“All together now - Delaware Online” plus 4 more

All together now - Delaware Online
Hosted Solutions' COO Christopher 'Kip' Turco to Speak at UNC ... - Stockhouse
Lessons from the U.S.'s 30 Years War - CBS News
Euro finance ministers face strong euro worries - WCAX
Microsoft Claims Sidekick Data Will Be Restored This Week - eWeek

Posted: 19 Oct 2009 07:54 AM PDT

With adversity comes the opportunity to bridge barriers and work for the better good.

That is the message the United Way of Delaware is preaching to religious congregations and nonprofit organizations throughout the state Friday, Saturday and Sunday during this weekend's "Faith in Action Weekend of Service."

The United Way hopes this first-ever event will connect faith and service-based organizations and result in a stable, working-relationship between them, says program director Seandra Sims.

"Both groups share a common goal -- to help Delawareans in need," Sims says. "Our goal is to create a synergy between them."

Weekend events will begin with a kickoff rally Friday at Wilmington University. It will give participants an overview of "Faith in Action" goals, Sims says.

Participants can either host their own project in collaboration with faith and service-based organizations, or they can volunteer to assist in an existing project, such as organizing a food drive or helping kids in a literacy program.

With a stagnant economy and government funding down, more people need assistance, Sims says. That challenges the state to think strategically about how it utilizes its funding, she says. "We can't afford to duplicate our initiatives. We all need to come together."

Rabbi Michael Beals of Congregation Beth Shalom, a Wilmington synagogue participating in the event, says it's unfortunate it took a bad economy to prompt joint action. "We can't afford to work separately," Beals says. "We don't have that luxury anymore."

His congregation already holds successful interfaith activities, such as an interfaith Thanksgiving and a Martin Luther King Shabbat with African American churches.

It's wonderfully practical for congregations and nonprofits of all sorts to pool resources, he says. "There is a lot of scattered goodness going on in this state. I'm doing this, you're doing that," Beals says. "United Way is the grand convener."

"Government officials need one address to pour funds into," he says. "United Way is that."

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Hosted Solutions' COO Christopher 'Kip' Turco to Speak at UNC ... - Stockhouse

Posted: 19 Oct 2009 07:32 AM PDT

RALEIGH, N.C., Oct 19, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ --

Hosted Solutions (www.hostedsolutions.com), the East Coast's premier provider of IT infrastructure as a service (IaaS), today announced that Christopher "Kip" Turco, the company's Chief Operating Officer, will speak tomorrow at UNC Charlotte's 10(th) Annual Cyber Security Symposium.

Guest speakers from around the country will address the latest issues surrounding cyber crime and what is being done to combat this ever-increasing problem. Speakers include representatives from Bank of America, Microsoft, Duke Energy, TIAA-CREF, Wachovia, McAfee and more. The event, organized by the university's College of Computing and Informatics, will be held from 8:15 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Cone Center on the UNC Charlotte campus.

Turco will speak about security considerations for companies looking to move to cloud or virtualized environments.

"Cloud computing represents tremendous opportunity for businesses," Turco commented. "However, it's crucial for each company to assess their environment and their requirements from a regulatory perspective before moving to cloud. "

As COO, Turco is responsible for overseeing all operations, engineering, sales and marketing for Hosted Solutions. A seasoned executive with a successful track record leading operations in high growth environments, Turco previously served as Senior Vice President of Operations and Engineering with Motricity, a leading provider of mobile data solutions to the world's most successful mobile operators and content providers.

About Hosted Solutions

Hosted Solutions' high quality Data Center and Managed Hosting services maintain and protect customers' mission-critical IT systems and applications, enabling them to reduce operating costs, lower the risk of downtime, focus on core competencies, and achieve their top business objectives. The company operates SAS 70 Type II Certified facilities in Boston MA, Charlotte NC, Raleigh NC, and Cary NC, providing best-of-breed data center operations with hardened physical infrastructure, the highest level of security, and a complete managed services portfolio. Hosted Solutions was acquired by Boston-based private equity firm ABRY Partners in April 2008 for $144 million. For more information, please visit www.hostedsolutions.com.

