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Monday, October 28, 2013

What The New 'Star Wars' Movie Need: Ben Skywalker

By Ryan Rigley While there may not have been any official "Star Wars VII" casting announcements as of yet, we now have a breakdown of the official "Star Wars VII" production crew. Joining J. J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan, who are currently in the process of writing the screenplay, are director of photography Dan Mindel, […]Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/10/28/star-wars-movie-need-ben-skywalker/
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Oracle gears up to battle Salesforce.com, IBM with Eloqua update

Oracle is rolling out a series of new features for its Eloqua marketing automation suite, hoping to get a leg up on rivals like Salesforce.com and IBM in the red-hot software segment.

Now generally available is AdFocus, which provides marketers with tools for running multichannel advertising campaigns. A key feature is the ability to deliver targeted display ads to customers and prospects, while comparing their effectiveness to so-called "owned" and "earned" media, such as company websites and buzz on social networks, respectively.

[ InfoWorld presents the Bossies 2013, the best open source software for data centers, clouds, mobile, and more. | Get the latest insight on the tech news that matters from InfoWorld's Tech Watch blog. ]

Another update concerns Eloqua Profiler, which like its name suggests, is used to build out profiles of prospects based on their interactions with "assets" tracked in Eloqua, such as emails and web pages. Now Profiler can also include asset activity that's occurring on properties the marketer's organization doesn't own, such as video content hosted on a third-party website.

Finally it's now possible to tap Facebook's custom audience feature from AdFocus, giving marketers the ability to target discrete blocks of users based on their social profile.

There's perhaps no hotter area of enterprise software these days than marketing automation, following a rash of consolidation as platform vendors attempt to build out broad product suites.

Last week, Oracle bought Compendium in order to bolster the capabilities of Eloqua, which it acquired in December for $871 million. Compendium provides software for creating different types of content that can be used to entice customers to visit a marketer's web site or other property, said John Stetic, vice president of products, Oracle Eloqua Marketing Cloud.

Among others, Salesforce.com has also invested heavily in marketing software, scooping up ExactTarget, Buddy Media and Radian6 for its own cloud-based suite.

Oracle gets an edge over the competition with Eloqua, as its always been "built by marketers, for marketers," Stetic said. "We allow for really advanced targeting throughout the entire buying process."

In addition, Oracle is taking a more open approach, offering a full suite but not forcing customers to use it all, he said. "Lots of vendors want to think they'll have this whole stack and own the world, but what I hear from customers is, I want choice."

Meanwhile, as online privacy concerns mount in the wake of revelations over surveillance programs by the U.S. National Security Agency, marketers need to be mindful of the boundaries between themselves and customers, Stetic said.

"Ultimately what it comes down to things like government surveillance, people can't vote with their wallets on that, whereas in the commercial world if someone feels they're being overly tracked and overly monitored and not getting value out of it, they vote with their wallets," he said.

Source: http://podcasts.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/oracle-gears-battle-salesforcecom-ibm-eloqua-update-229499?source=rss_business_intelligence
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Lou Reed's Death: Hollywood Mourns the Rock Icon

Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Kirk Hammett, left, and Lou Reed at the 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concert in 2009

After news of Lou Reed's death broke early Sunday, many in Hollywood hit Twitter to mourn the rock icon.

Reed, who was 71, underwent a liver transplant operation at the Mayo Clinic in Cleveland in May. The singer-songwriter was best known for fronting the iconic 1960s group The Velvet Underground and later taking on unsavory subjects in a solo career.

PHOTOS: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2013

"The world has lost a fine songwriter and poet…I’ve lost my ‘school-yard buddy,'" wrote Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale on Facebook.

Among those mourning his loss included such luminaries as Kevin Smith, Jon Cryer, Olivia Wilde, John Cusack, Flea and Nikki Sixx. Read what they had to say below.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/news/~3/koVBy3ga18s/lou-reeds-death-hollywood-mourns-651128
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Review: Flash your way to better VMware performance

October 28, 2013

When it comes to making virtual server farms easier to manage, the SAN is the great enabler. But when it comes to maximizing virtual server performance, the SAN is the great bottleneck. A single host running dozens of virtual machines (or more) can easily generate enough I/O operations to reduce overall SAN response time, increasing I/O latency and adversely affecting virtual machine performance. Adding more spindles may help in the short term, but that can be very disruptive to the storage infrastructure and does not really take care of the root of the problem: I/O bottlenecks.

