: “Don’t confuse organization design and product design,” he said.

He’s also a big fan of creativity with Android. Regarding Facebook Home, which is a launcher that morphs the standard Android home screen, he said, “I think it’s fantastic. This is what open source is about.”

He tried to dispel the notion that Facebook is threatening Android on its own platform, but he maintained that Facebook is acting properly. “They read the manual, they read the rules and they adhered to them. Shocking.”

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Hemlock Grove, the next original series from Netflix comes to subscribers on Friday. All episodes of the first season will be made available at once, much like the format for House of Cards.

We’ve seen a number of trailers for Hemlock Grove so far, but today, Netflix put out the first red band trailer, with all of the sex, violence, and language fans of Eli Roth (the show’s director) would expect.

It’s going to be interesting to see how Hemock Grove is received following the success of House of Cards, which quickly became the most popular TV show on IMDB. That’s coming to DVD in June, by the way.

Next month, Netflix subscribers finally get to enjoy the long-anticipated fourth season of Arrested Development.

Did you know that Wikipedia had several predecessors? According to this article, there were plenty, but one of the main reasons they didn’t become as well known was because they didn’t explicitly relate themselves to a product that people already knew and understood – the encyclopaedia. They forgot that “content is king”, and tried to create entirely new products based on new technologies, without relating clearly to the underlying problem to solve – how to share knowledge.

I’ve recently been discussing the topic of “knowledge sharing” with colleagues from Indonesia. Wikipedia is probably the best known mechanism for knowledge sharing around the world. But, in development circles, knowledge sharing refers to a particular way that many emerging economies – from China to Colombia –support other developing countries. In the UK we call this type of support “technical assistance” or “capacity building”. Basically, it’s when a government official or consultant from one country shares information with another government official about successful projects, policy or legislation. It can take place as a visit, a conference, a series of meetings, or even a secondment from a week to months. An example recently launched in the UK is “IFUSE”.

Emerging economies tend to focus the knowledge they share around their own experience of development, and in this sense, knowledge sharing is, alongside loans for infrastructure and other activities, a major component of what is known as “south-south” cooperation. Institutions like the World Bank also offer technical assistance alongside their loans.

Government officials in Kenya share knowledge about health, Credit: DFID, 2008

I’ve been discussing this topic because at the most recent meeting of the Steering Committee for the Global Partnership, Indonesia’s Minister of Planning made a case for trying to scale up knowledge sharing and make it an even more effective way of delivering development.

Many problems have been identified with technical assistance in the past. But, as this paper illustrates, it’s hard to find real practical solutions to address the problems. Added to this, the view is often expressed, though not necessarily substantiated, that south-south forms of technical assistance can probably overcome the problems.

So I’ve been wondering whether the Wikipedia experience regarding its potential competitors can help.

Wikipedia’s founders probably felt that there wasn’t enough knowledge sharing going on. Encyclopaedias had limited distribution and were often expensive. In addition, the barriers to entry were high. There weren’t many people contributing to the few well-known editions of encyclopaedias around. So, the founders did two things. First, they created a free product that was open to anyone who had the internet. Second, and more importantly, they reversed the role of “gatekeepers”. In the traditional print profession, there are usually editors who make sure only the best pieces get published. Wikipedia reversed this completely. It let everything get published but behind the scenes introduced a handful of voluntary experts who unofficially made sure the important pieces were correct. By reversing the usual dynamic of “gatekeepers” and making barriers to entry as low as possible, Wikipedia drew on the largest possible knowledge base while maintaining an incredibly high standard.

How might this apply to knowledge sharing in development circles? Well, if scarcity of knowledge sharing is similarly a problem (though I’m not entirely sure it is), the Wikipedia experience suggests that scaling it up will not be as simple as devoting more money to it. This is because – as with general knowledge – “content is king”. The content of south-south forms of cooperation is experience. Hence, I’m not sure devoting more money would help. But making sure the barriers are as low as possible for people with experience to share their knowledge might help. So the question is how to make existing knowledge based on experience have a wider reach and last into the future. In this case, creating a Wikipedia-like tool for development work or some sort of tool to do more e-learning might be useful. ODI and SAIIA have, in the past, suggested that the G20 should explore something like this.

Indeed, some tools already exist. The World Bank recently launched an Open Knowledge Repository to consolidate thousands of its books, reports and research, allowing the public to distribute, reuse and build on its work. It hosts discussion forums on topics such as jobs. UNDP similarly facilitates 23 global Communities of Practice networks for development exports to support, learn and benefit from different experiences in different locations and environments. These tools may well need more awareness and support to scale them up, or they may need more of a radical re-think, like Wikipedia’s competitors did.

Wikipedia flourished because it filled a clear gap and related itself to everyday products and problems. If we’re going to fulfil Indonesia’s aspiration to make knowledge sharing in development really successful, a first step might be to learn from Wikipedia’s experience.

In the day since the Boston Marathon was interrupted by two bomb blasts – which killed three and injured 100 – a meme has emerged online: “Look for the helpers.” The quote comes from Fred Rogers, who shared in his tome The Mister Rogers Parenting Book, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers.’ You will always find people who are helping.”

