Archive for August, 2009
Sen. Edward Kennedy dies at 77
August 26th, 2009 | 
Author: (CNN) — Sen. Edward Kennedy, the patriarch of the first family of Democratic politics, died Tuesday night at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, after a 15-month battle with brain cancer. He was 77.
“We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever,” a family statement said. “We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice.” More reactions to Kennedy’s death
Kennedy, nicknamed “Ted,” was the younger brother of slain President John F. Kennedy and New York Sen. Robert Kennedy, who was gunned down while seeking the White House in 1968. But his own presidential aspirations were hobbled by the controversy around a 1969 auto accident that left a young woman dead, and a 1980 primary challenge to then-President Jimmy Carter that ended in defeat.
But while the White House eluded his grasp, the longtime Massachusetts senator was considered one of the most effective legislators of the past few decades. Kennedy, who became known as the “lion of the Senate,” played major roles in passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act and the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, and was an outspoken liberal standard-bearer during a conservative-dominated era from the 1980s to the early 2000s.
President Barack Obama said of Kennedy: “For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well-being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts.
“I valued his wise counsel in the Senate, where, regardless of the swirl of events, he always had time for a new colleague. I cherished his confidence and momentous support in my race for the presidency. And even as he waged a valiant struggle with a mortal illness, I’ve profited as president from his encouragement and wisdom.
“An important chapter in our history has come to an end. Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States senator of our time.”
Said Kennedy’s biographer, Adam Clymer: “He was probably best known for the ability to work with Republicans. The Republican Party raised hundreds of millions of dollars with direct appeal to protect the country from Ted Kennedy, but there was never a piece of legislation that he ever got passed without a major Republican ally.”
Kennedy recently urged Massachusetts officials to change a law to allow for an immediate temporary replacement, should a vacancy occur in one of his state’s two Senate seats.
Under a 2004 Massachusetts law, a special election must be held 145 to 160 days after a Senate seat becomes vacant. The winner of the election would serve the remainder of a senator’s unexpired term.
Kennedy asked Gov. Deval Patrick and state leaders to “amend the law through the normal legislative process to provide for a temporary gubernatorial appointment until the special election occurs,” according to the letter, dated July 2.
Kennedy suffered a seizure in May 2008 at his home on Cape Cod. Shortly after, doctors diagnosed a brain tumor — a malignant glioma in his left parietal lobe.
Surgeons at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, removed as much of the tumor as possible the following month. Doctors considered the procedure a success, and Kennedy underwent follow-up radiation treatments and chemotherapy.
A few weeks later, he participated in a key vote in the Senate. And he insisted on making a brief but dramatic appearance at the 2008 Democratic convention, a poignant moment that brought the crowd to its feet and tears to many eyes.
“I have come here tonight to stand with you to change America, to restore its future, to rise to our best ideals and to elect Barack Obama president of the United States,” Kennedy told fellow Democrats in a strong voice.
Kennedy’s early support for Obama was considered a boon for the candidate, then a first-term senator from Illinois locked in a tough primary battle against former first lady Hillary Clinton. Kennedy predicted Obama’s victory and pledged to be in Washington in January when Obama assumed office — and he was, though he was hospitalized briefly after suffering a seizure during a post-inaugural luncheon.
Kennedy was one of only six senators in U.S. history to serve more than 40 years. He was elected to eight full terms to become the second most-senior senator, after West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd.
He launched his political career in 1962, when he was elected to finish the unexpired Senate term of his brother, who became president in 1960. He won his first full term in 1964.
He seemed to have a bright political future, and many Democratic eyes turned to him after the killings of his brothers. But a July 18, 1969, car wreck on Chappaquiddick Island virtually ended his ambitions.
After a party for women who had worked on his brother Robert’s presidential campaign, Kennedy drove his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick, off Cape Cod and across a narrow channel from Martha’s Vineyard. While Kennedy managed to escape, his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned.
In a coroner’s inquest, he denied having been drunk, and said he made “seven or eight” attempts to save Kopechne before exhaustion forced him to shore. And though he sought help from friends at the party, Kennedy did not report the accident to police until the following morning.
Kennedy eventually pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident. In a televised address to residents of his home state, Kennedy called his conduct in the hours following the accident “inexplicable” and called his failure to report the wreck immediately “indefensible.”
