Category: News

We know that Google’s second-generation Nexus 7 tablet is on the way, but not much about the device is known— especially since we didn’t see much of a tease at Google I/O this year. Fortunately, it appears that we’re finally getting some long-awaited information about the venerable device as news has surfaced that it’ll not only arrive this summer with high expectations, but it will come with a brand-new display unit. According to the hit-or-miss Digitimes, Google and ASUS are turning to AU Optronics (AUO) to develop a 7-inch, low-temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) panel at a 1,900 x 1,200 resolution. Also reaffirming what we’ve previously heard, shipments are expected to begin as early as Q2 and the tablet is expected to see the 8 million unit mark, which should more than certainly help Google keep eating away at that tablet market share.

source: Digitimes

Come comment on this article: AUO set to provide display panels for next-generation Nexus 7 tablet

SAP, the legacy business software behemoth that is now definitely, totally, 100 percent A Cloud Company,  just lost the man who made it so. Lars Dalgaard, who joined SAP when the German-U.S. giant bought his company, SuccessFactors, in late 2011, has quit to become an investor. He will stay on as a cloud advisor to SAP, however.

The news came out Friday as part of a flurry of SAP announcements. Another of those also relates to a departure – that of human resources chief Luisa Delgado, whose responsibilities will be taken on by CFO Werner Brandt – but the big non-quitting-related news is that SAP is consolidating its business to better reflect its newfound cloudiness.

SAP’s cloud “go-to-market” strategy will now all be under the purview of Bob Calderoni, CEO of Ariba (alongside SuccessFactors, one of SAP’s major cloud buys of the last two years). And development will all be under the control of technology chief Vishal Sikka.

SAP is pitching this new structure as an innovation accelerator, but does it finally signal a streamlining of the company’s sprawling and often confusing portfolio (a condition I like to call IBMitis)? Yes! And no.

As Sikka said on a conference call today:

“We see an opportunity to not only consolidate and streamline the portfolio, but bring incredible efforts… to transform that in the power of the cloud. We will get into areas that are truly unprecedented – applications for new industries that weren’t possible before [such as] healthcare, banking, oil and energy.”

Which is nice, but – as co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe chipped in – SAP has “a lot of commitments” to its existing customers too, and “we’re a company that stands by our commitments.” This may mean we should expect some redundancy within the portfolio to continue for a while yet, in order to keep those with more old-school SAP systems in place happy.

As for SAP’s ongoing cloud strategy, co-CEO Bill McDermott promised that Dalgaard’s exit would lead to “zero business disruption”:

“Our cloud DNA is now embedded across 65,000 minds and hearts and it’s become the soul of SAP. While it’s nice to have one evangelist for the cloud, it’s even better to have 65,000.

“Lars took us from $20 million in terms of revenue to a $1 billion run rate in the cloud. Now it’s about scale because everything is cloud. No other company has gone through this transition so fast – it literally happened in 12-15 months under his leadership.”

McDermott added that Dalgaard had been having “open conversations” with him and Hagemann Snabe for some time about his plans to downgrade his role to that of advisor. “This is nicest balance he could find in his personal life and we were happy to accommodate him because we think the world of the guy,” he said.

Speaking of SAP’s thorough cloudiness, the company also announced on Thursday that it would deliver its products – including, of course, those on the in-memory HANA platform — on VMware’s newly-re-announced vCloud Hybrid Service IaaS platform, as well as vCloud Suite. This will allow for fully managed services on-premise, in the cloud and in hybrid deployments.

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It’s official Minnesota will require major online sites to collect Minnesota’s 6.875 percent sales tax starting July 1, 2013. Good news for brick and mortar shops who have felt the lack of online tax (or really lack of enforcing online tax) has been unfair. Bad news for shoppers and large online retailers. Small online businesses are still exempt from the tax. The Pioneer Press reports…

The new law will have some wrinkles that don’t completely close the online tax-free opening. Smaller e-commerce sites are still not covered. Nor are online retailers that don’t have affiliated partners or physical stores in Minnesota. An affiliated partner would be a third-party seller that a retail site such as Amazon connects with an online buyer.