In the images of the terrible scene in Boston yesterday, the helpers are obvious – bystanders attending to the injured, paramedics rushing to the scene, police and marathon volunteers helping the crowd. Even Google swung into action, creating a person finder app for those with loved ones at the marathon finish line.

We love the idea of looking for the helpers. To keep you inspired on a hard day, here are some talks from brave helpers:

Alberto Cairo: There are no scraps of men. In this talk, Cairo explains why he keeps his prosthetic limb clinics open, even during fighting in Afghanistan – because by giving people new limbs, he’s able to help restore their inherent dignity.

Zainab Saibi: Women, wartime and the dream of peace. In this talk, Zainab Salbi turns her attention to the “backline” of war – the women who keep normal life moving even through terrible moments of violence.

Rick Smolan tells the story of a girl. On an assignment to photograph children in Southeast Asia fathered and abandoned by American soldiers, Rick Smolan encountered an amazing 11-year-old girl. Here, he tells the story of how he arranged her adoption in a moment of crisis.

Scilla Elworthy: Fighting with non-violence. How do we respond to brute force without raising arms? Peace activist Scilla Elworthy evokes the examples of some of the greatest helpers — Aung San Suu Kyi, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela – to give insight.

Inge Missmahl brings peace to the minds of Afghanistan. In all of Afghanistan, there are just a handful of psychiatrists. By building mental care into the health system of the nation, Inge Missmahl is greatly helping a society long riddled by trauma.

Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne have been married for over 30 years and their marriage has endured addiction, cancer, and a reality TV show. That’s why it was surprising this week when TMZ reported that the couple had split and were living in separate places. Though divorce plans weren’t confirmed by the gossip publication, the prospect was certainly implied.

Now, Ozzy himself has come forward to shed some light on the situation. It turns out that the heavy metal star had relapsed, and has been enjoying booze and drugs for the past year and a half. Despite his troubles, the singer says the he has now been back on the wagon for over one month, and that the divorce rumors are not true:

Ozzy Osbourne12 hours ago

For the last year and a half I have been drinking and taking drugs. I was in a very dark place and was an asshole to the people I love most, my family. However, I am happy to say that I am now 44 days sober.

Just to set the record straight, Sharon and I are not divorcing. I’m just trying to be a better person.

I would like to apologize to Sharon, my family, my friends and my band mates for my insane behavior during this period………and my fans.

God Bless,

Ozzy Powered by socialditto  1,000+ likes ·  1,000+ comments

Ozzy and Sharon’s son, Jack, has also used his Twitter account to state that rumors of an impending divorce are untrue:

Follow @MrJackO

Jack Osbourne
@MrJackO

…it’s all bullshit. Last time I check a lot of British news papers weren’t amazing sources of accurate information. Moving on…

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
1 day ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

Leap Motion, the company making extremely accurate gesture detection hardware, has signed a deal to bundle and then integrate its motion-based controller into select HP products. This is a big win for Leap, which already has a deal with ASUS that will bundle the Leap Motion device in with its all in one computers as well as select ASUS notebooks this year.

Bundling is good, but integration is always better in the consumer world, since most consumers may not have any idea that they want gesture-based controls or even why. Leap’s system works like a Kinect with an exterior piece of hardware attached to the computer that detects hand motions with a high degree of accuracy — within 1/100th of a millimeter. As for why someone might want this on their machine, it’s an enabler for new types of computing experiences.

When the company raised an additional $30 million earlier this year, I wrote how excited I was at the potential for gesture-controls to change how we think of the PC by enabling new applications like molding clay, manipulating spreadsheets in 3-D or playing an instrument. From the post:

That’s a nice win in the computing space, but the real question for me is can a new UI change how we interact with computers, and perhaps help keep the PC relevant? David Holz, the a co-founder and CTO of Leap told me that he helped invent the product because he wanted to do things on his computer, like play an instrument or make a model, that were made far too complicated by the existing programs limited by drop down menus necessitated by having a keyboard or mouse interface.

This deal with HP may help drive the adoption of more of those Leap-specific applications by helping deliver a larger audience for developers. Already Leap has sent out 12,000 units for free to developers to prime the pump for new applications, but now it needs to give those programmers an audience. As is always the case with a new user interface platform, it could be the most awesome experience since the touch screen, but if people don’t use it, the apps won’t arrive.

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Leap Motion hasn’t even launched its first product yet (the first devices ship May 13), and already the company is on a role. Now, it’s announcing a collaboration with HP, to bring its brand of 3D motion control to that company’s devices, first via bundling the Leap Motion Controller with select HP computers, and then later by hardware integration that embeds Leap tech right into HP gadgets themselves.

Embedding is a major step for Leap Motion, since it means eventually users will be able to access all of the company’s 3D motion control features without needing any kind of peripheral. Leap Motion co-founder and CEO Michael Buckwald explained in an interview that the functionality of Leap, whether embedded or standalone, should be exactly the same when it does eventually arrive, although this partnership with HP, the first such arrangement with an OEM PC manufacturer, is still at a very early stage. This first outing of embedding capabilities for Leap is big news for the company, however, even if shipping devices are still a ways off.