Despite the dent in his reputation and career, Kennedy remained in American politics and went on to win seven more terms in the Senate. Kennedy championed social causes and was the author of “In Critical Condition: The Crisis in America’s Health Care.” He served as chairman of the Judiciary and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committees and was the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary and Armed Services committees during periods when Republicans controlled the chamber.
Obama named Kennedy as one of 16 recipients of the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor. A White House statement explained that the 2009 honorees “were chosen for their work as agents of change.”
“Senator Kennedy has dedicated his career to fighting for equal opportunity, fairness and justice for all Americans. He has worked tirelessly to ensure that every American has access to quality and affordable health care, and has succeeded in doing so for countless children, seniors, and Americans with disabilities. He has called health care reform the “cause of his life.”
Born in Boston on February 22, 1932, Edward Moore Kennedy was the last of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy, a prominent businessman and Democrat, and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Joseph Kennedy served as ambassador to Britain before World War II and pushed his sons to strive for the presidency, a burden “Teddy” bore for much of his life as the only surviving Kennedy son.
His oldest brother, Joe Jr., died in a plane crash during World War II when Kennedy was 12. John was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, in 1963, and Robert was killed the night of the California primary in 1968.
Ted Kennedy delivered Robert’s eulogy, urging mourners to remember him as “a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it; who saw suffering and tried to heal it; who saw war and tried to stop it.”
The family was plagued with other tragedies as well. One sister, Kathleen, was killed in a plane crash in 1948. Another sister, Rosemary, was born mildly retarded, but was institutionalized after a botched lobotomy in 1941. She died in 1986 after more than 50 years in mental hospitals.
Joseph Kennedy was incapacitated by a stroke in 1961 and died in November 1969, leaving the youngest son as head of the family. He was 37.
“I can’t let go,” Kennedy once told an aide. “If I let go, Ethel (Robert’s widow) will let go, and my mother will let go, and all my sisters.”
Kennedy himself survived a 1964 plane crash that killed an aide, suffering a broken back in the accident. But he recovered to lead the seemingly ill-starred clan through a series of other tragedies: Robert Kennedy’s son David died of a drug overdose in a Florida hotel in 1984; another of Robert’s sons, Michael, was killed in a skiing accident in Colorado in 1997; and John’s son John Jr., his wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette died in a 1999 plane crash off Martha’s Vineyard.
In addition, his son Edward Jr. lost a leg to cancer in the 1970s, and daughter Kara survived a bout with the disease in the early 2000s.
Kennedy was forced to testify about a bar-hopping weekend that led to sexual battery charges against his nephew, William Kennedy Smith. Smith was acquitted in 1991 of charges that he raped a woman he met while at a Florida nightclub with the senator and his son Patrick, now a Rhode Island congressman.
Like brothers John and Robert, Edward Kennedy attended Harvard. He studied in the Netherlands before earning a law degree from the University of Virginia Law School, and worked in the district attorney’s office in Boston before entering politics.
Kennedy is survived by his second wife, Victoria Ann Reggie Kennedy, whom he married in 1992; his first wife, Joan Bennett; and five children — Patrick, Kara and Edward Jr. from his first marriage, and Curran and Caroline Raclin from his second.
Source :
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/08/26/sen-ted-kennedy-dies-at-77/
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How open source levels all software market segments
In a new study on open-source adoption in the business intelligence (BI) market, it’s becoming clear that both the benefits and shortcomings of open source software are nearly universal across all technology segments.
According to the study by Third Nature (sponsored by Jaspersoft and Infobright), “the top reason for adopting is still cost savings, although reduced vendor dependence and ease of integration were close to the same level. The limiting of vendor technology lock‐in and freedom from deployment restrictions were key elements of reducing vendor dependence. Some companies used open source deployments as a means of keeping their incumbent vendors honest.”
The statement above is hardly unique to BI, but is perhaps germane if only because BI solutions have for so long been hugely expensive and proprietary. In past discussions with Jaspersoft CEO Brian Gentile, he has stated that BI is the least agile piece of the enterprise puzzle. Open source BI solutions mean that customers can take matters into their own hands.
The study also makes some recommendations on evaluating BI and data warehousing tools, that again are relevant for any open source product.
- Don’t focus solely on cost savings.
- Make open source the default option
- Plan to augment, not replace, existing software with open source.
- Consider developing open source policies.