A couple weeks ago, reports came out that Facebook was getting ready to buy mapping/traffic app Waze for up to $1 billion. This was actually an extension of rumors that have been going on for quite some time, dating back to at least last summer.

It appears that there might be a bidding war, with an Internet giant better known for maps in on it. According to Bloomberg, Google is in the mix too, as are other unnamed companies. The news outlet’s sources indicate that Facebook’s talks with the company being publicly reported has led to interest from others, including the search giant.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, as Google could be an attractive destination for a company in the mapping area, given the success of Google Maps, and the continued expansion of imagery and features. On the other hands, a company like Facebook could provide more freedom for a company like Waze as it doesn’t already have a major maps product.

From Facebook’s perspective, the acquisition would be an opportunity to capture more mobile users, not unlike its deal with Instagram. From Google’s perspective, such an acquisition could be more of a defensive strategy than anything.

Google unveiled new Maps experiences for desktop, mobile and tablet devices at Google I/O last week.

One of the pleasant surprises out of this year’s Google I/O was the announcement of a Nexus edition of the Galaxy S4. Now Google may be working on a similar deal with HTC.

Anonymous sources speaking to Geek say that HTC is now working on a version of the HTC One that will ship with stock Android 4.2.2 instead of its HTC Sense software. If true, it could potentially be a major win for HTC as it’s aiming to capture more of the market that’s been cornered by Samsung in recent years.

Of course, there is one question we must ask – why bother with a Nexus edition of the HTC One when people can already buy the HTC One developer edition and flash their own custom ROMs on the device? Well, some people adore the vanilla Google experience, but don’t know how to install custom ROMs. Letting HTC and Google do all the work for them could boost sales of HTC’s flagship while getting the definitive Google experience, ads and all, into the hands of more users.

So, when can you expect to see the fabled Nexus edition of the HTC One arriving in stores? It’s said that we’ll get an announcement within the next two weeks with a release following later in the summer.

It should be noted that this is merely a rumor for now, but Geek broke the news that Google would be releasing a Nexus edition of the Galaxy S4 before its announcement at Google I/O. I wouldn’t be surprised to see HTC follow suit.

The radio edit of Daft Punk’s new single “Get Lucky” has already broken Spotify records and currently sits at over 28.3 million streams. Now, Spotify has announced that the album on which it’s featured is also breaking records.

Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories launched on Spotify on May 21st, having spent the previous week available as a free stream on iTunes. On that day, Daft Punk set a new record for the most-streams for an album on its first day in US, UK, France, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Mexico.

And that’s not the only record that Random Access Memories is going to set. According to Spotify, if current streaming trends hold, the album will wind up as the most streamed album ever in the week of its initial release.

If it takes that crown, it will take it from Mumford & Sons’ Babel.

In celebration (if you’re a Daft Punk fan), here’s Daft Punk meets Soul Train:

On Monday, a girl named Tina S. posted a video of herself playing guitar to YouTube. Not especially uncommon for the website, but the video this week has received nearly 3 million views.

What makes Tina’s video special is that she’s covering Van Halen’s “Eruption,” often cited as one of the best and most difficult guitar solos in history. Also special is the fact that she nails it:

While her peers were no doubt developing their Guitar Hero video game skills, Tina was learning to play the real thing. Her YouTube account shows that she’s been playing guitar for years – at least since she was nine years old. Past videos show her covering The Eagles, Bon Jovi, and Guns N’ Roses.

Eddie Van Halen has not yet commented on the girl’s prowess. However, Eddie’s son Wolfgang Van Halen, the current bassist for Van Halen, has praised Tina via his Twitter account:

Follow @WolfVanHalen

Wolfgang Van Halen
@WolfVanHalen

14 year old girl covers “Eruption” I need to meet this girl!!! http://t.co/DS2OWJBufr

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
8 hours ago via iOS · powered by @socialditto

Follow @WolfVanHalen

Wolfgang Van Halen
@WolfVanHalen

The fact that she looks bored as hell makes it that much cooler haha

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
8 hours ago via Tweetbot for iOS · powered by @socialditto