About UNC Charlotte

The UNC Charlotte College of Computing and Informatics provides academic programs in computer science, software and information systems, information technology, and bioinformatics. It is also the home to leading research centers and institutes, including the Center for Digital Identity and Cyber Defense Research (DICyDER), the Bioinformatics Research Center, the Charlotte Visualization Center, the Diversity in Information Technology Institute (DITI), the eBusiness Technology Institute (eBTI), and the Software Solutions Lab.

UNC Charlotte is a public research university. UNC Charlotte is the fourth largest campus among the 17 institutions of the University of North Carolina system. It is the largest institution of higher education in the Charlotte region. The University offers 18 doctoral programs, 62 master's degree programs and 90 programs leading to bachelor's degrees. Fall 2008 enrollment exceeded 23,300 students, including almost 5,200 graduate students.

SOURCE Hosted Solutions

http://www.hostedsolutions.com

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Lessons from the U.S.'s 30 Years War - CBS News

Posted: 19 Oct 2009 06:56 AM PDT

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Euro finance ministers face strong euro worries - WCAX

Posted: 19 Oct 2009 06:56 AM PDT

By AOIFE WHITE
AP Business Writer

LUXEMBOURG (AP) - Finance ministers from the 16 nations that use the euro meet for talks late Monday as the shared currency's rise against the dollar hits European exports, endangering the continent's fragile economic recovery.

The euro bought $1.4923 in European afternoon trade, up from $1.4899 late Friday in New York, as investors expected strong earnings news from U.S. companies this week - which could see them shift funds from safe-haven dollar investments to riskier but more profitable stocks.

The weakening dollar has raised concerns in U.S. trading partners because it makes it harder for them to sell goods in the U.S., the world's biggest economy. It is feared a weak dollar could thereby undermine nascent recoveries in those countries.

Euro zone exports to the rest of the world slid 23 percent in August from a year ago. That was the fastest drop this year as a global recession stilled demand for many goods and services. A strong euro makes German cars and French wine more expensive for the euro's main trading partner - Britain - as well as its second major export market, the United States.

Eurozone ministers and the European Central Bank officials are usually reluctant to say they are worried - but ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet spoke out earlier this month to say the ministers saw "excessive" exchange rate volatility as bad for economic and financial stability.

Ministers will also talk about when they should start withdrawing economy stimulus programs and start repaying mounting public debt.

Trichet, the chief eurozone central banker, called on euro nations to commit to starting an exit strategy in 2011 at the latest. So far, eurozone ministers have not set a date, saying they will wait for new EU economy forecasts due Nov. 3 to confirm that a recovery is on the way.

Europe's economy is now recovering slowly as consumers start spending again and companies order more goods after a long spending freeze - helped by billions of euros (dollars) in tax breaks and extra spending by governments trying to support their economies.

Those programs are loading European countries with debt and swelling their yearly budget gaps as tax revenue sinks and theyspend more on welfare payments to the growing number of unemployed.

The eurozone is expected to pull out of recession in the third quarter but rising unemployment and the deeper effects of the financial crisis may damage the economy's ability to grow in future years.

EU officials are calling for longer-term plans to reform rigid labor markets that make it hard for companies to hire and fire workers. More flexible working terms could add to economic growth and shorten jobless lines.

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Microsoft Claims Sidekick Data Will Be Restored This Week - eWeek

Posted: 19 Oct 2009 06:56 AM PDT

Microsoft suggested in an Oct. 18 statement that T-Mobile Sidekick users' personal data, lost in a catastrophic server failure earlier this month, could be largely restored as soon as this week. T-Mobile has continued to suspend sales of the Sidekick smartphone while the data loss, attributed to Microsoft's subsidiary Danger Inc., is resolved. The incident could potentially cast a shadow over Microsoft's much-rumored branded smartphone development, Project Pink.

