Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Google?s Eric Schmidt: The Internet and mobile can ?change the world?

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt has spoken about how he believes technology can change the world by bringing greater information, transparency and values to Internet users across the planet.

Speaking at The Economic Club of Washington?s event yesterday, broadcast by C-Span, Schmidt opened by stating that technology, and the Internet in particular, is an enabler that can help people push themselves forward:

All of us would agree that people can search for their dreams, they should be able to?archive?what they really want.

Government and citizens

Schmidt spoke of the emergence of two rival systems which are being brought together by the Internet: offline institutions ? such as government, politics and law ? and cyberspace.

They are getting into conflict in some governments and places, as technology is empowering people in ways they have never been empowered before. You can think of this as a community of citizens and a community of?governments.

As technology develops and time passes, Schmidt believes that ?a new equilibrium will emerge? to serve both communities in different ways. Cyberspace, he says, will ultimately serve to keep governments more honest in many ways, while equally government will have influence on the negative things that happen in cyberspace.

Companies changing the world

Schmidt continued on to look at exactly how the Internet and leading tech companies are helping to improve live across the world, saying:

Technology is at a point where we are ?seeing emergence of global scaled platforms, that are impressive in their reach, with a chance to change the world.

He specifically identified four companies ? Google (of course), Apple, Facebook and Amazon ? as those which have platforms that are impacting political and business systems across the world.

Construction of these systems is the probably most important business today. The combined market value of these corporations is very high, but they are just beginning. Within 10 yeas, computers will be 30 times faster?which will allow us to do amazing things.

The Google chief firmly believes that the Internet can make an unprecedented difference across the whole world:

My view, is that we should be very?optimistic?about all of this. The world isn?t perfect but it is going to a much safer and more informed place. The things that [the US] can bring to the world really will change a lot of these countries and lift people out of financial poverty, and information poverty.

Schmidt highlighted the captive market for these changes by pointing out that, in some countries, people are placing greater priority on having a mobile phone than getting running water at home.

Personal super computer

Speaking about the future, Schmidt is optimistic that computers and artificial intelligence will not take over the world. Instead he believes that a complimentary scenario will emerge:

Over five to ten years, human and computers will be distinguishable. Humans will still be very good at what we do ? intuition, fun, entertainment, innovation ? and computers will get?extraordinarily?good about what they are very good at, such as needle in a haystack problems and infinite memories.

Schmidt believes that the value of mobile devices is the networks of information that they are connected to, rather than the device itself:

I don?t think of this as my phone, it is my personal super computer that can answer any question that I care about in life.

Tablets and mobile devices are often referred to as points of access, and Google is continuing to invest it its network, having recently broken ground on two new data center in Asia, amongst many of its other projects.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNextWeb/~3/YDYlArmVrI4/story01.htm

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Company sues former employee over Twitter followers

Noah Kravitz, of Oakland, California, worked as a product reviewer and video blogger for South Carolina-based PhoneDog from 2006 to 2010, according to the lawsuit filed in the US District Court for Northern California.

Kravitz told the New York Times that he had left PhoneDog on good terms with an agreement that he would "tweet on their behalf from time to time".

Eight months later, however, the company filed suit against him, a move Kravitz told the newspaper was retaliation for his claim to 15 per cent of PhoneDog's gross advertising revenue.

In a statement to the Times, the company said: "The costs and resources invested by PhoneDog Media into growing its followers, fans and general brand awareness through social media are substantial and are considered property of PhoneDog Media.

"We intend to aggressively protect our customer lists and confidential information, intellectual property, trademark and brands," it said.

Henry Cittone, an intellectual property lawyer, told the Times the case will "establish precedent in the online world, as it relates to ownership of social media accounts.

"We've actually been waiting to see such a case as many of our clients are concerned about the ownership of social media accounts vis-?-vis their branding," Cittone said.

Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/564430/s/1b50286b/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Ctechnology0Ctwitter0C89796210CCompany0Esues0Eformer0Eemployee0Eover0ETwitter0Efollowers0Bhtml/story01.htm

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Halliburton And Schlumberger Will Benefit From An Increase In Oil Majors' Capital Expenditures

Recently, TheStreet.com dubbed Halliburton (HAL) 'The Most Mispriced Energy Stock of 2011.' The article blames a "Macondo overhang,...fears of pricing weakness,...and a [projected] BRIC slowdown" in 2012 for the underperformance of Halliburton's shares. These concerns seem largely overblown. As for the Macondo issue, there is certainly a real risk that Halliburton may be forced into a large settlement, but S&P does not believe a ruling on the matter is imminent. Regarding a slowdown in the BRIC countries, the article notes that Argus Research believes a review of big oil's capital expenditure plans should be enough to dispel the notion that an economic slowdown in China or Brazil will derail oilfield service companies in 2012.

This is consistent with S&P's outlook for the oil and gas equipment and services sub-industry. In its stock report on Halliburton, S&P says it expects "higher upstream capex...combined with higher global demand" in the coming year. There are multiple examples of big oil's plan to increase spending in 2012. On December 2, Conoco Phillips (COP) announced it was increasing 2012 planned capex to $15.5 billion from a previous estimate of around $14.5 billion. The new estimate represents a 15% increase from 2011. In a sign of how the industry is recovering since oil prices crashed to around $30 in the wake of 2008's financial crisis, Conoco's 2012 spending plan "mark[s] a return to the level of investment the company had before 2009, when it slashed its spending plans by 40%" according to the Wall Street Journal.

Also, Conoco said "the bulk of [its] exploration and production capital program will be spent in North America," where Halliburton maintains a leadership position. Chevron (CVX) also plans to increase capex in 2012. The second-largest U.S. oil company said it expects to increase spending by 17% next year to $32.7 billion, a record for the company, while Exxon (XOM), the largest U.S. oil company, is expected to increase spending by 5% next year according to MarketWatch.

Going forward, the European situation poses a significant risk for oil companies. Should the ECB's Long Term Refinancing Operations fail to spur investment in distressed sovereign debt, Italy and Spain could find themselves unable to access the bond market, causing them to seek a bailout from the IMF. This would likely spark a recession in Europe that could be deep enough to cause significant demand destruction for oil, thus putting downward pressure on prices. Thus far, Europe has navigated the crisis reasonably well--to date, the region's leaders have managed to avert a 'Lehman event'. The likely scenario is that Europe will manage to limp through the crisis without anything going disastrously wrong.

Additionally, geopolitical factors, such as Iran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, should counterbalance recessionary fears in Europe. Furthermore, Forbes notes that JP Morgan's commodities research team is predicting that "as a result of producers rebalancing supply and demand," oil prices should remain resilient in 2012, while "past recessions and the price movement of oil [indicate] the floor [for Brent] seems to be in the $80 to $95 a barrel range." The aforementioned Forbes article cites JP Morgan as predicting a 2012 average of $115 for Brent. This bodes well for oil field services companies as "oil and gas companies in aggregate [are] basing 2012 capital spending budgets on an average oil price of $87 WTI and $98 Brent," according to Barclays. This means prices have some leeway to drop before the capex budgets of the oil majors would be affected.

Given that increased capex expenditures should support oilfield service companies in 2012, the question remains: Why Halliburton and not Schlumberger (SLB)? For starters, Halliburton maintains a leadership position in North America. This is good in the current environment given that, according to Barclays, "supermajors will increase spending by 25% in North America [and only] 10% internationally"--Schlumberger derives nearly 73% of its income outside North America. Additionally, Schlumberger is more expensive in both absolute terms and in terms of its earnings multiple. Schlumberger trades for around 14 times forward earnings--shares of Halliburton trade hands for around 8.14 times analysts' consensus estimate of $4.15 for 2012.

Also, Halliburton's trailing twelve month price-to-sales and price-to-cash flow are well below Schlumberger's, and the two companies' trailing twelve month gross margins, operating margins and net profit margins are very similar. All-in-all then, both Schlumberger and Halliburton are poised to benefit from increased capex by oil and gas companies in 2012, but Halliburton seems to be a better value from a valuation perspective. Now seems like a good time to buy, with HAL shares trading around $34.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, but may initiate a long position in HAL, SLB over the next 72 hours.

Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/315990-halliburton-and-schlumberger-will-benefit-from-an-increase-in-oil-majors-capital-expenditures?source=feed

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California Creates Justice Unit for E-Crimes

Government Innovators Network: Article: California Creates Justice Unit for E-Crimes

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California Creates Justice Unit for E-Crimes

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Source: http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/2065724.html

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Monday, December 26, 2011

StCyrlyMe2: #EdShow YourRight Ed #GOP will run on the WeJustGot2Get #Obama OutOfOffice TheySoDumb TheyDon'tRemember #Bush Yrs #p2 #dems #politics #naacp

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MegRobertson: @DavidCosgrove1 Ha ha no, not 26.2. We're couching it watching MST3K episodes on Apple TV

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Sony To Sell LCD Venture Stake To Samsung For $940 Mn

Sony Corp has agreed to sell its nearly 50 per cent stake in an LCD joint venture with Samsung Electronics to the South Korean company for $940 million, as it struggles to reduce huge losses at its TV business.

The seven-year-old venture cut its capital by 15 percent in July and industry sources had said Sony was negotiating an exit, aiming to switch to cheaper outsourcing for flat screens for its TVs while Samsung pushes ahead with next-generation displays.

"In terms of direction it is a positive (for Sony)," said Keita Wakabayashi, an analyst at Mito Securities in Tokyo, about the deal. "But if they are making a loss on the sale, one could ask why they didn't make this decision sooner."

"Their biggest problem is that they are not making a profit even though they don't have many plants," he said.

In November, Sony, the world's third largest flat panel TV maker, warned of a fourth straight year of net losses for the financial year to next March, with its TV unit alone set to lose $2.2 billion on tumbling demand and a surging yen.

The company said on Monday it would review its earnings forecast to reflect 66 billion yen in impairment losses from the transaction, as well as expected future cost savings.

While the sale is seen as a move in the right direction for Sony, it will not be good for Samsung, analysts said.

"Sony may shift to Taiwanese LCD makers should they offer cheaper prices," Song Myung-sup, an analyst at HI Investment & Securities, said in Seoul.

Shares in Sony ended 1.6 per cent higher, compared with a 1 per cent gain in Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei average .N225, while Samsung Electronics shares fell 0.2 per cent.

Sony's panel venture with Samsung, S-LCD, was established to secure stable supplies for Sony's flat-screen TVs at a time of shortages.

Ailing Business
Once a symbol of Japan's high-tech might, Sony has sold off TV factories in Spain, Slovakia and Mexico in the past few years and outsources more than half of its production to companies including Hon Hai Precision Industry (2317.TW), the contract electronics maker that also counts iPhone maker Apple Inc (AAPL.O) as a key customer.

Sony retains four TV plants of its own -- in Japan, Brazil, China and Malaysia.

Some analysts say the $100 billion LCD TV market peaked last year and forecast it will shrink 3 to 4 percent annually, as consumers in advanced countries have already traded in their bulky cathode-ray tube TV sets for flat screens, while the LCD market has been in a glut since last summer.

Global TV manufacturers are restructuring their businesses and outsourcing production as cut-throat competition and weak demand squeeze margins.

Analysts have criticised Sony for failing to aggressively take on the competition in the TV market from South Korean rivals Samsung and LG Electronics Inc (066570.KS), the largest and second-largest players, respectively.

In November, Sony cut its TV unit sales forecast for the second time this year and dropped a plan to boost its TV sales to 40 million sets a year in the fiscal year ending March 2013, effectively conceding defeat to Samsung, the world's largest flat-panel TV maker.

Samsung has said it expects the flat-panel TV market to grow 10 percent next year, and aims to outperform the market.

Sony said in April it would not raise its stake in a separate LCD venture with Sharp Corp (6753.T) for at least a year, and in August said it would merge its loss-making small-panel business with the government-backed Japan Display.

In October, it signalled a stepped-up push into the smartphone market by announcing it would take control of its mobile phone joint venture with Ericsson (ERICb.ST) for $1.5 billion.

The company is hoping to exploit its music and video content and compatibility with its other devices like TVs and tablet computers to help it catch up with smartphone leaders such as Apple.

(Reuters)

Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5664406594

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