Clearlake Capital Group has acquired about 89% of Bluefly’s outstanding shares directly from the company’s principal stockholders. Clearlake also agreed to buy additional shares from Bluefly which, together with the stock it is buying from principal stockholders, represents more than 90% of the company’s outstanding shares. Financial terms weren’t announced. Bluefly expects to cease trading on the NASDAQ before the open today. Bluefly is an online retailer of designer brands.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK, NY, May 23, 2013 – Bluefly, Inc. (NASDAQ Capital Market: BFLY), a leading online retailer of fashion forward designer brands at superior value, today announced that an affiliate of Clearlake Capital Group (“Clearlake”) has purchased approximately 89% of the outstanding shares of Bluefly Inc. (“Bluefly” or the “Company”) directly from the Company’s principal stockholders.  Clearlake also entered into an agreement with the Company under which it purchased additional shares from the Company that, together with the shares acquired from the Company’s principal stockholders, represent in excess of 90% of the outstanding shares of Bluefly.  Pursuant to the same agreement, Clearlake agreed to acquire the remaining outstanding shares of common stock of the Company through a short form merger at a price of $0.10 per share.  The Company expects to consummate the merger as soon as possible following the issuance of the shares, and in any event within one business day.  The Company also expects that its shares will cease trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market effective prior to the open of market on May 24, 2013.

Joseph Park, CEO of Bluefly, said, “Clearlake brings an outstanding team with eCommerce and financial expertise, and they are dedicated to re-energizing this business and brand at a pivotal time in our sector. With this transaction, Bluefly will be well-capitalized and well-positioned for growth, building on its loyal following and continued strong traffic.”

“Bluefly is a pioneer in offering the best in designer brands and fashion trends at a value that customers love in an online environment that is fun to visit and easy to navigate.  With a new operating structure and capital, and Clearlake’s leadership, we look forward to building on this legacy as we seek to reinvigorate the Company during a dynamic period in the eCommerce industry,” said Scott A. Erdman, Bluefly’s Chief Merchandising Officer.

About Bluefly, Inc.
Founded in 1998, Bluefly, Inc. is a leading online retailer of designer brands, fashion trends and superior value.  Bluefly is headquartered in the heart of the Fashion District.  In 2011, Bluefly expanded its portfolio, launching Belle & Clive, a members-only shopping destination that presents highly-curated selections of important brands via limited time sale events.  For more information, please visit www.bluefly.com and belleandclive.com.

About Clearlake Capital Group
Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is a private investment firm focused on special situations and private equity investments such as corporate divestitures, recapitalizations, buyouts, reorganizations, turnarounds and other equity investments.  Clearlake seeks to partner with world-class management teams by providing patient, long-term capital and operational expertise to invest in dynamic businesses.  Clearlake currently manages approximately $1.4 billion of equity capital, and Clearlake’s founding principals have led over 50 investments totaling more than $2.7 billion of capital in sectors including business services, communication, consumer products/retail, defense/public safety, energy/power, healthcare, industrials, media, and technology.  For more information, please visit www.clearlakecapital.com.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including with respect to the acquisition of Bluefly by Clearlake, the timing of completion of the merger, the timing of cessation of trading of Bluefly shares on the NASDAQ Capital Market, and the future business operations of Bluefly.  Statements including words such as “expects,” “intends,” “will,” or similar expressions are forward-looking statements.  Because these statements reflect Bluefly’s current views, expectations and beliefs concerning future events, these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future events and involve risks and uncertainties.  Actual results may be materially different than the results implied or predicted by the forward looking statements.  Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they were made.  Bluefly assumes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, to reflect events, circumstances or changes in expectations after the date of this press release.

The post Clearlake Capital Buys Bluefly appeared first on peHUB.

One thing you will not see in Disney’s own Carousel of Progress is a huge crowd of people being led around an amusement park by their iPhones.  But that is exactly what you will see when you visit any one of Disney’s theme parks.  So what is it that is so interesting on all of these iPhones?  Disney theme park tourist apps.  Where to go, what to see and even how long it will take.