Microsoft suggested in an Oct. 18 statement that it will restore lost personal data for T-Mobile Sidekick users starting this week. A server malfunction at Microsoft subsidiary Danger Inc. earlier this month had deleted information stored on the devices of some 800,000 Sidekick owners.

"We continue to make steady progress, and we hope to be able to begin restoring personal contacts for affected users this week," reads the Microsoft statement, which was posted on the T-Mobile Forums, "with the remainder of the content (photographs, notes, to-do-lists, marketplace data, and high scores) shortly thereafter."

The statement finishes with the inevitable: "We appreciate your ongoing patience."

The T-Mobile Website continues to list Sidekick smartphones as "Temporarily Out of Stock," with sales likely suspended until the data service is fully restored. T-Mobile is keeping tight-lipped on a road map for reintroducing the devices to market.

"We're pleased that Microsoft/Danger is continuing to make progress," David Beigie, vice president of corporate communications for T-Mobile, wrote in response to eWEEK's question about Sidekick sales resuming. "T-Mobile's sole focus remains on helping Sidekick customers recover from this disruption."

Microsoft's current claims about a full data restore paint a somewhat rosier picture for Sidekick users previously told, in a statement issued by T-Mobile on Oct. 10, that their personal data had been permanently lost.

"Based on Microsoft/Danger's latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device … almost certainly has been lost as a result of server failure at Microsoft/Danger," read that missive.

Microsoft engineers were already scrambling to locate the cause of the problem, isolating it as a hardware issue. In response to that discovery, an Oct. 12 posting on the T-Mobile Website told users to not turn off their Sidekick or remove the battery, which would force the device to attempt to sync with servers no longer holding their data.

By Oct. 15, the situation seemed somewhat more under control.

"We are pleased to report that we have recovered most, if not all, customer data for those Sidekick customers whose data was affected by the recent outage," Roz Ho, corporate vice president for Microsoft's Premium Mobile Experiences, wrote in an Oct. 15 statement on the T-Mobile Forum. "We plan to begin restoring users' personal data as soon as possible, starting with personal contacts, after we have validated the data and our restoration plan."

Ho also indicated that the server failure had been catastrophic, with data loss not only in the servers' core database, but also the back-up. The system is currently being rebuilt component by component in order to recover the user data; however, Ho's statement declined to elaborate on whether Hitachi Data Systems, which had reportedly been involved in upgrading the Sidekick SAN at around the time of the server failure, had a role in the incident.

The loss of personal data quickly led to questions about Microsoft's protocols for redundancy and server failure issues, and whether the involvement of any third parties may have escalated the risks of system crash.

A report previously published by Reuters indicated that the servers holding the Sidekick data were a proprietary system belonging to Danger Inc., a Microsoft subsidiary acquired by Redmond in 2008. Danger Inc. originally made its name by providing software and services for mobile handsets, although many of its original employees reportedly left the company or were absorbed into other Microsoft business units following the deal.

If so, a loss of Danger Inc. employees could have potentially affected the handling of the proprietary system.

"There are reports that Microsoft perhaps removed certain individuals or technologists from the Danger staff in order to support other mobile computing initiatives, and that left them short-handed," Erik Laykin, an analyst with the Global Electronic Discovery and Investigations group at Duff & Phelps, an independent financial advisory and investment bank, said in an interview with eWEEK. "If that happened, it's certainly possible that it could have left them vulnerable. I've seen a similar thing with organizations that try to support systems on shortened staff."

Over the long term, the Sidekick incident could potentially affect Project Pink, Microsoft's much-rumored branded smartphone. Although Microsoft itself has repeatedly refused to comment on the rumors, sites such as 9to5Mac have alleged that Microsoft and its Danger Inc. team have been developing two smartphones that could roll out in early 2010.

The CES trade show, slated for early January 2010 in Las Vegas, could very well be where Microsoft decides to debut such a device, which would compete against well-established offerings from Apple, Palm and Research In Motion's BlackBerry line. In what could perhaps be regarded as a bit of irony, reports have suggested that both devices could have a sliding form-factor reminiscent of the Sidekick.

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