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BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Individual computer users in China may choose whether to install a controversial content filtering system, but the system will be installed on computers in any public place, China's minister of Industry and Information Technology said Thursday.
People sit at a wireless cafe in Beijing, using their laptop computers.

People sit at a wireless cafe in Beijing, using their laptop computers.

China announced earlier this year that it planned compulsory installation of the Green Dam-Youth Escort software, ostensibly meant to protect young online users from pornography.

The installation was postponed on June 30. Minister Li Yizhong said Thursday that his ministry was still working on its plans and that the Green Dam software was also being upgraded, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

"Installation is intended to block violent and pornographic content on the Internet to protect children," Li said, according to Xinhua. "Any move to politicize the issue or to attack China's Internet management system is irresponsible and not in line with reality."

Businesses and computer users complained that the software left computers open to cyber attacks, while others worried that the software represented government interference in the free flow of information.

Trade groups representing the largest international businesses in China sent a letter directly to Premier Wen Jiabao on June 26. Read more about business concerns over Green Dam

The software requirement "raises serious concerns for us and poses significant questions in relation to security, privacy, system reliability, the free flow of information and user choice," the EU Chamber of Commerce, which also signed the letter, said in a statement.
Don't Miss

* Business complaints over 'Green Dam'
* China delays Green Dam Internet filter
* In-depth: China

Companies such as Intel, Microsoft and Yahoo built their business on transparency and free flow of information. Yet for all the capitalistic reforms since 1979, public information in China is still tightly controlled and government decision-making is opaque.

At stake is a market of about 300 million Internet users, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

Green Dam is produced by Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co., which is said to have ties to China's military and security ministry. Zhang Chenmin, general manager of Jinhui, told the state-run news agency Xinhua that his company had received more than 1,000 harassing calls and death threats since news of the requirement and Jinhui's role were first reported in The Wall Street Journal in June.

Besides angry Chinese computer users, Jinhui faces accusations from California software maker Solid Oak that Green Dam copies code from its Cybersitter software for parental Internet-access control. Jinhui has denied the claim. Learn more about how China filters the Internet »

Corporations, typically reticent to publicly squabble with Beijing, are drawing a line on Green Dam because the software "is buggy. ... It's ineffective for its advertised purpose" of filtering pornography, but also can be easily manipulated so computers can be remotely accessed by unknown third parties, said Thomas Parenty, an IT security consultant in China and a former U.S. National Security Agency programmer.

Criticism of the new policy was rampant abroad, at home and even on China's own state-run media, a sign that officials may disagree about it internally.

The software dispute is the latest in a line of controversies between Western companies and the Chinese government.

In 2000, the government backed down on laws restricting importation of encryption software that would have banned Web browsers such as Microsoft Explorer, which include encryption functions.

In 2004, the government backed down on developing its own wireless Internet standard when Intel threatened to ban sale of its chips in China as a result.

More recently, Web browsing companies have had a complicated relationship with Chinese censors.
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Early last month, Google blocked search results for Tiananmen Square in China. In late June, it was reported that Google service in China was interrupted after government claims that it was contaminating the country with pornography. In 2005, Yahoo released user information that led to the arrest and 10-year sentence of a Chinese journalist.

Technology companies say they are obeying local laws concerning Internet use in China, but the companies have been criticized by members of the U.S. Congress for bowing to pressure from Beijing.

Published: 13 Aug 2009 11:02:01 PST

By Chen Xiaomin

Li Yizhong, minister of industry and information technology, talks to reporters after the news conference yesterday. Photo: IC

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will not directly get involved in ongoing negotiations over iron ore prices, Minister Li Yizhong said yesterday.

The ministry, which oversees 39 industries, said the country is supposed to have a bigger influence in that market.

“We should be united in iron ore talks and pick one entity to represent the country’s steel Industry to eliminate internal conflicts and disorderly competition,” Li said in response to a reporter’s question at a press conference.

Li said he was optimistic that business relations between the world’s largest iron ore importer and the three major supplier countries would remain stable, and a solution would be worked out due to their correlated interests, without government involvement.

The country has been working to obtain at least a 40 percent cut in iron ore price from the world’s three biggest mining companies – Vale of Brazil, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton of Australia, instead of the 33 percent reduction reached between Rio Tinto and Japanese and South Korean mills.

The annual negotiation was extended one month after the normal deadline – June 30.

While the contract price negotiation reached a deadlock, spot price soared to a 10-month high. Figures from Umetal show Indian ore of 63 percent iron content at Tianjin port climbed to 870 yuan ($127.31) per ton Wednesday, up 36 percent from 640 yuan in June.