I can attest that the following are the best apps out there for a Disney trip after field testing on a recent visit to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

Before you go: Trip planning with ebooks

You should first look to see if your local library has any up to date ebooks that you can borrow. I was able to check out a couple of titles before our trip to Disney World began. Additionally there are several titles available on Amazon and iTunes for your Kindle and iBooks app. One of my favorites is The Unofficial Guide Walt Disney World ($9.99 Kindle, $9.99 iTunes).  Being able to read and bookmark travel guides on my iPhone saved me from packing heavy books in my carry-on.

Guidebooks are better as apps

Beyond electronic books you will also find some great informational guides in the App Store. One provider in particular, TimeStream Software, has a couple of iPhone apps published under the title of Notescast that you will find have the same insightful information as the best-selling books.  The difference is that the apps are much easier for navigating and finding what you are looking for when you are in a hurry inside the various parks. In particular their Walt Disney World Secrets ($1.99 iPhone) is a great supplement to any ebook you may already have in your library.

Searchable maps of nearby attractions

Both Apple and Google have decent satellite and regular maps of the parks in their mapping apps.  However, you will find that specialized maps that include the ability to annotate the maps with interactive pins that highlight nearby attractions will help get you to where you want to be.  VersaEdge’s Disney World Magic Guide ($4.99 Universal) does exactly this by including the wait times alongside the location.  Seeing the wait times on the map may change where you are headed in the first place.  The app also comes with a database with details about the attraction as well schedule for your dinner reservations.  This is something that neither Google nor Apple has in their maps.

Avoid waiting in line

There are two things you will want to keep track of when visiting Disney’s attractions: wait times and FastPass times. While VersaEdge’s Disney World Magic Guide will show you the wait times on a map, what it does not do is show you are the times that the next FastPass is available.  FastPass is Disney’s way of controlling large crowds by allowing everyone a chance at getting to ride their favorite rides at least once.  But FastPasses do run out.  Knowing that the next FastPass for SpaceMountain is for 9 p.m. when it is just 11 a.m. is a good indication that you had better run over to Tomorrow Land and get one before they run out.  And the busier the park is, the more likely the FastPasses will run out.

Disney’s own My Disney Experience – Walt Disney World (Free, Universal) proved to have the most accurate and up-to-date FastPass information in each park.  Disney’s app also has the current wait times, maps and database of attractions.  While it did not have FastPass information, I did find that VersaEdge’s Disney World Magic Guide was more responsive while looking up nearby park information.

Have some fun too

Not every app is about managing your time and keeping track of where you need to be next. One of the fun apps will help you find the Hidden Mickeys ($7.99, Universal) all around the resort. You may have seen the book of the same title in various bookstores for about the same price, but the app is much better than the book.  Unlike the book, the app will show you how close you are to each hidden Mickey when you are in the park using the device’s GPS.

Another great app to have is actually not a native app.  When in the park, you will notice that Disney has a program called PhotoPass where you can be photographed in front of some of the main attractions in the park. There is a mobile web app on Disney’s site that you can create a home screen icon for.  This will allow you to view the photos Disney’s photographers take right after they take them.

And finally, there is another great Notescast app that focuses on one specific historical Disney feature. While shopping on the Magic Kingdom’s Main Street be sure to check out the Main Street Windows (Free, iPhone). All along Main Street each window has a business title, which is a tribute to various Disney employees and major contributors to various Disney productions over the years.  It is sort of like Disney’s own version of Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

While these apps are all specific to visiting Disney World in Orlando, there are versions for its other theme park locations.  Be sure you are specific when looking for other books and apps about Disney. You don’t want to get all excited about riding Gadget’s Go Coaster realizing later that it is only at the Anaheim and Tokyo Disneyland locations.  Just be sure to devote a little time to loading up your iPhone with apps that will help you enjoy your trip to Disney this year.

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Pitting a car like the Caterham Seven Supersport against any type of SUV on a closed circuit, may seem like a very unfair thing to do. However the 550 hp Bowler EXR S is anything but a standard SUV. You see this thing was designed to not only run events like the Paris Dakar Rally, but to do things that no other SUV in existence can do. Case in point, chase a lightweight Caterham around a racetrack. Check it out after the jump.