“It’s exciting for us on two levels. One, it’s a strong validation of confidence in leap from a technical point of view, as well as validation that it can be embedded in consumer devices,” Buckwald said. “The other is that it means a lot to our developer ecosystem as well. Yes, we’re talking about embedding the motion-sensing part of the technology, but we’re also talking about embedding Airspace, the Leap developer ecosystem.”

HP computers that are Leap Motion-enabled will come with Airspace, Lesp’s application store for Leap Motion-compatible titles, pre-loaded. That’s a huge advantage for Leap and its developers in terms of discoverability, and making sure that customers are exposed to software built for Leap Motion in the first place. Apps for Leap Motion are an integral part of the launch and platform strategy, since without software to use with the unique and impressive hardware, it’s unlikely that anyone will stick with the device long-term.

The company’s ability to impress big name partners early and often is also a very good sign for Leap Motion’s potential sustainability. It has already signed up Asus as a partner, too, and the company will ship some of its computers bundled with Leap Motion controllers. Retail partner Best Buy will also be doing endcap displays, meaning users will be able to try out the new technology for themselves, which is a huge boon in terms of convincing people it’s something worthwhile.

This new HP deal is just the start for Leap in terms of its embedded tech opportunities. Buckwald says that while the final design of a Leap Motion-enabled device hasn’t been defined yet, it could work either with placement above a display like most current webcams are positioned, or below, as it’s placed with the current standalone Leap hardware. He also said that mobile device integration is definitely something else coming down the line.

“Mobile will definitely be a part of our strategy in the future,” Buckwald said. “Tablets and phones are a great example of a use case where there’s a major benefit to the consumer to embed Leap. Anywhere we think we can provide value, we’re interested in eventually embedding in there.”

For Leap, the challenge however is less about identifying ways it could benefit users, and more about staying focused and being diligent in keeping its aspirations within the grasp of its small team of staff, he said. Embedding the tech is a huge step, and one that could position Leap as a new staple tech for inclusion in the computing products of third-party OEMs, so keeping the company’s eyes on that prize is the current priority.

In the latest Webmaster Help video from Google, Matt Cutts responds to a question about Penguin’s effect on internal links that use the same anchor text. The exact question is:

Do internal website links with exact match keyword anchor text hurt a website? These link help our users navigate our website properly. Are too many internal links with the same anchor text likely to result in a ranking downgrade because of Penguin?

“My answer is typically not,” says Cutts. “Typically, internal website links will not cause you any sort of trouble. Now, the reason why I say ‘typically not’ rather than a hard ‘no’ is just because as soon as I say a hard ‘no’ there will be someone who has like five thousand links – all with the exact same anchor text on one page. But if you have a normal site, you know…a catalog site or whatever…. you’ve got breadcrumbs…you’ve got a normal template there…that’s just the way that people find their way around the site, and navigate, you should be totally fine.”

He continues. “You might end up, because of breadcrumbs or the internal structured navigation, with a bunch of links that all say the same thing, that point to one page, but as long as that’s all within the same domain, just on-site links, you know, that’s the sort of thing where, because of the nature of you having a template, and you have many pages, it’s kind of expected that you’ll have a lot of links that all have that same anchor text that point to a given page.”

Long story short, this isn’t an issue you should have to worry about. Like with everything else, just don’t abuse it and make it an issue.

Today’s modern infrastructure is built around data-on-demand and a constantly connected end-user. More organizations are utilizing elements of cloud computing and are striving to be more agile. One challenge facing many organizations is that they are inhibited by their legacy network infrastructures, which are often proprietary. Their networks are no longer able to meet current business demands, let alone support business growth or new technological innovations. It’s important to find that right medium of technology where your organization can increase network capabilities and performance without increasing costs.

This white paper from HP takes a look at next generation technologies and how they’re able to improve a data center infrastructure. Furthermore, there is an emphasis on using intelligent systems which can also meet the needs of today’s business demands. With a modern network environment, organizations are able to gain competitive advantages with network infrastructures that are open and based on industry standards.

Download this white paper to learn how a modern network infrastructure can help both your data center and reduce your TCO. These benefits include:

• Modern network infrastructures use open and industry-standard components, eradicating costly vendor lock-in.
• Modern networking technologies are automated and intelligent, so your IT staff can dedicate more time to supporting business growth.
• Network management is centralized, simplified, and streamlined through a single-pane-of-glass management platform, removing the need to maintain multiple management platforms.
• Branch office network management is simplified and doesn’t require dedicated IT staff at remote locations.

Not only can a modern network infrastructure improve scalability, security and management – it can also increase the capabilities of the entire organization. The key idea here is to utilize smart – open – technologies to facilitate network migration and mitigate the risk and cost of change when the network needs to adapt to new business needs.

[Image source: HP FlexNetwork Architecture]

With an ever-growing emphasis on cloud computing and IT consumerization, more organizations will have to ensure that they are able to meet these new demands. This white paper outlines how the FlexNetwork architecture allows enterprises to meet contemporary business challenges like those previously mentioned using open, industry-standard protocol implementations.