One company that is working to improve VM performance by reducing storage I/O latency is PernixData. PernixData FVP is an add-on module for the VMware vSphere hypervisor that creates a cluster of high-speed SSD devices across multiple vSphere hosts. The PernixData "flash cluster" creates a distributed cache for reads and writes to the SAN, accelerating virtual machine I/O without requiring any changes to the VMs or their host datastores. And because the flash cluster is shared among hosts, PernixData FVP fully supports VMware services such as vMotion, DRS, and HA. VMs can continue to move freely from host to host without incurring a cache "miss" penalty.

[ Virtualization showdown: Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 vs. VMware vSphere 5.1 | InfoWorld Test Center reviews VMware vSphere 5.1 and VMware vCenter Operations Manager. | Get virtualization right with InfoWorld's 24-page "Server Virtualization Deep Dive" PDF guide. ]

By consolidating server-side flash into a single shared flash cluster, PernixData FVP leverages many small flash investments into a large I/O improvement. Installation is quick and easy, and it doesn't even require a reboot of the hosts. PernixData FVP comes in SMB and Standard versions. The SMB version is $9,995 per host for up to four hosts and 100 VMs. The standard edition is $7,500 per host with no restrictions on the number of hosts or virtual machines.

Zero to hero
Here is the quick takeaway for PernixData FVP: zero changes to the virtual machine environment. There are no changes to the VMs or to the underlying host datastores, and PernixData FVP is transparent to both the VMs and the SAN.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/virtualization/review-flash-your-way-better-vmware-performance-229521?source=rss_infoworld_test_center_articles
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No. 1 Alabama rolls over Tennessee, 45-10

Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron (10) celebrates after a first half score against Tennessee in an NCAA college football game in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Alabama running back T.J. Yeldon (4) jumps through the tackle of Tennessee defensive back LaDarrell McNeil, bottom, and defensive back Brian Randolph (37) during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Alabama head coach Nick Saban leads his team on to the field for an NCAA college football game against Tennessee in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Alabama head coach Nick Saban, right, greets Tennessee head coach Butch Jones prior to an NCAA college football game in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Tennessee head coach Butch Jones watches his team prior to an NCAA college football game against Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — T.J. Yeldon scored on three 1-yard runs, AJ McCarron passed for 275 yards and two touchdowns, and No. 1 Alabama rolled along to a 45-10 victory over Tennessee on Saturday.

Landon Collins returned an interception 89 yards for another score for the Crimson Tide (8-0, 5-0 Southeastern Conference), which raced to a 35-0 halftime lead. Alabama has outscored its last six opponents 246-26.

McCarron completed 19 of 27 passes, including a 54-yard touchdown to Amari Cooper and a 22-yarder to Kevin Norwood, both in the first half. It was Cooper's longest catch of the season and only his second touchdown.

The Volunteers (4-4, 1-3) dropped their seventh straight in the rivalry game, tying the most consecutive wins for either team. They couldn't build on the momentum from an upset of No. 20 South Carolina that snapped a 19-game skid against ranked teams.

Tennessee also won seven in a row from 1995-2001, but Butch Jones' program clearly has plenty of catching up to do.

Jones might have gotten a head start when he turned to freshman quarterback Josh Dobbs to open the second half in his first college action, replacing a struggling Justin Worley.

Worley was 8-of-15 passing for 120 yards and was intercepted twice, including the pick-six to Collins.

Alabama's Kenyan Drake ran for 89 yards on 14 carries while Yeldon ran 15 times for 72 yards in his first three-touchdown game. Kevin Norwood caught six passes for 112 yards, including an acrobatic grab when he extended his arms to collect the ball while falling backward.

Dobbs didn't make Tennessee's last road trip to Florida, and seemed destined for a redshirt season. He did seem to provide a second-half spark.

Dobbs completed 5 of 12 passes for 75 yards, ran three times for 19 yards. Fellow freshman Marquez North, who helped set up the game-winning score against South Carolina, gained 87 yards on four catches.

Rajion Neal gained 70 yards on 13 carries.