Source: AutoCar.com

At the Data Center Jobs Board, we have three new job listings from CBRE, which is seeking a Sr Building Engineer – Critical Systems in Alpharetta, Georgia, San Dimas, California, and Roseland, New Jersey.

The Sr Building Engineer- Critical Systems is responsible for day-to-day operation, maintenance, building rounds, critical equipment systems monitoring, and modification of assigned critical environment building systems, which may include the following:mechanical (including HVAC, computer room air conditioners, chillers, and plumbing), electrical (including UPS, DC battery systems, PDU, generators, transfer switches and switchgear), fire detection and suppression, life safety, lighting, and building control systems, and operating, maintaining, monitoring, and performing preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance on building equipment, which may include: mechanical/HVAC/plumbing systems, electrical/cabling, fire detection and suppression, life safety, lighting, temperature control systems, building management systems, and digital systems. To view full details and apply, see job listing details (Georgia) or job listing details (California) or job listing details (New Jersey).

Are you hiring for your data center? You can list your company’s job openings on the Data Center Jobs Board, and also track new openings via our jobs RSS feed.

The advocates of a US federal carbon tax are in an awkward position. They have stressed to the public that the majority of natural scientists believe human-caused carbon emissions are at least partially responsible for the rise in global temperatures …

A 15-year old boy has allegedly killed his two younger brothers, aged 4 and 10, in West Point, Utah.

The boys’ mother found her 4-year old dead in their home and ran to find her other children, but they were nowhere to be found. After calling authorities, the body of her 10-year old was found by deputies. The 15-year old had already fled, but he was quickly found by investigators and was later booked into a juvenile detention center. Police say the two younger boys likely died from knife wounds.

Neighbors and people who knew the suspect say they are shocked; the boy was intelligent and did well in school, and was often seen running for exercise around the neighborhood. However, the two younger boys were adopted, and the suspect was the biological child of the mother. Reportedly, three other siblings weren’t home at the time of the murders.

“I’ve talked with their mother many times but I never got the sense that there was this kind of trouble,” says neighbor Lindsey Caballero. “You could tell there was a sibling rivalry between the biological son and the adopted boys. But I never imagined it could go this far.”

Sadly, this isn’t the first case of a sibling being charged with murder this year; a New Mexico teen killed his parents and three younger siblings after depression and suicidal thoughts crept in. And just earlier this month, a California boy admitted to killing his 8-year old sister and blaming it on an intruder.

The government is concerned about the proliferation of 3D printed guns. That much was obvious when the State Department demanded Defense Distributed remove the blueprints for the first 3D printed gun – The Liberator – from its Web site. Now another government agency is warning law enforcement about the potential dangers posed by 3D printed firearms.

Fox News reports that the Department of Homeland Security has issued a bulletin on 3D printed guns to law enforcement agencies around the nation. It says that 3D printed guns in their current state may be “impossible” to stop. The DHS continues by saying that it can’t regulate the guns because it can’t regulate the file sharing that’s putting the gun’s blueprints in peoples’ hands.

Like other agencies, the DHS is concerned that people will use 3D printed firearms to get past metal detectors. Their main concern is that large events will be harder to police since magnetometers, which are used to find metal weapons, will be useless against 3D printed weapons.

An anonymous law enforcement official told Fox News that the only solution to the potential threat is to pat-down every single person attending any large event. He ends by asking if America is ready “for pat-downs at every event.”

Near the end of the memo, the DHS says that Congress can pass laws banning 3D printed weapons. The agency admits that it probably won’t stop the creation of 3D printed guns though:

“Even if the practice is prohibited by new legislation, online distribution of these digital files will be as difficult to control as any other illegally traded music, movie or software files.”

We’ve seen over the past few weeks that people are already experimenting with the Liberator and making it better. Some are even making 3D printed bullets. The DHS does have some legitimate concerns, but it’s hard to say just how much of a threat 3D printed guns pose at the moment. It seems that hobbyists and gun smiths are the only ones interested in the technology for now. Besides, the liberator isn’t much of a gun, and is still prone to exploding.

