View from Westminster - September 29, 2011
4:00pm Wednesday 28th September 2011
READERS will not be in the slightest bit surprised to read that the biggest issue in my postbag concerns the gypsy and traveller site proposals in Wyre Forest.
Eight of the 15 communities, who feared the location of these sites near their homes, welcomed the meeting last week where the district council cabinet decided which sites to take forward for consultation: seven of those communities were disappointed.
Actually, I say ‘disappointed’ but from the tone of the letters in my postbag, ‘devastated’ would be a better adjective.
I talked about this issue a few weeks back in my Shuttle column and I will repeat now the general gist of what I said then.
I am deeply concerned that the analysis being used to establish how many sites we need in Wyre Forest is being based on the now discredited Regional Spatial Strategy. This document was prepared by the previous government and has since been thrown out as nonsense by the current government.
The reason we have traveller sites is so that we can accommodate all types of residents.
When planning for a district, all needs are looked at, be they homes for families, single occupancy, retirement homes or whatever. Ethnic minorities are taken into account and that is the right thing to do.
If the council does not provide enough traveller pitches, then a travelling family, if it owns a property or has permission of the landowner, can set up an encampment anywhere it likes and this then becomes subject to a long and tedious legal process.
The 10-year legal battle over Dale Farm is one such case, but we have seen this locally in Churchill only recently. So in order to avoid any further confrontation between the travelling and the settled communities, the council is looking to find more sites.
But whilst I agree that this is, in the broadest sense, the right thing to do, I am completely sympathetic with those communities who feel they are being dumped on by the council.
Not only am I questioning the number of sites that are being sought. I am also very concerned that the Baker Associate report commissioned by the council may be wrong.
The little evidence that has been presented to me suggests that this was not undertaken with as much care as I would expect given that it cost £17,500.
I will be replying to every letter and e-mail sent to me (as we do with every communication), but in the meantime, for those residents being affected, please do continue to get in touch and share with me your thoughts, and please do let the council know your thoughts by way of the consultation process.
CONTACT YOUR MP
Email: mark.garnier.mp@parliament.uk
Telephone: 020 7219 7198 or 01562 746771.
Write to: 9a Lower Mill Street, Kidderminster, DY11 6UU, or House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA
Friday, 30 September 2011
View from Westminster - September 29, 2011 (From Kidderminster Shuttle)
Degree holder to hang for drugs
KUALA TERENGGANU: A 29-year-old degree holder burst into tears after he was sent to the gallows for drug trafficking.
Judge Datuk Mohd Yazid Mustapa sentenced Mohammad Abdul Rahman after he was found guilty under Section 39b of the Dangerous Drug Act 1952 for trafficking 1.4kg of cannabis at a house in Kampung Tok Jamal, Wakaf Mempelam here on Oct 3 last year.
Justice Mohd Yazid said Mohammad was regarded as an excellent student with a degree in business management but he used his intelligence for quick gains and now he had to pay the price.
He also said the prosecution, led by DPP Mohd Jazamudin Ahmad Nawawi, had proven a prima facie case against the accused.
Thursday, 29 September 2011
iPhone 5: 'Most Revolutionary User Interface in History' - Forbes
Apple’s plans to introduce the iPhone 5 on Oct. 4 have spawned a huge wave of the typical informed speculation, trendy rumor, and uninformed innuendo that precede every Apple announcement, but I want to share the most-intriguing report I’ve heard.
What makes it worth repeating is that it comes from an Apple follower and investor named Jason Schwarz, whose commentary over the past few years about Apple and its strategy, products, and financial performance have been exemplary. Not long after the original iPhone debuted in 2007—and this was way back in the days before Apple had become the most highly valued company on the planet—Schwarz was perhaps the first advisor to proclaim (and he did so loudly and repeatedly) that Apple’s breakthrough smartphone was triggering an enduring wave of mobile innovation that would push Apple’s stock price up to and past $300.
With that backdrop, I’ve come to place a fair amount of trust in Schwarz’s analyses of Apple, which this time around include some jaw-dropping claims about the power of the iPhone 5’s new voice technology (and before I insert this excerpt from Schwarz’s analysis, bear in mind that this guy is an investor and investment advisor and that he holds long positions on Apple):
At the original iPhone event in January 2007, Steve Jobs stated, ‘We are all born with the ultimate pointing device-our fingers-and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse.” Well, I would add that we’re also born with the ultimate communication tool-our voice-and iPhone is about to create the most revolutionary user interface in the history of technology (emphasis added). I expect that this voice assistant will quickly make its way into laptops and desktops as well. Apple’s competitive advantage is widening by the day. (End of excerpt.)