Li also said yesterday that the ministry would speed up industrial restructuring while ensuring industrial growth in the second half of 2009 by highlighting mergers and acquisitions, curtailing energy use and emission, and implementing technical upgrades.

Li said the ministry was working on a document on mergers and acquisitions and is eliminating outdated equipment and technologies in an attempt to increase efficiency.

Mergers and acquisitions can help reduce overcapacity in some sectors, he said, explaining that overcapacity in the iron and steel industry is most noticeable. He said steel mills were urged not to start new production projects within the next three years.

The capacity was 660 million tons last year and demand was 470 million tons – an oversupply of 190 million tons.

Nevertheless, there are some new iron and steel projects with 58-million-ton new production capacities.

Saving energy and reducing emissions are priorities on the ministry’s agenda, he said, because industrial sectors consume about 70 percent of the country’s energy.

“Policies will still be carried out in the second half to encourage the replacement of old autos nationwide,” said Li.

The government spent 12 billion yuan ($1.76 billion) to encourage people to buy fuel-efficient vehicles.

It did so by cutting the sales tax in half, which led to the sale of more than 1 million vehicles for five months straight until July. The policy will expire December 31.

Li also noted that the ministry would issue guiding opinions on energy saving and emission reduction work to major industries and set up a system to encourage energy efficient programs.

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A new division of Deutsche Bank AG has struck a deal with state leaders to open a technology development center and create 319 new jobs in Wake County over the next five years, Gov. Bev Perdue and the global financial services company said Thursday.

DB Global Technology, the newly formed subsidiary of Germany-based Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB), plans to invest $6.7 million in the center. The new jobs are to pay an average wage of $88,213, plus benefits, according to the governor’s office – well above the Wake County average of $43,160.

The state’s Economic Investment Committee voted Aug. 13 to award DG Global Technology a Job Development Investment Grant valued at $9.4 million over the course of 11 years if the company meets job -creation, investment and wage requirements.

“We are extremely excited at the prospect of opening a professional IT development center in the Research Triangle, which is home to some of the most highly skilled technology talent,” said Anthony P. McCarthy, global chief information officer for Capital Markets Technology at Deutsche Bank.

The center will be located in Cary if the town approves local incentives for the project. Deutsche Bank is seeking $75,000 in cash, says Scott Fogleman, the town's budget director. The incentives will be discussed at a public meeting of the Cary Town Council on Thursday night, and it's possible a vote could be held, Fogleman says.

It was not clear what would happen if Cary declines to provide the local incentives. A bank spokesman reached by e-mail did not provide an answer to that question.

The deal with Deutsche Bank follows similar recruitment successes with financial services firms Fidelity Investments and Credit Suisse, which have also opened operations in the Research Triangle Park area in the past five years and were awarded JDIG grants.

“This new center is a great fit for North Carolina. We are a strong international competitor in both the information technology and financial sectors,” Perdue said. “Our reputation for excellence in these areas, combined with a dedicated workforce and a top business climate, continues to attract quality global companies such as Deutsche Bank.”

JDIGs are awarded to new and expanding businesses and industrial projects whose benefits exceed the costs to the state and that otherwise would not be undertaken in North Carolina. The state claims that since awarding the first JDIG in 2003, the grants have created commitments for more than 30,000 jobs and almost $6 billion in investments in North Carolina.

Reporter e-mail: aljones@bizjournals.com.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Schooner Information Technology, Inc., a provider of high-performance data access appliances for information-intensive Web 2.0 and cloud computing datacenters, was selected by the Flash Memory Summit as a Best of Show award winner for 2009 in the category of Most Innovative Flash Memory Enterprise Business Application. The annual Best of Show awards provide the premier opportunity for industry recognition of innovative products and solutions, and how they are used in real-world applications.

Schooner products, including the Schooner Appliance for Memcached and the Schooner Appliance for MySQL Enterprise™, are enabled by 512 GB of Intel® X25-E Extreme™ SATA Solid-State Drives and dual quad-core Intel® Xeon™ 5500 "Nehalem" processors. Schooner appliances support up to eight times the workload of ordinary servers, and scaling is as easy as adding more Schooner appliances.

“Schooner has proven that flash is ready for the enterprise,” said Peter Zaitsev, founder and chief executive officer, Percona Consulting. “The Schooner appliances directly address real-world datacenter problems of cost, scaling and performance.”