Do you know where your corporate data is living? Some of it may reside in cloud services without your knowledge, due to the ease of moving files and workloads to services like Dropbox, Box and Amazon Web Services. A startup has developed software to help companies get their arms around this “shadow IT” and investors like what they see.

Cloud visibility and control company Skyhigh Networks announced that it has received $20 million in Series B financing. Sequoia Capital led the round, with participation from existing investor Greylock Partners. Aaref Hilaly, partner at Sequoia Capital, has joined Greylock’s Asheem Chandna on Skyhigh Networks’ Board of Directors.

The Skyhigh Networks Cloud Services Manager is a  multi-tenant service that discovers, analyzes, and controls cloud services in use within an organization. It will see all cloud services in use, identify anomalous behavior and opportunities for consolidating subscriptions, and enforce key security and usage policies. Skyhigh will use the new capital to expand its sales, marketing, and engineering teams to meet the increasing demand for its services and to extend its leadership in the cloud visibility and control market. 

“The rapid spread of BYOD and cloud computing has led to vast numbers of cloud services being adopted, often with no involvement from corporate IT,” said Hilaly. “Skyhigh sets itself apart from other security companies by giving IT a unique ‘searchlight’ to find these cloud services, assess the risks involved in using them, and control the confidential data stored in them – all in a way that’s respectful of the end user. We are thrilled to partner with Rajiv and his exceptional team who have a long history of delighting customers with innovative products.”

Cupertino, California based Skyhigh Networks was a finalist for the RSA Conference 2013 Most Innovative Company award and was recently named a “Cool Vendor” by Gartner. It lists customers of its products such as Cisco, Equinix, and Torrance Memorial Medical Center.

“We had no comprehensive way of knowing which services were in use, where outgoing data was headed, and what risks these cloud services implied for our business,” said Steve Martino, vice president, Information Security, at Cisco. “The number of cloud providers we were using was definitely an eyebrow raiser. We knew there would be a number of them, but we were surprised by exactly how many showed up.”

A bridge crossing the Skagit River in Northwest Washington State collapsed on Thursday, sending three vehicles into the river and injuring three people.

According to a report from Seattle’s local Fox affiliate, a bridge along I-5 about 60 miles north of Seattle collapsed, sending vehicles into the Skagit River 50 feet blow. People in those vehicles were reported to have climbed on top of their cars to stay out of the water. The injured persons are all reported to have survived with only minor injuries.

A Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) cited witnesses as saying the cause of the bridge collapse was an oversized load truck that struck the bridge, though the official cause of the collapse is still under investigation. The department has closed both directions of traffic on the I-5 in Skagit County, and is advising locals on possible detour routes. The National Transportation Safety Board will also be investigating the collapse, after which the WSDOT will remove the broken bridge and replace it.

(Image courtesy the Washington State Department of Transportation)

Good corporate governance is about many things — boards that act independently, robust shareholder rights, accurate accounting, reasonable and fair executive compensation, and so on. No single parameter defines good governance. It takes a village.

But with board independence in the spotlight recently, it’s easy to overlook another aspect of good board health that’s just as important to performance: diversity. While not all studies on board diversity reach the same conclusion, many agree that putting women on boards can be a good thing for shareholders. In particular, many studies agree that a critical mass of women on boards — variously defined, but often somewhere around three women or 30% of the board — is positively correlated with performance measures like return on equity, Tobin’s Q, lower cost of debt, or quality of earnings. Pension giant CalPERS noted in a 2009 report that “companies with more diverse boards…have higher performance on key financial metrics, such as return on equity, return on sales, and return on invested capital.”

Urban Outfitters’ recent move to nominate a woman to serve on its board ought to serve as a case in point. As company that markets fashion apparel, accessories, and home goods (at its namesake stores as well via its other brands, like Anthropologie and Free People), it seems reasonable to think that the perspectives of women could be useful to its board. Many shareholders agree. A 2011 shareholder proposal requesting simply a report on board diversity won 22% shareholder support, and a 2012 shareholder proposal requesting that the company commit to a policy of seeking women and minority candidates for every director search won 38% of the shareholder vote. A vote in favor of nearly 40% is considered a strong signal that an issue proposed for consideration should get serious attention, and action, from directors.
But this is where it gets complicated. In fact, neither proposal was adopted by the company, despite the strong showing of shareholder support. Urban Outfitters’ management has also recommended that shareholders vote against a shareholder resolution requesting that the company make racial and gender diversity part of every director search, just as it did in 2012. And the woman being added to the company’s board? In addition to being a senior manager at the company, she’s the CEO’s spouse.