That’s quite a claim. And Schwarz makes such an audacious forecast because he believes the iPhone 5’s new capabilities will create for Apple a breakthrough level of competitive advantage in its battle with Google: “Voice search, rather than browser based search, could prove to be a real threat to Google’s dominance,” he writes. And here’s how that could play out, thanks to Apple’s acquisition last year of the Siri voice-assistant technology:
The Siri voice control system allows users to instruct the iPhone to ‘send a text message to Jason Schwarz asking him meet me for lunch’. Think about this capability in terms of safety. We all know that too many drivers send and receive text messages, now they will be able to safely operate an iPhone in the car. The voice assistant adds a layer of intelligence as well. If I ask my iPhone to ‘call Dad’ it might ask me whether it should dial his home phone or his mobile. It is also able to perform Web based search functions such as ‘book a table for two at 9:00 tonight’ or ‘send a taxi to my house’. Siri worked with Citysearch, Opentable and Taxi Magic before the Apple acquisition.(End of excerpt.)
For CIOs and the mobile workforces trying to deliver real-time insight and decision-making to the point of the customer, any additional layer of intelligence can truly be a game-changer as rapidly growing numbers of professionals begin to rely on smartphones and tablets as their primary computing device.
In fact, with these reported new capabilities for the iPhone 5, we shouldn’t be surprised if Apple, during its earnings call on Oct. 18, is able to report that it’s come even closer to having 100% of the Fortune 500 testing or deploying its mobile products. The most-recent corresponding numbers reported by Apple in late July were in the mid-80’s.
But even having made his claim that iPhone 5 will include “the most revolutionary user interface in the history of technology,” Schwarz made yet another remarkable forecast in his piece called ‘Let’s Talk’ iPhone 5 Is a Game Changer. After touting the iPhone 5’s implications for Apple’s iCloud business and highlighting how trends in mobile retention rates are favoring Apple over its competitors, Schwarz says he expects Apple to double the total number of iPhones it sells in the fourth quarter of this year compared to last year’s Q4:
After witnessing 142% unit growth for the iPhone in Apple’s most recent quarter, we believe that the upcoming iPhone 5 will command a similar growth trajectory in the holiday quarter. Last year Apple sold 16.24 million iPhones, this year we expect they will sell at least 32.48 million units. (End of excerpt.)
Meg Whitman - 50 Most Powerful Women in Business 2011 - FORTUNE on CNNMoney.com
Hewlett-Packard
2010 rank: Return
Age: 55
She’s back! In late September the losing California gubernatorial candidate -- and former No. 1 MPW -- was named CEO of HP, America’s largest tech company by revenue. While her ascent to the role is a sure sign of her power, it remains to be seen if she can fix the computer maker and bring order to its dysfunctional board.
Reuters - Oracle and Autonomy escalated their war of words
Oracle and Autonomy escalated their war of words on Thursday, sparring publicly over whether the British software firm had ever been shopped to the U.S. technology giant.Autonomy, which Hewlett-Packard this year agreed to buy for $12 billion, is at the center of a debate on Wall Street over the tenure of fired HP CEO Leo Apotheker and the future direction of the company he once ran. The spat comes at an inopportune time for HP, fighting to salvage its reputation with investors.
Entrepreneur, venture capitalist and HP board member, Marc Andreessen, referred to Oracle as an "oldline" software company and took a jab at outspoken CEO Larry Ellison: “Larry is one of my idols,” Andreessen said. “I wouldn’t quite say my role model.”
Despite losing two more senior executives, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion brushed off suggestions on Thursday that it would discontinue production of its PlayBook computer tablet as "pure fiction."
Fortune's annual ranking of the "50 Most Powerful Women in Business" was released on Thursday and former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz was a noticeable omission. HP's new CEO Meg Whitmen made the list at No. 9 and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg came in at No. 12. Google was well-represented with two women: Susan Wojcicki (No. 28) and Marissa Mayer (No. 38).
Travel search provider Kayak is the latest Web company to delay its IPO plans, reports AllThingsD's Tricia Duryee.