Winning companies were judged by a panel of industry experts who evaluated each nomination according to the following criteria:

* Distinctiveness of the application, technology or product
* Central use of flash memory as a solution or innovation
* Technical and business significance to the general marketplace

“The judges of the Flash Memory Summit Awards Committee had the challenging assignment of selecting the most innovative technology application from an incredibly large pool of quality submissions,” said Jay Kramer, chairman of the awards program and vice president of worldwide marketing of SEPATON. “We are proud to select the Schooner Information Technology data access appliances utilizing Intel’s X25-E Extreme SATA Solid-State Drive for the best of show innovation award.”

Schooner Information Technology was honored at the Flash Memory Summit Awards evening reception in the Exhibit Hall on Wednesday, August 12.

In his acceptance speech, Dr. John Busch, president and chief executive officer of Schooner Information Technology, dedicated the award, “to the Schooner teams in Silicon Valley and Hangzhou, China, whose passion and commitment enabled us to deliver totally competitive, award-winning products the day we entered the market.” He continued, thanking Schooner partners IBM and Intel, and finally called out Schooner customers, saying, “Schooner is not technology for technology’s sake. We created Schooner because we saw a way to use breakthrough technology to help customers solve real-world problems, to save energy, to save money, and to help achieve their business goals.”

For a complete list of all the Flash Memory Summit Best of Show awards winners, visit www.flashmemorysummit.com.

About Schooner

Schooner Information Technology provides data access application appliances for information-intensive Web 2.0 and cloud computing datacenters. Schooner solutions are fast, scalable, cost-effective and green. Schooner customers save power and space, reduce total cost of ownership, and create new business opportunities based on rapid access to terabyte-scale data. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and is venture funded by CMEA Capital, Menlo Ventures and Redpoint Ventures. For more information, please visit www.schoonerinfotech.com or @schoonerinfo on Twitter.

About Flash Memory Summit

Flash Memory Summit is the only conference dedicated entirely to flash memory and its applications. It is intended for system designers, analysts, hardware and software engineers, product marketing and marketing communications specialists, and engineering and marketing managers. It features forums, half-day tutorials, paper and panel sessions, and expert tables. Subjects include laptops and netbooks, enterprise storage system applications, consumer products, performance, product design, caching methods, design methods, software, new technologies, market research, testing and reliability, and security. The Summit also includes exhibits of the latest products and product awards. For more information, visit www.flashmemorysummit.com. Twitter: @flashmem.

About Conference ConCepts, Inc.

Founded in 1994, Conference ConCepts is a full-service professional conference and association management company that provides extensive capabilities in all aspects of technical conference management. Conference ConCepts develops and produces events both on its own, and in partnership with associations, corporations, and publishers. The skill sets of the company’s employees and contractors, representing over 200 cumulative years of experience, enables Conference ConCepts to offer clients a choice of services, ranging from assistance with a single aspect of a conference to the complete development and administration of a full-fledged “turnkey” event. For more information about Conference ConCepts, visit: http://www.confconcepts.com.
Contacts

Schooner Information Technology, Inc.
Fred Love, 650-328-4200 ext. 7130
flove@schoonerinfotech.com
or
Schwartz Communications, Inc.
Laurie Falconer, 415-512-0770
schooner@schwartz-pr.com
Permalink: http://www.businesswire.com/news/google/20090813005902/en

American Data Company presents a half day event exploring enterprise cloud computing, featuring Amazon Web Services and Salesforce.com

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- American Data Company, a leader in business process and technology consulting for enterprise cloud computing, is pleased to present "Demystifying the Cloud," an executive symposium that intimately connects leaders in information technology to cloud computing industry experts.

With today's current advancements in technology and new service offerings, there has never been a better time to explore cloud computing. In light of tight capital expenditures, the economic model of cloud computing has become even more attractive.

Learn why companies such as the New York Times, Dell, and the Japan Post are incorporating cloud computing into their IT strategy and explore how cloud computing can benefit your organization.

Keynote speakers include:

* Peter Coffee, Director of Platform Research at Salesforce.com
* Mike Culver, Web Services Evangelist at Amazon Web Services
* Josh Holtzman, President at American Data Company
* Greg Janecek, Business Development at Amazon Web Services

"American Data Company is excited to connect top IT executives and the leaders in cloud computing for this one of a kind executive symposium," says Josh Holtzman, President of American Data Company. "The event aims to create a forum for discussion on ways cloud computing can be applied to our participant's businesses today, to educate, and provide real world success stories of cloud computing in the Enterprise."

The event will be held in Los Angeles, California on September 16, 2009 and is limited to participants by invitation only. Visit www.demystifyingthecloud.com for more information and to request participation.