It may be that she is quite capable of acting independently from company management, not to mention the CEO. But, in general, we as shareholders expect that company insiders and relatives are less likely to act independently, and decades’ of research confirms that the greater the role of families and insiders, the smaller the chances of true independence.

It’s not the first time that Urban Outfitters has nominated an insider to the board, either. As a whole Urban Outfitters’ board skirts the edges of listing and regulatory requirements for independence; two of the seven directors are identified as affiliates of the company and two, if the entire slate is elected, are insiders. One of the “affiliated” directors is the brother-in-law of the co-president of one of the company’s brands, and another is a partner in a law firm that got nearly $2 million in business from the company in its most recently completed fiscal year.

The value of board diversity ought to be in the fact that diverse perspectives increase a board’s independence and objectivity. Women, who have long been excluded from boards, can bring fresh perspectives to the boardroom. But the chances that those fresh perspectives will come from a company insider and family member of the current management are not especially high. Of the 13 companies Urban Outfitters lists as peers in its 2013 proxy statement (in order to benchmark executive compensation), all but three have more than one woman director. The median number of women on the boards of Urban Outfitters’ self-selected peer group? Three. One wonders if Urban Outfitters would have so readily kiboshed the proposed diversity initiatives if that decision had itself been put before a more diverse group.

Good governance in many ways is straightforward. Managing the corporation and overseeing the management are two fundamentally different roles. There are reams of examples of how bad things can get when those roles are blurred. Robert Monks and Nell Minow, in their classic book Corporate Governance, give vignettes from the governance of Enron, Tyco, Countrywide, Chesapeake Energy, Lehman Brothers and others that serve as ample warning on the dangers of having boards too cozy with management to question things that later cost billions of dollars and robbed thousands of Americans of their pension assets, jobs, and nest eggs.

It is past time for all companies to get serious about board diversity, and to do so in ways that comport with other parameters of good governance. Diversity is a source of independence, and independence is what makes boards valuable.

Digg’s new RSS reader will be out in about a month – but it won’t be a standalone app.

Instead, Digg’s new reader will simply be a part of Digg. Speaking at Internet Week New York, Digg CEO Andrew McLaughlin said that users will ”have one download, which is Digg, and the current Digg will have added onto it reader capabilities.”

Oh, and yes, Digg’s reader will be called “Digg Reader.”

Ever since Digg announced that they were working on their own reader, shortly after Google announced that they were killing Google Reader, the goal has been to build a replacement – something fast and simple that Google Reader users will want to adopt. Digg has said that apart from making it fast and simple, they really only want to make it synchronous across multiple devices and make it easy to import from existing Google Reader accounts.

Digg’s own surveys have shown that users want very little changed about Google Reader.

Another interesting thing that they found was that 40% of respondents said that they would pay for a Google Reader replacement – something that “pleased” them. They went on to say that they wanted their users ““to be customers, not our product.”

“Free products on the Internet don’t have a great track record. They tend to disappear, leaving users in a lurch. We need to build a product that people can rely on and trust will always be there for them. We’re not sure how pricing might work, but we do know that we’d like our users to be our customers, not our product. So when we asked survey participants whether or not they would be willing to pay, we were pleased to see that over 40% said yes.”

Although there’s no confirmation here, that makes it seem like Digg is at least strongly considering charging for Digg Reader. And if that’s the case, and it’s not even its own standalone app, is Digg just trying to charge people to use Digg?

Anyway, McLaughlin confirmed that Digg Reader will launch by the end of June, just in time for the Google Reader kill date of July 1st. Hopefully for Digg, that’s not too late. By then, users will have had months to find a replacement, and there are certainly plenty out there.