The Tide, which earlier had a 104-0 scoring binge ended, had allowed only nine points in its first four home games. Neal's 3-yard run early in the fourth quarter was the first touchdown Alabama had allowed at Bryant-Denny Stadium this season.

Dobbs didn't complete a pass on his first drive but Neal's 43-yard run set up Michael Palardy's field to snap Alabama's string of unanswered points. That was the fifth-biggest such streak in Tide history, going back to the third quarter of the Kentucky game on Oct. 12.

Tennessee did have early scoring chances. Worley misfired on fourth-and-7 from Alabama's 34. He led the Vols to the Tide 24 late in the first half but Collins then returned an interception the distance in the final seconds.

Collins took over the starting spot this week when Vinnie Sunseri went down with a season-ending knee injury against Arkansas.

Alabama starting nose tackle Brandon Ivory missed the game for unspecified medical reasons.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-10-26-T25-Tennessee-Alabama/id-577117b99092417d84e8ebf17f034169
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Moving children and families beyond trauma

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

28-Oct-2013

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Contact: Debbie Jacobson
djacobson@aap.org
847-434-7084
American Academy of Pediatrics

World-renowned school crisis and bereavement expert says pediatricians can play a vital role in aiding children, communities following violence and disaster

ORLANDO, Fla. Pediatricians can play an important role in helping children and communities recover following episodes of school and community violence and disaster, while working to prevent and prepare for future tragedies, said David J. Schonfeld, MD, FAAP, a world-renowned expert on school crisis and bereavement.

Dr. Schonfeld is giving a presentation, "Aurora, Newtown, Boston and Beyond: Violence and Its Impact on Children," at 11:30 a.m. ET Monday, Oct. 28 during a plenary session at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition in Orlando. His presentation begins at approximately 11:30 a.m. at the Orange County Convention Center. Reporters wishing to cover the session should first check in at the press room, W203B, for media credentials.

Dr. Schonfeld is the founder and director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, pediatrician-in-chief at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children and chair of pediatrics at Drexel University College of Medicine. He has traveled throughout the world to counsel and train school, pediatric and mental health care staff on caring for children and communities impacted by crisis and loss.

Dr. Schonfeld provided pediatric bereavement and school crisis consultation in the aftermath of hurricanes Sandy, Katrina and Ike; and following the shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn. Dr. Schonfeld has been named to the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission which will make recommendations on school safety, mental health and gun violence prevention in that community.

"These are life-changing events," said Dr. Schonfeld. "You don't go back, you don't undo it, and you don't return to the perceived 'normal.' These children and communities are changed and impacted by these tragedies forever. And yet it does not mean that these children are damaged."

Pediatricians can help children impacted by crisis events, including those who are grieving, experiencing loss, or exposed to violence throughout their childhood, said Dr. Schonfeld.

These child victims either remain impaired or grow from their experiences, he said.

"This is where pediatricians can help shift the balance; by helping these children and families to emerge from these events with healthier coping abilities. There is an opportunity to promote post-traumatic growth that will make these children more resilient."

Pediatricians also can help children and families within their own communities to deal with the impact of tragedies, even those that occur many miles away.

"When a disaster like this happens you start to think of your own life experiences, difficulties you've had in the past, things you worry about for the future," said Dr. Schonfeld. "If pediatricians are sensitive to that and help kids who are struggling because of their own thoughts, fears and experiences, they are doing a lot. You don't have to go anywhere in the world to find adversity. Just look where you are."

Pediatricians should work collectively and within their communities to decrease violence, by advocating for meaningful change in gun laws, for example, and setting systems in place that prepare school and other officials for shootings and disasters in ways that minimize child exposure to these events.

Dr. Schonfeld said these goals can be a tall order for pediatricians.

"It's hard to be a pediatrician in good times, and tremendously challenging after a disaster. If you're a pediatrician in Newtown constantly seeing patients who are strugglingand it's like that after these major eventsthere's not an influx of financial and other resources to help with this response," said Dr. Schonfeld.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, though its Friends of Children Fund, is working to provide support to pediatricians in communities impacted by disaster, and mental health training for pediatricians so they are better prepared to help children dealing with trauma.

"We need to help pediatricians impacted by these events if we want to help children and communities," said Dr. Schonfeld.

###

The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults. For more information, visit http://www.aap.org.

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