- Evaluate open source like any other software.
In the end, software needs to solve business problems. The adoption of open source gives users more alternatives to address their issues, be it cost reduction, increased business agility or just a new way to manage their data.
Source :
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10318035-62.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Free Software Foundation trashes Windows 7
There’s nothing like trashing the competition.
The Free Software Foundation is using the launch of Windows 7 to try to convince businesses to dump Windows in favor of an open-source operating system.
(Credit: Free Software Foundation)
And that’s exactly what the Free Software Foundation plans to do on Wednesday, staging a demonstration in Boston where it will encourage businesses to throw away Microsoft Windows in favor of free alternatives.
In addition to the public display, the foundation is sending letters to the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, warning that Windows is a threat to their businesses’ privacy, security, and freedom.
Although the demonstration and letter center around Microsoft’s imminent release of Windows 7, Free Software Foundation Executive Director Peter Brown says the protest has to do with Microsoft’s approach in general and not with the specifics of Windows 7.
“Any time Microsoft tries to push them to a new version, it’s a good time to make that case,” Brown said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
With Windows 7 getting fairly positive reviews, Brown said he knows it could be tougher to garner public support than was the case with the oft-criticized Vista.
“There’s kind of this attitude of ‘Well, it’s better than Vista,'” Brown said, “so we are kind of working against the grain.”
But, he said, the stakes are high–and it’s about more than just which operating system gains market share. Brown points to Amazon.com’s recent deletion of e-books from the Kindle as an example of the kinds of action that could become commonplace if the world becomes more filled with digital rights management technologies.
“That’s the kind of power that proprietary software gives to these corporations,” he said. “When we give that power, sooner or later somebody comes knocking, whether it is the government or the corporations themselves. Free software is kind of the answer to that.”
Although the letter focuses on Microsoft, he said the group is also concerned with other products, including the new Snow Leopard operating system from Apple, which goes on sale on Friday.
“It’s not just Microsoft,” Brown said. “It’s a problem generally for society that we should accept proprietary software when there is an alternative.”
Source :
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10317591-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Apple readying MacBook makeover?
Apple is getting ready to introduce a slimmer, lighter MacBook, according to an Apple blog citing unnamed sources.
Apple’s 13-inch notebook in currently undergoing an industrial redesign that will also feature new internal architecture, according to a report on AppleInsider. The redesign, which would be the entry-level machine’s first overhaul in three years, is expected to be unveiled in the coming months, the site reported.
At its annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference in June, Apple introduced new versions of its 13- and 15-inch notebooks that use the same battery technology found in the 17-inch models. The rebranding of the 13-inch unibody MacBook to the MacBook Pro line left the polycarbonate white plastic casing as the only true “MacBook.”
That move left many speculating on the lone remaining model’s chances of survival. But the MacBook remains very popular with consumers. AppleInsider notes that Apple’s online store says the white MacBook is the second best-selling model behind the iMac.
Indeed, Mac sales have been very impressive lately. Data provided by market research firm IDC showed the entire PC industry down more than 3 percent for April, May, and June, but Apple sold 4 percent more computers that quarter than it did during the same quarter in 2008. The company’s laptops were responsible for that surge: MacBook and MacBook Pro shipments were up 13 percent.
However, Apple typically unveils new or redesigned products at media events, but after the September 9 music event, Apple has no such events on the calendar for the rest of the year.
Source :
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10317810-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Goosegrade now lets anyone copyedit any blog
Crowd-sourced copy editing service Goosegrade took its tool in an interesting direction on Tuesday, allowing anyone to leave a suggested edit on blogs that do not even have the Goosegrade plug-in installed.
The new system works via bookmarklet instead, letting users leave a quick correction that’s sent back to Goosegrade’s site. There, the owner of the site in question can check on all the recommended edits and do them manually, or simply install Goosegrade’s plug-in for blogs, which lets them approve and implement the edits one at a time right inside their blogging software.
Got an edit? Make it on any site with Goosegrade.
(Credit: CNET)
What makes the new approach really neat is that other users who have saved the bookmarklet can see pending edits made by other users, along with a history of past changes–although this doesn’t show up with any kind of notification when first viewing an article. This makes for a good solution for sites who choose not to adopt Goosegrade’s system, wherein previous edits would go completely unseen.
Source :
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-10317716-248.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20