About American Data Company

American Data Company is a business process and technology consulting firm specializing in cloud computing technologies. Since 2003, the company has assisted Mid-Market and Enterprise organizations to "do more with less" by leveraging cloud computing technologies such as the Force.com platform, Salesforce.com CRM, ExactTarget, and Amazon Web Services. More information can be found at http://www.americandatacompany.com.

About Amazon Web Services

Since early 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has provided companies of all sizes with an infrastructure web services platform in the cloud. With AWS you can requisition computer power, storage, and other services - gaining access to a suite of elastic IT infrastructure services as your business demands them. With AWS you have the flexibility to choose whichever development platform or programming model makes the most sense for the problems you're trying to solve. You pay only for what you use, with no up-front expenses or long-term commitments, making AWS the most cost-effective way to deliver your application to your customers and clients. And, with AWS, you can take advantage of Amazon.com's global computing infrastructure, that is the backbone of Amazon.com's (Nasdaq: AMZN) $15 billion retail business and transactional enterprise whose scalable, reliable, and secure distributed computing infrastructure has been honed for over 13 years.

Contact: Joe Garrow jgarrow@americandatacompany.com Ph: 310-996-0300 x 206


SOURCE American Data Company

With China's steel industry in turmoil over the Rio Tinto scandal, the government has instituted a three-year moratorium on applications to expand production or start new projects.

China, the world's largest iron ore buyer, needs to have more say in the global iron ore trade, Industry and Information Technology Minister Li Yizhong said yesterday.

Specifically, the country is reacting to the steel industry's production overcapacity, the minister said at a press conference in Beijing.
The government will continue backing the China Iron & Steel Association in iron ore price negotiations, but will stop the "chaotic situation" and disorderly competition among Chinese importers to address the continuous rising spot iron ore price, the minister said.

"Spot prices of iron ore are increasing sharply on the global market and we hope to see an appropriate relationship between spot prices and long-term contract prices," Li said.

Li said he hoped the world's major iron ore suppliers would consider both their own long-term interests and their long-term cooperation with China's steel industry.

Li's remarks came as Chinese police and prosecutors continue the probe of a commercial leak that, in part, caused the current deadlock in price negotiations between Chinese steel companies and foreign ore suppliers, including Australia's mining giant Rio Tinto, the world's second- largest miner.

The case involves four employees of Rio in its Shanghai office, who face years of imprisonment if convicted of trade secrets infringement and bribery.

Lawyers for the three local employees said yesterday that they still were waiting for permission to meet their clients. The lawyer for Stern Hu, an Australian national executive from Rio's Shanghai office, was still not known.

More Chinese executives are believed to be the next to be investigated, insiders have said, and the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post reported yesterday that two senior import executives from major steel company Shougang Group in Beijing and Laifu Steel Group in Shandong have been detained for their possible involvement in the case.

None of the companies yesterday denied the report. Press officials at both companies said they "were not informed about the process of the investigation".

Analysts said some executives might already have been investigated, and it is possible that the authorities might be using the case as a warning to those who benefit from the disordered situation in China's steel industry.

Yu Liangui, a senior analyst at Mysteel Research Institute, said the government's decision to stop production capacity expansion aims to control the unstable situation in the iron ore talks.

"China's steel capacity expansion is usually scattered among different steel mills, resulting in chaotic development, so the government's encouragement on industry consolidation and the tightening up of industrial capacity will enhance the country's steel concentration," Yu told China Daily.

Cao Li in Shanghai contributed to the story

RALEIGH, N.C. – The number of information technology job openings across North Carolina dipped in July for the second straight month as a “summer hole” developed, talent management firm SkillProof says in its latest report.

After increases in May and June, the average daily job openings dropped in July to 1,060 from 1,160 in June, a decline of 8.6 percent. In May, the average was 1,250.

The number of job openings did increase in Raleigh and Charlotte, the report noted.

A year ago, SkillProof notes, the economy needed 3,070.

Two years ago, the number of vacancies was nearly 5,600.

“While demand for IT workers in the state has been stabilizing since the beginning of the year, the current development does not come unexpected,” said SkillProof in a report issued in partnership with the North Carolina Technology Association.

“As the economy prepares for a return, IT workers in North Carolina will need to be patient,” SkillProof added.

Nationally, IT openings fell by one percent, according to SkillProof.

The most job openings in July were in systems and engineering support at 320. Software development positions averaged 270, IT architects and consultants 160.

In specific skill categories, demand was greatest for Oracle database management (210) and Windows operating system (200) followed by SQL (170).